Today I have been at Ulverston Library where I had arranged an author event with Sarah Hall.

Sarah was speaking about her latest novel, How to Paint A Dead Man which has been longlisted for this year's Man Booker Prize for Fiction. Sarah read from the book, talked about her work, took questions from the audience then signed copies of her books for those who had bought them.

A Cumbrian by birth, Sarah has returned to the county to live and work and I have been a fan of her writing ever since she had her first novel, Haweswater, published in 2002.

Haweswater, like all of Sarah's 4 books has a really strong sense of place - and in 3 of them that place is Cumbria. (Her second novel, The Electric Michelangelo, was set in Morecambe so we will leave that one for the Lancashire team to discover!).

Haweswater tells the story of a 1930's Lakeland where a close knit farming community and a whole way of life is destroyed when a water company floods the valley to make a reservoir to supply water for Manchester.  The villagers are forced to move out, abandoning their homes and their way of life, with the book's major theme being the loss of a traditional community and its way of life and the encroachment of a more modern and industrial way of life. The themes of love, betrayal, loyalty and loss are also explored in what is a beautifully written book. The language is poetic, the imagery is superb and the characterisation is masterful - the whole book lives on in your mind long after you have finished it - and under pinning it all is a terrific sense of place.

The novel is a literary gem in every sense of the word, and whilst Sarah Hall has now become really well known, this is the book that started it all, so Reading Detectives is an excellent opportunity to promote it.

Haweswater is of course based on the true story of the village of Mardale in the Lake District which disappeared when the Haweswater valley was flooded in 1935 with the building of The Haweswater Dam - considered to be an engineering achievement in its day. Prior to the valley being flooded in 1935, all the surrounding farms and the village houses were demolished. The village church was dismantled and the stone was used in the construction of the dam and the bodies in the churchyard were exhumed and re-buried at Shap.

Every so often when we have very hot and extremely dry summers (totally unlike this one!), the water levels fall dramatically in Haweswater, and then the ghostly remains of Mardale village become exposed. 

I can remember this happening in the baking hot summer of 1976 when I was 15. I went up there with my Mum to see it. Even at the time I can remember feeling profoundly moved by the exposed remains, such as the bridge over the original beck, and the dry stone walls, all set against the spectacular hills shimmering in the heat. It is a very powerful image, which, whenever I read the book is re-ignited in my head.

I have found a really interesting and fascinating online archive article about the flooding of the valley in the Cumberland and Westmorland Herald:

http://www.cwherald.com/archive/archive/the-village-of-mardale-is-long-gone-&%238230%3B-but-it-certainly-...-20050205179321.htm

 Mary was also at the Ulverston Library event today, so before we left for home we had a good hunt through their Local Studies collection like the dedicated Reading Detectives that we are, and we found several fascinating books which may prove to be further finds, or at the very least give us clues for future ones, so watch this space!