Nicola Pryce
Nicola Pryce was born in Denver, Colorado, and spent most of her childhood in Baghdad and Rome. A strict boarding school and no television saw her reading almost everything she could lay her hands on – usually with a torch under the bedclothes. She left school to train as a nurse in St Bartholomew’s Hospital London, telling everyone she would, one day, write a novel.
She is a trained Literacy Support Volunteer and lives in the Blackdown Hills in Somerset with her husband. Together they sail the south coast of Cornwall which is where she sets her books.
For more information, please visit www.nicolapryce.co.uk.
THE CORNISH REBEL, Atlantic Books (August 2023)
Cornwall, 1801.
In the wake of her mother's death, Pandora Woodville is desperate to escape her domineering father and finally return to Cornwall. Posing as a widow, she safely makes it across the Atlantic, bright with the dream of working at her Aunt Harriet's school for young women. But as Pandora is soon to learn, the school is facing imminent closure after a series of sinister events threatened its reputation.
Acclaimed chemist Benedict Aubyn has also recently returned to Cornwall, to take up a new role as Turnpike Trust Surveyor. Pandora's arrival has been a difficult one, so she is grateful when he shows her kindness. As news of the school's ruin spreads around town, everyone seems to be after her aunt's estate. Now, Pandora and Aunt Harriet must do everything in their power to save the school, or risk losing everything.
However, Pandora has another problem. She's falling for Benedict. But can she trust him, or is he simply looking after his own interests?
The Cornish Rebel is the seventh novel in her Cornish Saga.
THE CORNISH CAPTIVE, Atlantic Books (January 2022)
Cornwall, 1800.
Imprisoned on false pretences, Madeleine Pelligrew, former mistress of Pendenning Hall, has spent the last 14 years shuttled between increasingly destitute and decrepit mad houses. When a strange man appears out of the blue to release her, she can’t quite believe that her freedom comes without a price. Hiding her identity, Madeleine determines to discover the truth about what happened all those years ago.
Unsure who to trust and alone in the world, Madeleine strikes a tentative friendship with a French prisoner on parole, Captain Pierre de la Croix. But as she learns more about the reasons behind her imprisonment, and about those who schemed to hide her away for so long, she starts to wonder if Pierre is in fact the man he says he is. As Madeleine’s past collides with her present, can she find the strength to follow her heart, no matter the personal cost.
A CORNISH BETROTHAL, Atlantic Books (November 2020)
Cornwall, 1798. Eighteen months have passed since Midshipman Edmund Melville was declared missing, presumed dead, and Amelia Carew has mended her heart and fallen in love with a young physician, Luke Bohenna. But, on her twenty-fifth birthday, Amelia suddenly receives a letterfrom Edmund announcing his imminent return. In a state of shock, devastated that she now loves Luke so passionately, she is torn between the two.
When Edmund returns, it is clear that his time away has changed him - he wears scars both mental and physical. Amelia, however, is determined to nurse him back to health and honour his heroic actions in the Navy by renouncing Luke.
But soon, Amelia begins to question what really happened to Edmund while he was missing. As the threads of truth slip through her fingers, she doesn't know who to turn to: Edmund, or Luke?
THE CORNISH LADY, Atlantic Books ( March 2019)
Cornwall 1796:Educated, beautiful and the daughter of a prosperous merchant, Angelica Lilly has been invited to spend the summer in high society. Her father's wealth is opening doors, and attracting marriage proposals, but Angelica still feels like an imposter among the aristocrats of Cornwall.
When her brother returns home, ill and under the influence of a dangerous man, Angelica's loyalties are tested to the limit. Her one hope lies with coachman Henry Trevelyan, a softly spoken, educated man with kind eyes. But when Henry seemingly betrays Angelica, she has no one to turn to. Who is Henry, and what does he want? And can Angelica save her brother from a terrible plot that threatens to ruin her entire family?
THE CORNISH DRESSMAKER, Atlantic Books (May 2018)
Cornwall: 1796.
Seamstress Elowyn Liddicot's family believe they've secured the perfect future for her, in the arms of Nathan Cardew. But one evening, Elowyn helps to rescue a dying man from the sea, and everything changes. William Cotterell, wild and self-assured, refuses to leave her thoughts or her side - but surely she cannot love someone so unlike herself?
With Elowyn's dressmaking business suddenly under threat, her family's pressure to marry Nathan increasing, and her heart decidedly at odds with her head, Elowyn doesn't know who to trust any more. And when William uncovers a sinister conspiracy that affects her whole world, Elowyn must find the courage to support the people she loves in the face of all opposition.
THE CAPTAIN’S GIRL, Atlantic Books (July 2017)
Cornwall: 1793. As the French Revolution threatens the stability of England, so too is discontent brewing in the heart of Celia Cavendish. Promised to the brutal Viscount Vallenforth to fulfil her father's ends, she must find a way to break free from a life stifled by convention and cruelty. Inspired by her cousin Arbella, who just a few months earlier followed her heart and eloped with the man she loved, she vows to escape her impending marriage and take her destiny back into her own hands. She enlists her neighbours, Sir James and Lady Polcarrow, who have themselves made a dangerous enemy of Celia's father, in the hope of making a new life for herself. But can the Polcarrows' mysterious friend Arnaud, captain of their cutter L'Aigrette, protect Celia from a man who will let nothing stand in the way of his greed. And will Arnaud himself prove to be friend...or foe?
Debut Novel: PENGELLY’S DAUGHTER, Atlantic Books (2016)
Cornwall: 1793. England is at war with France. Mr Pitt’s government is frightened that radicals will join forces with the Jacobins to encourage riot. Rosehannon Pengelly knows to curb her tongue, but doing nothing is not an option.
Believing Mr Tregellas is responsible for the theft of her father’s cutter, she is determined to find proof to implicate him. Dressed in men’s clothes, she leaves the house at midnight. On the cliff top, she stumbles across a sailor, fleeing from an angry mob. Her decision to help him seals her fate, throwing her together with a man she knows to be untrustworthy. Even as she falls in love with him, she questions who he really is.
This is the first novel in her new Cornish Saga.
