Maddy Richards, a young widow, has turned her small farm into livery stables in order to cope with her bereavement. Whilst losing herself through hard and absorbing work with horses she comes to terms with her grief. However, her life is thrown into chaos when her friend Tamsin is killed in a freak riding accident. Maddy, without thinking of the danger, vows to get to the bottom of her friend’s death. In spite of the subsequent turmoil and threats to her own life, she unexpectedly falls in love. The reader is led through the many twists and turns until the cuprit is eventually caught.

The author Bridget Beresford had an idyllic childhood growing up in her grandfather’s home, Michelham Priory, Upper Dicker, East Sussex. However as she grew up life wasn’t always a piece of cake. She spent several years married to a Frenchman where she exercised and schooled horses in the great forests of Northern France. On returning to England, Bridget earned her living breaking-in horses, eventing and riding and training point-to pointers. When diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis she eventually had to give up riding. She says, “I couldn’t afford to fall off, it caused too many problems”. She is now a dressage judge, a successful psychometrist for humans and equines, and an Equine Iridologist. Bridget Beresford has also written KNIGHTS WITHOUT ARMOUR, the re-titled edition of Home By Christmas. This compelling adventure story, set in World War I, takes the reader through the traumas and adventures of Andrew Harrington-West, a Captain in the King’s Own Cavalry. For this book Bridget joined forces with Major Richard Waygood MBE. He enlisted in the Household Cavalry as a Trooper when he was 16 and left as a Major 30 years later. His wealth of cavalry knowledge and passion for the cavalry throughout the ages adds colour and authenticity to this deep and enthralling novel.