Author: Cole Moreton

Award-winning interviewer, writer and broadcaster.

Come and say hello!

I’d love to see you at one of the events I’ve got coming up, where I’ll be reading from The Light Keeper, telling the real-life stories behind my debut novel and singing some new songs written to go with it.

PUBLICATION DAY IS AUGUST 15 AND YOU CAN PRE-ORDER HERE

These are the other dates, do please come and say hello:

Friday August 9 at 1.30pm

Words Pavillion at the Firle Vintage Fair, hosted by Much Ado Books

Thursday, August 15 at 7pm

Publication day party at DC1 Café, Eastbourne SOLD OUT

Wednesday, August 21 at 7.30pm

Kino-Teatr, St Leonard’s On Sea, Ted-style 15-minute talk as part of The Bavard Bar

Sunday, August 25 at 5.45pm

Greenbelt Festival, first ever full performance of The Light Keeper readings and songs

Friday, August 30 at 7pm

The Light Keeper at the Wish Tower, a rare chance to see and hear stories and songs inside an historic venue built to defend the South Coast from Napoleon! Tickets are free but numbers are very limited because of the building, so get in quickly for this one.

Thursday, September 5 at 7pm

London launch of The Light Keeper with stories and songs on a moored boat in Vauxhall. Free entry by ticket only. DETAILS SOON

Friday, September 13 at noon

The Light Keeper in the Lantern Room of the Belle Tout lighthouse, exclusive performance for a dozen mailing list members only, sign up here for the chance to win tickets and/or a room for two at the lighthouse that night.

Saturday, September 14 at noon

Waterstones, Hastings, Meet The Author free event with readings, stories and songs

Saturday, October 12 at 7.30pm

Pies, Peas and Performance event hosted by Paul Cookson in Retford

More to be announced soon. If you’d like me to come and talk, read and sing in your front room, church, pub, club, venue or stadium, get in touch colemoreton@gmail.com

Would you like to stay here?

My first novel The Light Keeper is a story of love and hope, grief, faith and longing.

A young woman called Sarah stands on the brink, arms open wide as if to let the wind carry her away. She’s come to the cliffs to be alone, to face the truth about her life and to work out what to do, Her lover Jack is searching, desperate to find her before it is too late. But Sarah doesn’t want to be found. Not yet. Not by him. And someone else is seeking answers up here where the seabirds soar – a man known only as the Keeper, living in an old lighthouse right on the edge of a four-hundred-foot drop. He is all too aware that sometimes love takes you to the edge …

The book comes out on August 15 but you can pre-order a copy here at a special discount or sign up to the mailing list and get the first three chapters to read immediately, for free.

Now the lovely people at the Belle Tout lighthouse are letting me give away a night’s luxury bed and breakfast there for two people, again for free. It’s a stunning location on a cliff in the beautiful landscape near Beachy Head in East Sussex, close to the Seven Sisters. You will never have stayed anywhere like it. And this is the setting for much of the book, so you will have a sense of being right inside the story.

I’ll be reading from the book, telling the true tales behind it and singing some of the songs written to go with the book, in an exclusive event at lunchtime on Friday 13 September. This is in the Lantern Room of the lighthouse, with spectacular 360 degree views of the sea and the Downs. It’s exclusively for members of the mailing list and there are only a dozen places available, so you have to sign up for a chance to win a pair. We’ll choose them at random (by number rather than name) on publication day, and also select the person who will be offered the chance to stay with a plus one that same night, in a lovely room with a spectacular view. If you win and you can’t come, I’ll give you a signed copy of the book and arrange a private reading at a date to suit you.

So if you want the chance to come, put your name down here. You’ll get those first three chapters immediately. And if you want to pre-order a copy (for four quid off) go here.

Thanks for reading, and hope to see you at the lighthouse.

Love and strength,

Cole

www.thelightkeeper.org

Why You Should Never Turn Your Back On Ode To Joy

I was in Krakow on the night Poland joined the European Union. I used that memory in writing a scene from The Light Keeper, which I’m reading here as a response to those new members of The Brexit Party who stood in the chamber and turned their backs on young musicians playing the EU anthem, Ode To Joy.

Are you afraid of heights? Better not watch this then…

Here’s what it’s like to step out of the Lantern Room at the Belle Tout lighthouse near Beachy Head in Sussex, in the South Downs National Park, and walk around the platform on the outside of the tower. Yes, the outside. A long way above the ground, and beside a four hundred foot drop. I’m afraid of heights – my children still laugh at the way I clung on to the inside wall of the Eiffel Tower for dear life, genuinely scared, so this was a challenge. The heavy breathing is because I was frightened! Worth it though, for the astonishing views. Enjoy! It’s the setting for The Light Keeper, my first novel, published this August. If you want to know more about the book or read the first three chapters for free, just let me have your email here. You’ll automatically get the chance to win a night in the lighthouse.

Look at these astonishing views from the Lantern Room high up at the top of the Belle Tout lighthouse …

Hello you. How’s it going? Last night we stayed at the Belle Tout lighthouse. This is a Georgian lighthouse on the edge of a four hundred foot drop on its own hill near Beachy Head in East Sussex, The Lantern Room is a wonderful space with 360 degree views of the South Downs, the Seven Sisters and the sea. Here’s a video, taking you around the room.

Gorgeous, isn’t it? David and Barbara Shaw bought the place a decade ago and they’ve spent more than a million doing it up, so it’s a really beautiful bed and breakfast. Here’s the website. It’s not like that in the story, which takes place when the lighthouse is still semi-derelict, as it was for a while before they took over. Next time I will show you what it was like to go out on that balcony, on a windy day. Brace yourself.

As you may well know by now, this is the setting for my novel The Light Keeper, a story of love, hope, faith and longing, which comes out on August 15.  I’ll be telling stories from it and singing songs inspired by it at the Greenbelt Festival over the August Bank Holiday weekend. Then I’ll be doing the same in Alfriston on September 14 thanks to my friends at the wonderful Much Ado Books and at an exclusive, very-limited-numbers performance inside that same Lantern Room, the one in the video, on September 15. Do you want to be there? I’d love you to. Only a dozen people can come, but for the chance of a pair of tickets – or even, separately, the chance to win a night for two staying at the lighthouse – sign up here. 

SIGN UP FOR THE CHANCE TO WIN TICKETS TO THE LANTERN ROOM PERFORMANCE

I’m also up for telling you stories and singing you songs wherever you are, if you can get some other people who want to hear. Let me know colemoreton@gmail.com.

That’s it for now, thanks for reading. I’m going to try something new and write a little note every Friday to share what I’m up to and how you can get involved too, if that’s okay. Get in touch, I’d love to hear from you.

Cheers,

Cole