A CARMARTHENSHIRE author has released her debut book.

Christine Davies has released Trecadno, an affectionate comedy which follows Londoner John who moves to the sleepy Welsh town of Trecadno in west Wales for a fresh start.

However, what he doesn’t know is that the close bonds of small towns and villages means its harder to live down your mistakes as everyone knows everyone.

John soon finds himself embroiled in intrigues, scandals, gossip and schemes of the village’s community life. He finds there to be constant rain, an erratic landlady and his pupils are no less insolent than those he left behind in the big city, but he starts to find his place.

At least until Hallowe’en, when he discovers that there is more to Trecadno than meets the eye.

Christine said: “Driving through rural Wales, you sometimes come across villages that have barely changed since the nineteenth century.

“On a summer’s afternoon many years ago, I passed through one of them and was struck by the stillness, the complete lack of people. Yet life still went on there: villagers went back and forth to church, school, work… Beneath the quiet exterior of a place, all manner of schemes and subterfuges might be going on. This led me to dream up my own little Welsh town, loosely based on placed near my home including Llansaint and Kidwelly.”

She continued of the story: “Something strange is afoot in Trecadno, and I don’t let the cat out of the bag until the final chapter, so I won’t spoil it here! But while John is kept out of one side of village life, throughout the book John suffers more from the community being too welcoming.

“He’s easily led, and not knowing the various intrigues of his new home, finds himself in a few sticky situations. But he’s never ostracised.

“This is the turn of the millennium, before Wi-fi, before mobile signal became ubiquitous. Back then, leaving the city for these parts of the country really was like moving a few years back in time. Your mobile phone went in a drawer, and you reacquainted yourself with the landline!”

The book is written in the tradition of Very Annie Marie; The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill but Came Down a Mountain; and Waking Ned.

Trecadno can be bought from Amazon and www.candyjarbooks.co.uk as well as a range of retailers.