A few years ago I had started to write the first chapters of a novel when a sudden twist of fate stopped me dead in my tracks.
We happened upon Place, a considerable house situated across the creek from St. Mawes in Cornwall, while exploring the Roseland Peninsula. Place was built in Tudor times and remained a monastery until King Henry VIII changed the national religion to the Church of England.
The day we came upon the grey and yellow stone manor house we saw a notice at the gates: Open to the Public. We drove our car along a short carriageway with lawn to our right, behind which the water of the inlet glinted in the morning sun. In the charming dining room we enjoyed a light mid-day meal. Afterwards coffee was served in the conservatory and the hostess, whom we later understood to be the owner, came over to invite us to see the church adjoining the house. She showed us the way through the huge, high-ceilinged kitchen to a private entrance at the top of some steep stone steps. In the church were tombs and effigies and every one was in the name of Spry. Our name! Until that moment we had no idea about Place being connected with the same surname as ours. Also, the hospitable lady had not asked us our name. But that was only the first coincidence.
Since I am a writer, (albeit an unpublished one), the idea of a story was born and my research took me back to 1711 when George Spry brought his bride Mary from Helston to Place. They had two sons, Arthur and Richard and three daughters, Lucy and Mary and Charity. Later I was able to acquire, via the Internet, some letters written in the early 1800s by Admiral Thomas Spry of Place. The story line began to form in my mind:
Set the novel in the 1820s and wind it around the Spry Coat of Arms:-
Crest: A dove standing on a knotted serpent.
Motto: Soyez Sage et Semple - be wise as a serpent and harmless as a dove.

A child (the dove) is born to the Sprys, but horror of horrors has a facial disfigurement (the knotted serpent). I try to picture a marred face and how such an affliction may inhibit a girl. As she grows older, I imagine she would suffer self-consciousness and I wonder exactly how that would affect her life, especially in those days when the only future for a girl was to marry well. She would be bound to endure a life outside the normal sphere of girls of her own age; dancing and flirting with young men and dressing in the latest fashion. Does she become a recluse? Or does she manage to rise above her misfortune and shape a life for herself and even manage to marry?
I cast about for an antagonist and a character arrives on the scene. He is a dominant man and my heroine is rather frightened of him at first. He teases her but treats her as if she were not disabled by her appearance, making her come out of her shell and enjoy life.
I was finding it fun to write the story, even though I had picked a real family to write about. All my characters were fictitious so I felt no constraint, nothing could hold me back. I was wrong! Several chapters into my novel, I discovered that one of my favourite authors, Winston Graham (of Poldark fame) had very recently published a new novel. I read it and couldn`t put it down, as they say. What was it about? Well, the title was The Ugly Sister and the setting Place House in Cornwall in the early part of the nineteenth century. Emma Spry has a birthmark on the side of her face! Had I achieved a telepathic experience?
Of course Mr. Graham, a much-published author had written the story superbly. My efforts were watery in comparison and I faced up to the fact that I must abandon writing that particular story. At the time I was engaged in a writers` fiction course using my, as yet unfinished, novel as my course work and I told my tutor about the fluke. She exclaimed, `are you psychic?` She advised me to start all over again but of course I must miss several assignments that were already used up by my aborted story. It doubled my work but these daunting circumstances did not stop me; in fact they increased my capacity to continue, even with setbacks.

I wrote to Winston Graham via his publishers to tell him of the complete chance that I had picked on the same theme as his "Ugly Sister", which I could not have plagiarised because I began to write before his novel was published. I received a very nice reply, typed on an old fashioned typewriter, agreeing with me that it was a remarkable coincidence I should have picked on a disfigured girl for my heroine but wishing me luck in my writing.

Winston Graham wrote his "Memoirs of a Private Man" which was published just before he died in July 2003. "The Ugly Sister" first published by Macmillan in 1998 is mentioned only by title. He dedicated this novel to Ann Hoffman who worked for him for more than thirty-five years as his researcher and typist. In the beginning he writes that the novel is based on houses that still exist and is concerned with one family, the Sprys. I quote his words: "I am extremely grateful to Nat and Valentia Spry-Grant-Dalton, of Place House for helping me…"

I understand that Place House is no longer open to the public.