For the Love of Filey

Unlike many authors, I don’t solicit reviews. People read my books and they review them or they don’t. When they do, I’m grateful, but I’m not unduly anxious about it.

The Filey Connection, the very first STAC Mystery, has been on sale since March last year, and this morning, it collected its 34th review. Of those, the majority are 5- or 4-star, the highest possible ratings.

Although The Filey Connection introduced us to the Sanford Third Age Club, it was as much about the town as it was Joe, Sheila, Brenda and the gang.

It’s an old story but I met my wife when we were both working in Filey in 1979. Butlins had a huge camp just outside the town back then, and we were both there for the summer season. I remember it being a free and easy time. I’d just come through a nasty divorce and getting away from Leeds to work on the coast for five months was exactly the tonic I needed.

Filey is a pretty little seaside town between Scarborough and Bridlington on the Yorkshire coast. It’s been subjected to much modernisation since the days when my wife and I lived and worked there, but the fine, sandy beach, sitting in its own bay is as inviting as ever. The Brigg provides a natural breakwater against the power of the North Sea, and even as a child I recall walking along the slippery rocks, and looking down on the marine life in the pools at low tide.

Rockpools on Filey Brigg

Back in 1979 when the questionable delights of the staff dining hall paled, I’d nip down to Filey for a couple of pints and pies in the Three Tuns, which still stands on Murray Street. I had many a lock-in at the Grapes on Queen Street and many a lively night at the Belle Vue, the town’s only nightclub.

These days, when we stay in Filey, it serves as a base, a hub from where we can easily reach the other resorts in the area: Scarborough, Bridlington, and especially Whitby, my mother’s favourite seaside town.

We moved back to my wife’s home town near Manchester after the end of the 1979 season, and the Butlins camp closed in the early eighties. If we holiday abroad these days, it has more to do with climate than preference, but those fond memories of Filey have never faded. We celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary in 2006, and I toyed with a number of ideas from New York to the Maldives, but my missus was adamant about where she wanted to go. Filey. Where we first met.

Sentimental tosh in my book, but I acquiesced, and it was there on a hot weekend in September 2006, that the idea of Joe Murray and his pals solving a crime first occurred to me.

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The Filey Connection is published by Crooked Cat Books ad is available for download from:

Amazon UK (Kindle)

Amazon Worldwide (Kindle)

Smashwords (All formats)

Crooked Cat Books (EPUB, MOBI, PDF)

And in paperback from:

Amazon UK

Amazon Worldwide