A COUNTY author is holding a book launch for her debut novel at Cockenzie and Port Seton Bowling Club on Sunday.

Faye Stevenson, from Wallyford, is inviting the public to get copies of her book, Take Me Instead, which is set in East Lothian and Portobello, and is about a mother and daughter who are knocked down at a busy Edinburgh junction.

Faye, 65, said: “The mother sees her daughter lying lifeless on the road and pleads with God to ‘take me instead’.

“The mother awakens in hospital nine months after the accident and has no recollection of what she has been up to during the past nine months. She finds out that her daughter Ruby ‘died’ at the scene.

“All is revealed when her daughter’s best friend arrives with a detailed journal Ruby has somehow written for her mother. It tells her everything she had been up to for nine months.”

Faye, who lived on Wemyss Gardens, Wallyford, until she was 22, attended Wallyford Primary and Musselburgh Grammar Schools but now lives in Fife.

She said that, following the publication of an article about her and her writing in last week’s Musselburgh Courier, she had been contacted by people all over the world.

Faye said: “Someone from Canada who used to be in my primary class at Wallyford, a lovely lady from Australia who used to live in Prestonpans, and someone from the US whose mum was from Musselburgh have been in touch.

“The lady from Prestonpans loved the book and reading about familiar places in Edinburgh and East Lothian. I have received very heartwarming comments.”

The book launch starts at 2pm.