Clouds in a Summer Sky

Welcome to Batch Magna, a place where anything might happen. And often does… Living in an old steam boat on a river deep in the Welsh Borders has numerous charms, but the the Commander’s wife Priny is suffering from arthritis, a condition not at all improved by their water-based lifestyle. They take up an offer from Humphrey, the squire of Batch Hall, of a straight swap: their boat, the Batch Castle, for one of the Masters’ Cottages facing their beloved river. The Castle is restored to river worthiness and starts plying successfully as the Cluny Steamboat Company to Shrewsbury and back. As a result it takes a good deal of profit away from a taxi firm in a local border town. The English owner of the firm, Sidney Acton, enlisting the aid of two corrupt Welsh councillors, plots against the new venture. Only time will tell if his sabotage attempts will bear fruit or blow up in his face… AUTHOR: Peter Maughan’s early career covered many trades, working on building sites, in wholesale markets, on fairground rides and in a circus. Later he travelled the West Country, picking fruit, and sleeping wherever he could, before moving on to wherever the next road took him. After travelling to Jersey to pick potatoes, he found work in a film studio in its capital, walk-ons and bit parts in the pilot films that were made there, and as a contributing script writer. He studied at the Actor’s Workshop in London, and worked as an actor in the UK and Ireland, subsequently founding a fringe theatre in Barnes, London, and living on a converted sailing barge among a small colony of houseboats on the River Medway. His idyllic, heedless years by the river, inspired him to write the Batch Magna novels, set in a peaceful river valley in the Welsh Marches. He is married and lives currently in Wales.