Jim Waygood is Coming Home — A Story Rooted in Memory, Place, and Return

Every book has its own journey, and this one has been quietly growing in me for years. Jim Waygood is Coming Home began as a simple idea: what happens when someone returns to the village of their childhood after forty years away? What do they recognise, what has changed, and what truths rise to the surface when you walk the same lanes your ancestors once walked?

I’ve always been fascinated by the rhythms of everyday life — how communities evolve, how memory shapes identity, and how the past never quite loosens its grip. The surname Waygood belonged to my great‑grandmother, who travelled from Dorset to the Isle of Wight, raised ten children, and died tragically young at forty‑six . I know so little about her, except that records suggest she returned to her home village of Middlemarsh to give birth to her children. That small fragment of history stayed with me. It felt like a thread waiting to be pulled.

I finally began writing this novel in December 2022, during a strange in‑between time when we were living at our son’s house while our new home was being built. After reading Jonathan Coe’s Bournville, something clicked. I suddenly knew the kind of story I wanted to create. Around the same time, I immersed myself in the work of Elizabeth Strout — Lucy By The Sea quickly became a favourite. Her gift for observing the quiet details of everyday life was a huge inspiration. I also found myself drawn into the extensive work of Anne Tyler, whose small‑town stories and gentle, perceptive character studies helped shape the tone I wanted for Bedway St John’s.

That fictional village — the heart of the novel — is a tapestry woven from several real places, stitched together with local stories, family memories, and the colourful characters who make island life what it is. It’s a village of old families and new arrivals, of gossip and generosity, of secrets that linger in the hedgerows. Into this world comes Jim Waygood. Widowed, thoughtful, and carrying the weight of a complicated past, he returns to the Isle of Wight alone. But life has a way of surprising us. When Jim meets Eliana Rushford, a novelist who has moved to the island after her own heartbreak, the two form an immediate and unexpected bond.

As Jim digs deeper into his family history — particularly his difficult relationship with his father — an elderly local reveals something that shakes him to the core. It’s a truth that forces him to confront the past he thought he understood. Because sometimes, to move forward, you really do have to go back.

I finished the first draft in March 2024. After many twists and turns, and now as a self‑published author, I can finally bring this story into the world. It’s special, it’s personal, and I’m genuinely excited to share it. Jim Waygood is Coming Home is a novel about belonging, memory, and the courage it takes to rebuild a life. It’s about the places that shape us — and the people who help us find our way again.