The Moodboard:

The Backdrop:

From Domesday to Red-nose Days, the Comptons have competed for top billing in the Bardswolds. This cluster of honeystone villages and half-timbered hamlets are a well-kept secret, lying buried like prospectors’ nuggets on the curved hip where the valleys of Shakespeare Country rise up to meet the high North Cotswolds. And it’s Compton Magna that remains most prized, approached along a plumb-straight lane to either side of which the mares and foals of its long-established stud farm tail-twitch beneath ancient oaks in park-railed paddocks.

Click below to see the full-sized map:

The Characters:

To get the low-down, just ask the Saddle Bags, a quartet of gossipy local horseriders: romance and rivalry is rampant in the Comptons. Entrepreneurial landowners the Austens call the shots over love and acreage; the Turner family rule the housing estate with nail extensions and knuckledusters. Baking-mad lonelyheart Pip Edwards meddles, eco-cyclist Paul peddles, and Petra the writer deserves medals for putting up with her errant husband. As for the Percy family – rudely aloof aristo horsedealers and unofficial village royalty – the day their prodigal daughter blew the show will take forever to live down…

Click on the books to see the full cast list from the series:

   

Or click on the picture frames to see the family trees of the main players:

   

The Books in the Series:

Click on a cover for more information:

The Videos:

The Country Set, the first book in the Compton series, was published in 2018.

The sequel,  Country Lovers, was published in November 2019:

The third book, Country Secrets was published in 2023:

Country Christmas is a festive novella, and there may be more…

Click on a cover for more information: