A first-time author has said his debut novel was inspired by the work of Alan Bennett, his own marriage and the four Shetland ponies that live in his garden.
North End resident Tim Jarvis, 67, has just released his first book The Woman in the Wings that follows Toby, a resident of the fictional village of East Upbury who falls in love with a woman while working on an am-dram play set during the First World War.
Toby’s infatuation for Sarah, a mysterious visitor to the village, mirrors Tim’s own relationship with his wife Susan Blake, who he has been married to for 37 years.
The pair met while working on a play together throughout a summer while in Blewbery, a village south of Didcot.
Talking about his novel, he said: “There’s a bit of autobiography in there. I met my wife once and then didn’t meet her again for a couple months. Then I met her through a really bizarre coincidence.”
Ponies also appear in the novel as part of the play, and they were inspired by four Shetlands Tim owns that live in paddocks behind his cottage.
The star of the show is Puff, a 30-year-old miniature Shetland named after Puff, the Magic Dragon who is the basis for one particularly rowdy pony in the book that is constantly causing mischief for the characters in The Woman in the Wings.
The idea to write a book first came about when Tim wrote a film treatment for a competition in 2014.
As well as being influenced by The History Boys by Alan Bennett and the romantic comedy work of screenwriter Richard Curtis, Tim also wanted to include his interest in history within the story.
As it was the centenary year of the First World War, he made his fictional play within the story about soldiers leaving their village to fight in the conflict.
He didn’t win the competition, but years later, after taking voluntary severance from his job working as an international negotiator for Hewlett Packard, Tim returned to his story with more time on his hands and decided to develop it into a full-length novel.
Now that the book is published, Tim said he “would be absolutely delighted” if it was ever considered to be adapted to the silver screen.
Tim hopes to write more novels in the future, remaining within the rom-com genre that he feels comfortable operating in.
The Woman in the Wings was released on Friday, June 21 and is available to purchase on Amazon, WHSmith, Blackwell’s and several other online retailers.
