The granddaughter of the woman who brought Osmotherley’s Lady Chapel back to life in the 1920s has released the first of a trilogy of fictional novels set in the area.

Inspired by the success of her Grandmother’s journals, which recount the rescue and restoration of the famous building, Flora Dysart has penned a romantic novel set in the years after the First World War.

Inspiration
The area around Osmotherley is one of stunning beauty, with the wonderfully restored Lady Chapel nestling on a quiet hillside above the village. It is this idyllic setting which inspired Flora’s Grandmother to fight for the restoration of the chapel and it is the same scenes that have inspired the author to create her own literary work.

Synopsis
Bishop’s Rest is the first in a trilogy that tells the story of Prudence Wetherby, a young girl abandoned by her parents and grandparents who sets out to find employment with her eccentric Great Aunt Bella on the Yorkshire Moors. While living with her Aunt, Prudence falls in love, only to learn the object of her desire is in love with someone else and she begins to lose hope of ever finding someone to love.

The story charts the obstacles encountered by Prudence as she strives to rebuild her life and searches for true love, all set against the haunting background of the North York Moors. The young woman is a source of mystery for the local residents, no more so than to Tony Harding, Prudence’s oblivious love interest. Will they ever allow themselves to love one another?

The book describes Prudence’s reluctance to let Great Aunt Bella know that they are related as she takes a job as the cook in the older woman’s home. The colourful characters portrayed in the book, bring the village of Bishop’s Rest to life in a tale of love, mystery and country living

Author’s Note
This book is the first of a trilogy which I am writing as a tribute to the life and works of my Grandmother, Flora Margaret Morrish, a woman who loved this area like no other and fought to save the Lady Chapel at Osmotherley.

I hope that the fictional stories will bring to life in the reader’s mind a time that is now almost beyond living memory, when the people of this remote area strove to reconcile the losses of the First World War with the renewed hopes of the 1920s.

Prudence, with her individuality and single-mindedness, is a character inspired by Flora and also by my Mother and her sisters who spent much of their childhood in the small cottage adjoining the Lady Chapel.


Bishop’s Rest is published by Dysart Associates. It is available from www.amazon.co.uk or contact the publisher@dysart-associates.co.uk

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