From Unicorns To Wild Geese

About the Book

The 1914 – 18 War is over. Tom Penry listed as missing presumed dead returns to Blackberry Cottage in the woods at Indian Queens. His grieving sisters Janet and Amy hear that a stranger has moved into their old home and hurry to see. Friend Joe Treggorran is sure it’s Tom but the man insists that he is Jack Travers and locks himself away when they come. Nineteen year old Rowan Berryman who was sure she saw a unicorn when she was twelve, wanders the woods rescuing sick or injured animals and birds, comes upon Tom fishing. He finds that he can relate to her as she is shy and quiet. When she tells him about the unicorn he admits he has seen a very strange looking deer too. Rowan is under pressure from her father to marry Bill Wilkins a local widower whom she dislikes. Bill attacks her in the woods and Tom comes to her aid. She later realizes she is in love with him. Tom has forgotten that he married before the war and doesn’t know he is a father. When Ruth his wife comes looking for him bringing his little son Peter, there is a terrible storm and Ruth is killed beneath falling masonry. Tom is shaken out of his mental state and later is able to explain to his sisters, Rowan and the Treggorran family about the dreadful time at the battle of Passchendaele; the cause of his breakdown. Later he goes to stay with Janet, taking care of his son while Rowan heart-broken and under pressure from her father and Bill runs away to Meg Thornton the woman who took care of the Penry’s when they were on the run. Will Tom fully recover? Is he in love with Rowan? Will he come back when the wild geese fly home?

About the Author

Louise June James was born in the county of Staines, Middlesex in October 1938 to middle aged parents who having raised their family almost eighteen years before, had to start all over again. The family moved to a cottage in the hills of South Wales during the war. Louise was educated at St Michael’s convent, Abergavenny. English and Art were her favourite subjects. Writing since the age of twelve- Louise was made South Wales Editor for the childrens’ page of Health from Herbs magazine. Small articles and poems followed. Louise’s childhood in a remote rural area stimulated a great imagination and a deep love of nature and the countryside. Louise married a childhood sweetheart and worked at several jobs, mainly in dispatch and export offices. Her hobbies at that time were breeding and exhibiting German shepherd dogs, reading and painting. When the marriage failed in 1962 Louise concentrated on art, mainly oils, exhibiting and selling at a local gallery. She married again in 1964, farming with her husband in the Black Mountains. Louise has three grown up sons from this marriage and wrote her first book (not published). When the marriage failed in 198), Louise raised her teenage sons unaided. Managing a pub for four years, then taking a course in Management Extention Louise worked for a while as a marketing Consultant for the hotel trade. At this time her interest returned to writing poetry for pleasure and studying Astrology and the supernatural. Louise married Bryan James in 1989. His struggle to overcome the effects of a brain haemorrage, moved her to write a book for all who have come close to death or suffer some form of disability although this book received favourable comments it was not published. Bryan and Louise moved to Sussex in 1989 and lived there for nine years, Louise working in the book department of W. H. Smith which stimulated her to write The Blackberry Pickers in her spare time, before it was completed Bryan was taken ill with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and had to give up his job as farm Manager. They moved back to Hereford where Louise has been able to continue writing having several poems published and completing her book.