I am excited to share the news that author Annabel Frazer has written a third part to Mary Stewart’s proposed Perdita trilogy! ‘The Sea Raven’ is her follow-up story to Mary Stewart’s story ‘The Lost One’ and novella The Wind Off the Small Isles.

Mary Stewart fans will know that Mary Stewart’s two stories about Perdita West were published in one volume for the very first time in June 2017, with ‘The Lost One’ having first appeared in 1960 in the magazine Woman’s Journal; publication of The Wind Off the Small Isles was in 1968.

I discuss these two stories elsewhere in the blog (try searching ‘The Lost One’ under Categories in the side-bar) but the main post you might want to read is Re-issue of the Wind Off the Small Isles from September 2016: this is where I first highlight the existence of forgotten short story ‘The Lost One’. In that post I also detail my correspondence with Mary Stewart about the story, and I remain in awe that Mary Stewart took time to reply to my excited letter about ‘The Lost One’ and was kind enough to share that her idea had been to write a third story about Perdita and to release all three stories as a ‘book-length’ book. This never happened, of course, and I ended the post by wondering who a good author would be to take on the writing of Part Three.

And now we have a part three! Many of you will remember Annabel Frazer and her daughter’s wonderful guest review of The Ivy Tree for Mary Stewart Day 2017. Now Annabel has imagined an adventure for Perdita that takes place some 14 years after the events of Small Isles. I can promise that you will really enjoy ‘The Sea Raven’, it is a loving tribute to Mary Stewart that is fresh and original, written by an author with a naturally similar style to Mary Stewart who has moved the story forward in an unexpected but exciting direction. There are many allusions within the story to Mary Stewart characters and situations, embedded seamlessly within the story. Importantly, ‘The Sea Raven’ includes what you’d expect of a Mary Stewart: thrilling suspense, a light touch of romance and beautiful writing.

I should also add that you will enjoy this story even if you have not read both of Perdita’s earlier adventures since ‘The Sea Raven’ is a great story in its own right. There is nothing in the story to ‘spoil’ the earlier stories – but I predict that the allusions and hints within ‘The Sea Raven’ will have you scrambling to get hold of The Wind Off the Small Isles and ‘The Lost One’.

Since ‘The Sea Raven’ is based on characters created by Mary Stewart, Annabel is not looking to make any money from her story. It is available to read for free and you can access the story at the Smashwords website, which gives you the option of reading the story there and then with no requirement to register/log in. Within Smashwords, you are also given various other options, such as downloading the story as a PDF file, or reading it via your kindle or other e-reader. If you have any difficulties, please get in touch and I’ll do my best to help. Here is the link: The Sea Raven.

And here is Annabel’s author page on Goodreads.

After you have read the story, please take time to leave a comment on Annabel’s Goodreads page – and of course I’d love to hear from you too, if you’d like to leave a comment below.

The Wind off the Small Isles, Hodder 1st edn 1968. Illustr: Laurence Irving
The Wind Off the Small Isles and The Lost One, Hodder pb 2017. Illustr Swim Ink 2 LLC/Contributor/Getty Images
The Lost One in Woman’s Journal, Fleetway, June 1960
The Wind off the Small Isles, Hodder hb 2016. Illustr Dawn Cooper.