Annabel Carothers

In 1951, Annabel Carothers sold her family house in London and joined her parents in Mull, setting up a smallholding with Carla, a spaniel, and Nicholas, a cat. During this period she wrote the novels It Happened to Rain, A Breeze in the Barley and Four Ducks on a Pond. Her first novel, A Breeze in the Barley was published by William Heinemann along with its sequel, The Silver Link. The trilogy was completed with Kilcaraig, which was published on 26 April 1982 – the day, tragically, she died. In 2008, her daughter, Fionna Eden-Bushell, discovered the manuscript of Four Ducks on a Pond in a desk drawer and submitted it for publication, finally and fittingly completing her mother’s publishing oeuvre.