AN author from Saltash is getting ready to launch her new novel later this year with a book tour of the town.

The book, written by Annalisa Crawford, is set on Midsummer’s Day in Saltash. It tells the story of two partners waking up and living in parallel lives - and how they find their way back to each other. 

‘One Tuesday, Early’ is the 8th book for the writer and is due to be launched on May 14. The book tour is set to take place from May 13 to 17. It includes venues visited by the book as the story meanders its way around Saltash roads and places. 

It is a book inspired by a vivid memory from childhood but also the experiences of the pandemic lockdowns. It was from an earlier short story that Annalisa wrote about a real situation she found herself in.

Annalisa said: “I woke up once in an empty town. I was in sixth form and my first class of the day was midmorning, so there were no other school kids around. But equally, there were no cars. No people. No nothing. And no birds. It struck me then, this is weird.

“I walked to the front entrance of school and into the first and second classrooms. All empty. Eventually I found them all out in the playground lined up for a fire drill. The empty school, after walking through an empty street, struck me as a great short story - and it just expanded to a longer story taking in the whole of Saltash.”

Fore Street is featured alongside the library which has a prominent part in the book; the town’s leisure centre, Longstone Park, Victoria Gardens, Waterside, St Nicholas and St Faith and graveyard at St Stephens can all be found within its pages. 

This latest novel was finished during lockdown which was perfect timing for the award-winning author who has been placed third in the Costa Short Story Award 2015 and won silver in the Wishing Shelf Book Awards in 2023. 

Annalisa added: “The timing was just spot on. I knew what it felt like to walk around hearing nothing. I don’t think I could have written certain parts of the book without experiencing that in the way I did.”

Annalisa will be reading excerpts from One Tuesday, Early on her tour of Saltash which begins at Fore Street on May 13 with an event at the Leisure Centre on the morning of the May 14 and the Library Hub at 2pm. She is at The Core on May 16 at 10am, the Ploughboy Book Club at 7pm and two local businesses on May 17.