Plotlands

by Carol Fenlon

People come to Plotlands to escape but few seem to stay very long.
Graham makes a fresh start after murdering his wife but can a leopard change its spots?
Jack hides from his biker gang in the backwater of Plotlands but then another biker moves in next door…
Shazza is only looking for love but just when it seems she has found it, her past returns with a vengeance.
In these eleven short stories, the residents of this decayed, seaside shantytown, on the coast of North Wales, nurse their secrets. They are trying for new beginnings or dreaming of what might have been but the past has a way of catching up. Unexpected futures lie on the horizon even for Plotlands itself.

207 pages, Paperback

Published October 28, 2016

About the author

Carol lives in Skelmersdale, Lancashire. Her first novel, 'Consider The Lilies was written as a result of research conducted into images of feral children and formed part of her PhD thesis gained from Edge Hill University in 2010. 'Consider The Lilies is set in Skelmersdale, Liverpool and Worcester and is the story of the life of a woman who was kept in a shed as a child with no human contact. It won the Impress Novel Prize for new writers in 2007 and was published in June 2008. She is also a keen local historian and self-published the first part of a history of her home town, 'Skelmersdale: a New Town in the Making' in 2014. 'Triple Death.' is a short story collection and is Carol's first self-published fiction venture. 'Plotlands' is a linked short story collection about a dystopian North Wales seaside resort Mere' Carol's second novel, 'Mere' was released in June 2018 and published by Thunderpoint Publishing Ltd. 'Mere' features the fortunes of three flawed characters set against the backdrop of the the drained bed of the Lancashire lake Martin Mere. Carol's latest novel, 'A Liver Bird Sings' a novel in the romantic/ coming of age genre, set in 1960s Liverpool was published in November 2019.She is currently working on the second part of her local history book and a dark novel featuring the history of Lathom House in Lancashire.

Reviews

[Elizabeth Gates · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this short story collection by talented storyteller Carol Fenlon, a world is created, almost mapped out, for you. It may be alien - in many ways - but you find yourself drawn in, haunted by the dilemmas of the people who live in this alternative reality at the tip of Wales.

[Stefan Szczelkun · Rating 4 out of 5]

Recently I've self published two books about the UK Plotlands after a lifetime of obsession with them. There's many more than people realise. So I finally got around to ordering Carol Fenlon's book 'Plotlands'. I was pleased to see that Carol had done her research on Plotlands. I don't know exactly which site it was in North Wales or whether it had the same sad (to me!) ending it has in the book. The set of short stories is cleverly interwoven into this situation and Carol can certainly tell a yarn! So it makes for a good read. It's not a typical Plotland story as there are many different outcomes of this phenomena of working class people making their own homes and communities beginning in the 1920's and going on until the early Fifties. My books tell the story of happier outcomes, in Shepperton and The Gower, in which there is an evolution of form rather than a drastic redevelopment as happens in this novel. Hopefully the surviving plotlands are being valued as having unique attributes and history that needs to be treated with respect. In this Fenlon's book could stand as a warning.

[Elizabeth Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

Carol Fenlon has a wonderful ability when creating a sense of place; this is demonstrated in her latest collection of short stories ‘Plotlands.’ Although each tale is a stand alone, well told, piece; they are all linked by the location, a timeless, small coastal area of North Wales. A bygone era, the author evokes​ memories that take you on a walk through the sand dunes with their tufts of grass and the nostalgic but now defunct lighthouse. I could almost hear the whistle of the late night train as it passed in the distance. The tales are also linked by dark secrets which are matched by the now cold, advanced years, setting.
I thoroughly enjoyed this group of stories and look forward to more of this authors work.