Val Wineyard Publishing

Sarah Elizabeth Edwards - Latest news

We are so sorry to tell you that Sarah died in November 2018 after a long illness.  She had been on holiday to England, and suffered a heart attack on boarding the plane back to Turkey.  In hospital it was found she had suffered incredible brain damage.  They did all they could for her - her cousin kept in touch with me - and she seemed to be getting better.  But then there was another heart attack . . .

  Many of her friends wrote to me, as did readers of her book that she published with us.

  Rest in peace Sarah.

  Here's one of my favourite pictures of her;  taken when she came to see me in France in 2014.

September 2015 and Sarah's life has changed - she has "moved on" as they say.  Cockatoo has been sold and Sarah lives in the apartment at Oranjie that is her official residence in Turkey.  She is working on her second book, "Twenty Years in Turkey."  But she misses having a boat!

  Well, guess what, David Warr, Val Wineyard Publishing's UK distributor, has a boat to sell!  The two will be meeting in England this autumn and then sailing the boat, currently in Greece, over to Turkey in the spring.

   
Boat and reflection, boat and wife!

David has had his boat for four summers now, and has had many a good summer on holiday in Greece, but he is not the sort of man who does the same thing every year when the rest of the world waits to be explored!  Val has already written about David's adventures in France - click here - and one wonders what he will do next!

Sarah's Book

Sarah is the second author that we published (the first being Roibeard) and we sold out within the year. Sarah had an amazing story to tell with her book called "East, West, Med's Best."   It's a "cracking tale" about life, love and laughter sailing the Med in the pleasure-loving 1980s.  She wrote it in memory of her husband Roy, who died some five years ago.

    
Cockatoo, the writer and the skipper.

  Sarah and Roy sailed away on Cockatoo after a whirlwind romance through the rivers of France to the glorious Mediterranean.  It had been Roy's ambition for years to live his life sailing on a boat around the Med, while Sarah's childhood dream was to sail around the world.  Even as a small child "I knew it was my destiny to live on the water."

   Sarah and Roy when they set sail on Cockatoo

  "East West, Med's Best" is Sarah's first book.  She was so thrilled when it came out!

  
    She writes with great humour and a laid-back British style. 

  Published January 2014  Sold Out June 2015

 Val published this book because she and Sarah had been friends for many years.

 Front and back covers . . .   

  Sarah and her husband Roy both loved adventure, freedom and the seafaring life. In the mid 1980s, the "anything goes" period before the twentieth century ended, Sarah and Roy explored the ports and coasts of the mighty Mediterranean - Spain, France, Gibraltar, the Balearics, Sardinia.   "The Med is a village," Sarah told us.  "Everybody knows everybody, everywhere you go."  They became experts on naturist beaches.

On every page of the book was a new adventure and a new surprise.   It was all great fun.

 It was well received and much admired but we won't be re-printing because Sarah decided to have a go at "self-publishing."  You can still find "East West, Med's Best" on Amazon and Sarah copied our lay-out almost identically.  That's technically a breach of copyright but what the hell, a lawyer would cost more per hour that what I made on the book!