Blog Tour: So Now Go Tell – Susan Sachon

After reaching a crisis point at 40, Jenny Watson is offered her dream job running a Shakespeare festival at a Tudor pub. She can hardly believe her luck at this brilliant new start, and chance to escape her unhappy past. The job isn’t all it seems, however.

The pub is remote and her mysterious boss is permanently absent; there’s a 400 year old skull residing in the cellar; and the local actors are less than enthusiastic over her boss’s choice of play. Then there’s the growing conviction that someone’s watching her. Strange messages, withheld calls and shadows on the windows spike temporary attacks of stress-related blindness as she clings to her last chance to live her dream. But as the dark play she’s directing starts to unravel the secrets she’d sworn never to tell, Jenny realises she’s not at the pub by chance . . .

…and soon she finds herself the leading lady in a nightmare replay of her past.

Susan says “I love theatre directing as well as writing, and have found working with Shakespeare’s writing cathartic and inspiring. In my working life, especially teaching adults, I have encountered many women with similar confidence problems, and the book grew out of that experience. It also carries the message that we should never give up on our dreams, no matter what age we are, where we come from, or whoever tells us we are bound to fail.”

Susan has loved writing, books and theatre since childhood, and now loves sharing stories with her small granddaughter. Apart from enjoying time with her family, she has also worked in business, run a theatre arts school for kids and somehow found time to gain a degree in Literature/Creative Writing, and a PhD in Shakespeare! She now writes fiction full-time, runs Shakespeare workshops and directs plays locally.

LINKS TO BUY: Publisher Amazon

Available in paperback format at £13.99 from Troubador.co.uk, and in e-book format from Amazon KDP Select at £4.99. Paperback also available online from Waterstones and Barnes & Noble. 

My thoughts: apart from all the terrible things Jenny encounters doing her dream job, I’d happily do the same. I am a huge Shakespeare nerd, theatre kid and I studied Titus Andronicus at uni (Hamlet is probably my favourite).

Jenny leaps at the chance to re-open an old pub and revive its Shakespeare festival, although she wants to do Hamlet, the mysterious owner insists on the even more gory and blood soaked Titus.

Making new friends in the local community and slowly building her confidence with Speak Out (a therapy group), she also begins researching the pub and the history of its resident Yorick, a human skull that belongs to someone either called Henry or John, according to neighbour George. Finding that there is a genuine link to the person, and a production of Shakespeare’s play in the 1500s, she digs into the local history, encountering witch trials, a hanging and tragedy.

Unfortunately her own tragic past is coming up to find her. An abusive mother, a rape and a pregnancy at 16, Jenny’s life isn’t a happy one. And now, divorced and alone, apart from the wonderful Mags, she’s starting over. Her aunt, in New Zealand, drops a bombshell – Jenny’s son is in the UK and wants to meet her.

But someone is leaving weird notes and the door keeps unlocking itself. A local woman is attacked, and she looks a bit like Jenny. What is going on? Is Jenny safe?

There’s a lot of turmoil and horror to come, but thankfully Jenny has brilliant friends around her, people who care and want to help, including local teacher and historian Ben.

Gripping and at times shocking, I was enthralled with Jenny’s story and the research she was doing. I love history and as a literary material culture buff, this was right up my street. I think Jenny and I would get along famously. She’s a real survivor and what she has been through is heartbreaking. But there’s so much hope and good will for her, that it left me feeling upbeat and pleased. Shakespeare’s incredible way with words guides Jenny, and even saves her life. A real treat of a book in many ways.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.