Echoes from Annwn Paula Aspin 9781788648561

In 1640 Tenby, Lockhart has an uneasy relationship with his brother Emlyn, governor of Tenby castle. Injured during a mission to apprehend cattle rustlers, he meets Wren. Beautiful, intelligent and promised to Emlyn. Why does he see a mist of colour around Wren? And why, on his return to Tenby, does he find that he see colours around everyone? More disturbingly, what is the meaning of the onyx and warning he receives from local seer Ranulf?

As the wedding of Wren and Emlyn approaches the stakes are raised. Wren is deeply unhappy. The marriage to Emlyn against her will. Caught up in an attack on the castle, she escapes with Lockhart to the Druid island of Wills Mark, where Lockhart learns that he has a guardian walking with him. As his Druid training progresses will Lockhart be able to communicate his true feelings to Wren?

Is Wren more than she seems? Does her ancestry to the physicians of Myddfai hold the key? How will they negotiate grief and Civil War? And when plague reaches Tenby, will their healing skills be welcomed or put them in danger?

Moving between Civil War Tenby and a mythical landscape, Echoes from Annwn is a towering love story that asks big questions of how we see reality and what we might mean by eternity. An astonishing and compelling debut.

Paula Aspin began writing as a coping strategy when her mother was diagnosed with dementia. With a diploma in metaphysics counselling and a reiki master, words, written, spoken, or thought, and their influence on the health of mind and body, are the fundamental principle at the heart of all her endeavours. Echoes From Annwn is her first novel, drawing on her Welsh ancestry and love of Tenby, which began in her teens with three summer seasons working in a local hotel. Paula is mother to four grown up children and a grandmother. She works with children and lives in Lancashire with her husband.