Portobello Book Blog

Welcome Morton, first of all, would you tell my blog readers a little about yourself?

Hi, I’m Morton Gray. I live in Worcestershire, UK with my family and Lily, the little white dog. This blog post is to celebrate the publication of my fourth book for Choc Lit, Sunny Days At The Beach.

I have always been a writer and actually came across my first attempt at a novel the other day in a battered envelope at the bottom of a drawer. I wrote this epic seafaring historical complete with tall ships, a dashing pirate and a feisty heroine in my teenage years on an old typewriter and it reminds me of the Errol Flynn films I used to watch with my Nan on long ago Sunday afternoons. As happens with so many writers – life then got in the way.

After university, I worked for many years in the electricity industry in committee services, staff development and training, before setting up my own business as a therapist – Clinical Hypnotherapy, Reiki, Tuina acupressure massage and energy field therapy.

I didn’t take my writing seriously until I joined the Romantic Novelists’ Association’s wonderful New Writers’ Scheme after a period of ill health made me reassess my life. In 2016, I won Choc Lit’s Search for a Star competition with my debut novel, The Girl on the Beach. This book follows a woman with a troubled past as she tries to unravel the mystery surrounding her son’s new headteacher, Harry Dixon. Since then Choc Lit have published two further novels set in my fictional seaside town of Borteen, The Truth Lies Buried and Christmas at Borteen Bay.

Having lots of hobbies and interests means that I’m never bored, but it does mean I never feel I have enough time. I love gardening, family history research, most crafts – at the moment I’m making shampoo and soap bars and experimenting with weaving.

In a nutshell, what is your latest book about?

Mandy Vanes, who runs Owl Corner Crafts in my fictional seaside town of Borteen, arrives at work one morning to find teenager, Nick Crossten sitting on the craft centre steps. He is distraught as he tells Mandy that his mother has left him home alone and gone off with her boyfriend to start a new life. As if that wasn’t enough, gin distiller, Graham Frankley arrives on the scene and tells the pair that Nick’s mum has written to him to say that he’s Nick’s dad!

The back of the book says:-

From party nights at the pub to sunny days at the beach …

Craft shop owner Mandy Vanes has always enjoyed a commitment-free singleton lifestyle — in fact, she’s well-known for her wild ways in her small seaside town on the coast.

But when local teenager, Nick Crossten, turns to her for help, Mandy has the opportunity to prove she can be a responsible adult. Although things get tricky when gin distillery owner Graham Frankley comes to town with some unexpected news.

Could this mean that Mandy the party girl is finally ready to grow up?

Do you have a work in progress just now?

Choc Lit already have my Christmas 2020 novella and now I’m working on another novel set in the Borteen area, centred around Becky Finch, a barista at a supermarket café who appears to be clairvoyant as she gets messages in the milk froth on the top of the coffees she makes.

What’s your favourite book you’ve read in the past few months? Or favourite three if you really can’t choose!

I have adored the last three books I’ve read! Endless Skies by Jane Cable

On A Falling Tide by Georgia Hill

And The Ops Room Girls by Vicki Beeby.

What are you reading just now?

I’m now reading a book that has been on my tbr pile far too long – The Best Boomerville Hotel by Caroline James.

Is there a book you’d love to see made into a film?

Am I allowed to say one of my own novels? It would be the absolute dream to see one of my stories on the screen.

How can people follow you or connect with you on social media?

You can catch up with me using the following links:-

Website and blog at www.mortonsgray.com

Twitter @MortonSGray

Facebook page – Morton S. Gray Author – https://www.facebook.com/mortonsgray/

Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/morton_s_gray/

And finally, if you could be a character in any book you have read, who would it be and why?

This would be a toss up between three heroines –

• Elizabeth Bennett in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice
• Margaret Hale in Elizabeth Gaskell’s North and South
• Lady Silence St Barbe in Pamela Belle’s Wintercombe