Books in The Braeside Books series

Sandy doesn’t fit in. Not with the Good Works programme of the family who adopted her. Not with the smug superiority of the other evacuees who’ve come north to escape the Blitz. Certainly not with the Braeside children who view the ‘Vaccies’ with suspicion. No. She’s on her own, same as always. Not a part of any group. Not wanting to be a part of any group. Because, somewhere her real family is waiting, and when she finds them - right now she dreams of them living in some wonderful cavern - well, when she finds her own family, she won’t have to put up with all the stupid people she despises, will she? Except that she doesn’t despise Chrissie who rescued her from the Village Hall Committee – and she doesn’t despise Pa because he’s a horse whisperer and actually quite scary - and she definitely doesn’t despise Hillend Cottage because it’s the nearest thing to a home she has ever found. But then she hears about the cave and nothing will do but she must go in search of it. And once she has proved her bravery and become a Servant of the Horse, and joined Rab and Malcolm and Tommy in their underground search for the Tower Passages, her life takes on a whole new meaning. Pit ponies and trapped miners and a river blackened by coal dust – Sandy’s adventures at Braeside have only just begun. Servant of the Horse is the first book in the ‘Braeside’ series. It’s a real place – a historic village in the centre of Scotland - though Braeside is not its real name. Nell Coleman now lives in Canada, but is delighted to be going back there – if only in her memories – as she continues the series with ‘The Secret People’, coming soon to both CreateSpace and Amazon Kindle. See you in Braeside?

When Fiona Frazer was quite young she could fly. At first she thought it was wonderful and took to the air whenever she could, but somehow, as the years went by, she began to fly less and less. She always knew she could if she wanted to, but gradually she lost the desire to actually do it. By the time she had been at school a few years it seems more natural to walk or run. What she never loses is the sense of being special. As if she is a part of something else. What this ‘something else’ is she doesn’t rightly know. It’s just a feeling that there’s more around than she can see or touch. It comes mostly when she is outside in the gardens and disappears completely whenever there is anyone about. Like the cousins. Tom and Andy laugh at everything Fiona loves about the rambling old Mill House. They sneer at the huge, fancy rooms that are too dilapidated to use. They despise the deserted family rooms and the un-used servant’s quarters and the dusty attics and the dark and dank basement. They’re even rude about her peace-loving father and her bossy mother! ‘But of course you’re only a girl’ is their favourite remark! Fiona hates them! But they’re older, and bigger, and very difficult to impress … Until she boasts about the flying. And when Fiona wakes up after ‘the accident’, she finds that her whole world has changed. At first, she believes that even the start of WWII is her fault. And she hates the Polish Officers who have taken over her house - and having to go to the Braeside school and mix with the local children … But then she makes a friend! Gala is a tinker and recognized Fiona as someone else who ‘doesn’t belong’. It’s not an easy friendship, but, with Billy, it is a powerful one! Together they find the Secret People – and the gates of Cauldhame – and the Three Bright Walkers … And best of all, Fiona finds out that that being ‘different’ doesn’t mean that you are better or worse than other people and that if you hold to your dreams and believe in yourself, then you can find your own place in the scheme of things. And become a dancer. The Secret People is the second of the Braeside Book. Both about girls who don’t quite ‘fit in’. Sandy, in Servant of the Horse, because she’s a London girl evacuated to Scotland at the start of WWII. In The Secret People, Fiona, because she's the Mill Owner's Daughter ...