The Twenty-Five Deeds of Hanson Drake, written by Dorset author Briar Kit Esme, is a modern festive classic that is tipped to top best seller lists this year.
Dorchester, Dorset – 26 July 2013 – Briar Kit Esme’s novel The Twenty-Five Deeds of Hanson Drake is set to take its place alongside A Christmas Carol and It’s A Wonderful Life in the canon of Christmas favourites. The novel tells the story of how one man, the central character of Hanson Drake, changes the lives of the people he meets through his determination to do at least one good deed every day in the twenty-four days leading up to Christmas.
“A Christmas Carol and It’s A Wonderful Life are set during Christmas but aren’t about Christmas itself,” says Briar Kit. “Ebenezer Scrooge and George Bailey both have to face up to the reality of their lives: Scrooge’s meanness and George’s anxieties. They are personal tales that use the spirit of the season to connect with the audience. Hanson Drake’s story fits alongside those two tales. Hanson is a man who sets out to help others because he has the time, money and inclination to do so. In serving others, Hanson learns to see the beauty that all life has to offer. The story is set during Advent, but it could really be set at any time during the year. People always want to do the right thing in their own lives, and it is characters such as Scrooge, George and Hanson who reassure them that they can.”
Although it is not mentioned by name, the novel is set in the county of Dorset, right in the heart of Thomas Hardy’s Wessex.
“All of the places are fictional,” says Briar Kit, “but elements of real places certainly helped to sculpt the novel’s landscape. The road that Hanson rides along in the prologue was inspired by the undulating avenue of trees that leads up to the National Trust property of Kingston Lacy near Blandford Forum, and the beach that Hanson runs along each morning is based on Studland Beach near Sandbanks, complete with its chain ferry across the mouth of the harbour. Hanson volunteers at a country house owned by a fictitious organisation called Public Treasures and the novel is, in part, a love letter to the country houses of the UK and to the people and organisations that look after them—whether they are in private or public hands. I am sure that Hanson’s foreshortened and occasionally comic escapades are far removed from the professional work of real life.”
The Twenty-Five Deeds of Hanson Drake brings together an eclectic host of characters and offers scenes that are both comic and moving.
“Whether you’re nine or ninety-nine,’ says Briar Kit, “you’ll find something in HANSON DRAKE that will strike a chord. It’s an equivocal story by design. Readers can—and do—interpret Hanson’s tale in their own ways.”
The Twenty-Five Deeds of Hanson Drake is currently available worldwide and can be purchased from Amazon in the UK, the USA, Canada, Brazil, Japan, India, Italy, Spain, France and Germany. UK RRP £4 plus tax.
About Briar Kit Esme
Briar Kit Esme grew up on the banks of the River Thames in Hammersmith, England and was educated in London and Cambridge. Briar Kit has worked as an English lecturer at universities in Australia and England, and as a writer and editor for companies, universities, media agencies and publishers from the Orient to the Occident…and pretty much everywhere else in-between. Briar Kit’s first three novels are The Twenty-Five Deeds of Hanson Drake, Arcadia Abandoned, and Crossing Hurdle Bridge. You can find more information at BriarKitEsme.com
Competition:
The author and Dorset Eye are giving a free ePub or Kindle format copy to the winner of the following competition question:
The beach that Hanson runs along each morning is based on which Dorset beach?
Please send all entry answers to [email protected]. The competition closes at midnight on Wednesday 31st July 2013
The winner will be chosen randomly from all winning answers.
The Editors
