A change of direction
The late 2000’s saw a new direction in Evelyn’s writing, as she moved away from the historical novels which had been the main output of her writing for over twenty years. Instead, she embarked on the successful Prior’s Ford series, which had seven titles in all.
‘Prior’s Ford’ came about as a result of a change of contract, along with a requirement from the publishers to write a modern-day book, set in a small English town. At the time, this type of book had not been Evelyn’s intention and she had to wrestle with the idea for a while, negotiating ideas with the publishers at the same time.
In the end, she agreed to write the book, under the condition that it was to be set in a small fictional village set in the Scottish Borders region rather than a town in England. Thus, the village of Prior’s Ford appeared on Evelyn’s drawing board; it’s roads, church, village shop, and houses all took shape on her diagram while a cast of characters, birthdays, family stories all appeared on her computer for Evelyn to refer to and use through the seven-book series. This was her research; from her head each character took shape and found their way in the world.
The shift in genre warranted the use of an alternative name, as Evelyn Hood was synonymous with historical novels, not a modern-day rural village. And so ‘Secrets in Prior’s Ford’ was published in 2008 under the name of Eve Houston.
‘Eve’ is of course short for Evelyn, and ‘Houston’ was taken from a favourite village in Renfrewshire, Scotland, where Evelyn’s family had lived. Eve Houston went on to write another three Prior’s Ford books, during which time there were no further Evelyn Hood publications.
When it came to ‘Scandal In Prior’s Ford (Book Five), the publishers agreed with Evelyn that she should return to publishing under her own name, and so the remaining books in the series reverted to Evelyn Hood. The transition to modern-day village stories was complete.
Due to the nature of the books there was no requirement for extensive research as had been the case for the historical novels, and so Evelyn did not need to be doing extensive levels of research in the Paisley library that she had been used to for decades. She became attached to her Priors Ford characters and was surrounded by a literary family until the publication of the latest Prior’s Ford book in 2014.
The seven titles in the series are;
Secrets in Prior’s Ford
Drama Comes to Prior’s Ford
Trouble in Prior’s Ford
Scandal in Prior’s Ford
Mystery in Prior’s Ford
Return to Prior’s Ford
Festival in Prior’s Ford
Simon & Evelyn Hood