My Beautiful Imperial
by Rhiannon Lewis
(Victorina Press, £9.99)

“A FRAMED set of etchings and an old photograph album were almost all I had to go on when I began my research 20 years ago. Once I started, I was hooked. At every turn, the story became more incredible,” Rhiannon Lewis says in her epilogue to this novel, based on real people and events.

And what a story she's written. It tells of David Jefferson Davis, “Davy,”  a young farmer living in rural Wales in the 1860s whose family life is suddenly torn apart by a tragic incident involving the death of his little sister Elen for which he is mistakenly blamed.

Forced to leave home and following in the steps of his father and grandfather before him, Davy embarks on a career at sea that eventually takes him all over the world.