Sleeper’s Castle

Author/Guide: Barbara Erskine

Why a Booktrail?

1400, 2014: Two women, centuries apart. One endless nightmare tearing Wales apart – and only they can stop it.

ISBN: 978-0007513161
Genre: Fantasy/Sci Fi, Ghost/supernatural, Historical

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What you need to know before your trail

30 years since Barbara Erskine wrote her novel The Lady of Hay and now she takes us back to Wales and back to Hay on Wye. This is not a sequel however – both books are standalones.

Sleeper’s Castle – a mysterious name for a house on the border between England and Wales. Sue lives here but is heading back to Australia for a year, she lets friend Miranda live there rent free if she’ll look after it.

Miranda is fascinated by her new home, its history and mysterious creaks and groans, so when she starts having vivid dreams about a woman who once lived there in 1400, she thinks it’s just her vivid imagination.

But it’s not. Catrin, who also lived in the house in 1400 is calling out to her, there is danger in the air, for the Welsh are rebelling against the English and soon the two women will realise their fates are connected and that they are both in danger from the events surrounding Sleeper’s Castle.

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Travel Guide

Hay on Wye

A very literary place, known for its yearly festival of books and fantastic bookshops so quite apt that Barbara’s latest novel should be set in the same place as her debut.

There is lots of history in Hay and Wales itself. Sleeper’s Castle is a home but it conjures up images of history, battles and the bard’s daughter Catrin who lived there just as the people and Owain Glyndŵr were planning a rebellion against the English.

Owain Glyndŵr, was a Welsh ruler and the last native Welshman to hold the title Prince of Wales. This piece of Welsh history is brought to life and evoked here via the battles, struggles and political upheavals of the time seen through the eyes of the ordinary people like Catrin. A starting point for readers to find out more.

The idea that one home could hold on to so many memories and mysteries of the past, be a relic of history itself is fascinating. Welsh history wrapped up in intrigue and a time slip mystery. Landscapes are evocative and the sense of the past woven via each and every page.