The Dorset of One Girl, One Summer with Isabel Ashdown

Submitted: 4th August 2024

Dorset with Isabel Ashdown

It’s always interesting when an author completely fictionalises the places where they set their novels but I like a challenge! When Isabel Ashdown told me about fictional Highcap, in Dorset, I knew we could get a very interesting trail out of her. When fact and fiction meet, is often when we get the best and most unexpected trails….

Locations in One Girl. One Summer

Golden Cap (c) Isabel Ashdown

Locations in One Girl. One Summer

One Girl, One Summer is a psychological mystery centred around the Gale family, headed up by grandfather John Gale, a man with deep roots in the Dorset community of Highcap. Like most families, they have had their fair share of disagreements – and secrets – over the years. But, when outside influences threaten one of their own, they are simultaneously pulled together and blown apart by events.

Highcap is inspired by Golden Cap (pictured)

Locations in One Girl. One Summer

My stories always begin with a small kernel of interest. This could be a notion or image that quietly grows and nudges at the edges of my mind until I start paying attention to it and follow the as-yet unimagined trail. That’s exactly how this one began with a single frame image of a girl high up upon a hill looking down over the meandering coastal path and mirror-bright ocean beyond. This girl, exactly as I first imagined her, went on to become my main character Nell. Nell is an 18-year- old on the brink of what should have been the summer of all summers.

Bridport which inspired some of the locations

Locations in One Girl. One Summer

As the idea grew, I knew the novel would be set along a particular stretch of the West Dorset coast and that that the story would open with some kind of disaster that would not only impact those directly affected, but also send ripples through their small coastal community. At the outside, the only thing I was certain of was that this disaster would arrive in the form of a stranger, and as my writing got underway, that stranger dropped – quite literally – from the sky, as a light aircraft crash lands on a peaceful campsite in Dorset.

West Bay cliffs which inspired the setting

Locations in One Girl. One Summer

I first fell in love with this particular area of Dorset after visiting to receive a runner-up award in The Bridport Prize writing competition several years before my first novel was published. Post lockdown, after many years of revisiting the area for writing retreats and pleasure (often with my sister Rebecca, who is a children’s author/illustrator), my husband and I made it our home.

Entrance to the SW coastal path

Locations in One Girl. One Summer

Walking has always been an important part of my creative process. Our walks with pooches Charlie and Len along the SW coastal path have always been a huge inspiration for both this and my last novel Homecoming which was set in another part of the same fictional town. Having grown up beside the sea, I think perhaps I will always be drawn to the coast for my story settings, where the currents are ever shifting, pulsing with turbulence the one moment, tranquil in the next.

Soulshine Cafe should be part of your visit

Locations in One Girl. One Summer

To soak up the atmosphere of One Girl, One Summer, here are a few of my favourite (foody!) little daytrips

A morning in Bridport on market day
Lunch at Soulshine or Dorshi who make great locally produced food
A stroll across the fields to West Bay

Seatown

Locations in One Girl. One Summer

A coastal walk from West Bay to Seatown
– this trek can be rewarded with a pint and a bowl of chips at the anchor pub looking out to sea

Sunday fossil hunting in Lyme Regis

A hearty brunch at any one of the excellent cafes along the high street

Books lovers might like to know that both Bridport and Lyme Regis have fabulous independent bookshops and libraries – another good reason, if one were needed, to stop by for a visit!