The Seventh Day of Christmas...Chris Stovell

On the seventh day of Christmas Chris Stovell adds to the RNA tree...

My parents rarely took holidays when my sister and I were growing up; there simply wasn’t enough money to go round.  In later life, however, there was no stopping them and my dad took great pleasure in the growing number of pins in his travel map of every place they’d visited.  I love this nativity scene, which they brought back from Peru for me, not just for itself and because it’s so jolly, but because it reminds me of Mum and Dad’s beaming faces (under Peruvian hats!) when we picked them up from the airport. 

One of the highlights of that holiday had been their river trip up the Amazon.  The skipper must have decided to give them added value as the trip went on far longer than my parents had anticipated.  With only bananas and Coke to sustain them – generously provided by their host - but no loo on board, by the time they disembarked they felt as if they’d travelled the entire length of the river.  They always roared with laughter when they talked about it, but it was a very long time before either of them could eat bananas again!

Chris's latest book...

When is it time to stop running?

Coralie Casey is haunted by her past. Deciding it’s time for a fresh start, she sets up ‘Sweet Cleans’, a range of natural beauty and cleaning products, and escapes to Penmorfa, a quiet coastal village in west Wales.

Gethin Lewis thinks he’s about to put his home village Penmorfa behind him for good. Now an internationally-acclaimed artist living in New York, he just has to return one last time to wind up his father’s estate.

But the village soon disrupts their carefully laid plans. As truths are uncovered which threaten to split the community apart, Gethin is forced to question his real reasons for abandoning Penmorfa, and Coralie is made to face the fact that some stains just won’t go away.