More Geese Than Swans — Franzeska G. Ewart

When painter Ella Blyth abandons the cloistered life she's been living with her husband in London, her intention is to raise her art from the safely anodyne to the provocatively innovative. Her new home in the Scottish seaside town of Largs is full of challenging childhood memories however, and the flat she rents holds a sinister mystery: who was the enigmatic, swan-obsessed artist Flick? And why is it so important to her to find out? Drawn ever deeper into the lives of her neighbours, colleagues, and one highly artistically-gifted pupil, Ella begins to confront her own demons, and in doing so discovers strengths she never knew she possessed. She also learns the value of love, friendship, forgiveness and, above all, the importance of daring to change.Karen Strang, artist, said about More Geese Than Swans: 'The depiction of the adventures and challenges of a middle-aged woman artist are unsettlingly accurate, giving insight into what it is to be a female painter, generally overlooked by art-based literature. A doon-the-watter La Grande Jatte, Ewart's characters are enigmatically rendered, revealing themselves gradually through the story and, like the painting, reveal many twists, allegories, and narratives of the human comedy in the reading. A masterfully composed story that has the reader entranced to the end.