The Last Broomsquire Revisited

The main photo above features a place called Dead Woman’s Ditch, situated in the heart of the Quantock Hills. It’s a place central to the narrative of my novel, The Last Broomsquire. And also here’s a quick video I made some time ago about the fact that I was giving a talk all about the novel to the Shute Festival.

I’ve been thinking about the book again this week because I visited an amazing exhibition at the Museum of Somerset which is all about the writing of Kubla Khan - and the story I penned has a whole chapter focussing on Coleridge and his visit to the hills above Porlock where he wrote what is arguably one of the most famous poems ever to come out of the English West Country.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

The Last Broomsquire can be purchased at https://www.amazon.co.uk/Last-Broomsquire-Martin-Hesp/dp/B089J3STPF

Page of the book called Purchas, His Pilgrimage - which most definitely inspired Coleridge

The leafy road to Dead Woman’s Ditch where John Walford is said to have murdered his wife