Welcome to Roselake,
the fictional setting of the Roselake novels, including the Martin Cole books.
Roselake is a typical traditional West Country town, lying between the hills and the beautiful East Devon coast. The water after which it was named is long gone, but today a small picturesque river still passes through the town, on its way from Rosebridge upstream down to Rosemouth, where a cluster of houses perched above the beach celebrate the end of the river's course.Roselake has many memories of its past as a staging post between London and Exeter and beyond, with a clutch of Georgian houses lining its main street. It sits in a beautiful agricultural landscape, of hills, pasture and woodland, with picturesque thatched cottages adorning ancient villages.
But not all is perfect here. The town is being dragged into the 21st century, with new housing and commercial developments not only threatening the town centre's businesses, but creating a social void between the town's older residents and the incomers and young people living on the town's newer estates.
But when Martin Cole comes down as an exile from London, he arrives wearing rose-tinted glasses. Having lost his job, his wife, his home and many of his possessions, he sees living in Roselake as an opportunity to escape from his own personal problems. And with a cottage on free loan to him, thanks to his best friend Nigel, who has left London for an extended holiday in New Zealand, he looks forward to an easy life and a break from all his life's stress. Martin immediately finds a welcome from his new neighbours, and he believes his dream of living in a rural idyll is coming true.
So it is, but the honeymoon lasts only a few short days. Martin suddenly finds all is not sweetness and light. He starts an involuntary voyage through the currents running beneath Roselake's placid surface charm, meeting a collection of saints and sinners along the way. Fortunately he is blessed with a sense of humour to help him through his tribulations, as well as endear him to some of those he shares his adventures with.