Crime anthology includes story by Penarth writer Claire Boot

Cast a Long Shadow – published by Honno Press –  is an anthology of 20 crime short stories written by Welsh women, and includes The Oba’s Head, which was written by 42-year-old Claire Boot who lives in Penarth.

Penarth writer Claire Boot

What's the book about?

Captain Bevan has retired to Penarth, where his study is filled with items collected during his military campaigns in Africa.

His housekeeper, Mrs Cadwallader, is polishing a blackened metal sculpture of a head when she is startled by a man standing at the window. To her eyes, he looks exactly like the sculpture in her hands.

Two days later, Captain Bevan is dead, and the sculpture is missing.

Cast a Long Shadow includes The Oba's Head by Claire Boot

“I was inspired to set the story in Cardiff, Penarth, and Barry in 1911, as this is a fascinating period locally at the height of the coal trade,”

said Ms Boot.

“I also drew upon the history of the Benin Bronzes. Now found in museums across Europe and the USA, the Benin Bronzes were looted by British soldiers in 1897 from present-day Nigeria and there are calls for the artefacts to be returned.”

Claire Boot’s recent writing include:

• An audio play for Sherman Theatre at part of the Heart of Cardiff project;
• A site-specific audio walk for Barry Island commissioned by Barry – Making Waves.

She also writes scripts for Spring Harvest, with her fiction published in National Flash Fiction Day and Bath Flash Fiction Award anthologies.

Find out more about the author and her work at claireboot.com