NORTH Devon author Liz Shakspeare has had a busy summer, visiting many South West events and signing new copies of her books — which all have a North Devon link.

Liz has become well known as an author for bringing to life the people, history and landscape of Devon. She was born and raised in Bideford and has a long Devon ancestry, which she said she feels has given her a good understanding of Devon and its people.

Her most recent novel, entitled The Postman Poet, tells the true-life story of Edward Capern, a humble Devon postman whose poems were written while walking the rural lanes of North Devon on his daily round in the mid 19th century.

This novel won Liz plaudits from the Prime Minister and the support of the biggest literary names of the day. Liz drew on historical research and details in the poems to tell Edward’s extraordinary story, through his eyes, as he struggles to support his family — it is a story that captures the opportunities and inequalities of Victorian North Devon.

Alongside the novel, Liz has published a selection of Capern’s poems, and in recognition of his commitment to social justice she will be donating £1 from the sale of each copy of the book to the Northern Devon Foodbank.

Historical research was also the inspiration for her previous books: The Turning of the Tide, a true story of a young Clovelly mother confined in Bideford workhouse; Fever: A Story from a Devon Churchyard; and The Memory Be Green: An Oral History of a Devon Village.

Liz has also produced All Around the Year, a collection of twelve poignant stories, deeply rooted in the Devon countryside and each linked to a month of the year from January through to December.

For more details on Liz’s books, visit her website www.lizshakespeare.co.uk