AN  investigative journalist has written a Cold War thriller partly set in West Cork. Ballydehob is a key location in Geoffrey Seed’s fifth novel Where The Past Lies, just published.

The Sussex-based writer worked for British media for decades, including as a producer for BBC Panorama and World in Action.

For his latest book, the author chose Ballydehob as the hometown of one of its main characters, a pregnant young woman who travels to England after nuns force her to give up her baby.

Geoffrey, who published his first novel 12 years ago and writes with a fountain pen, said: ‘I loved being a reporter and finding out things that people don’t want you to know about. Ballydehob was a good a place as any to set part of the book. I have a friend who lives locally who was an enormous help.’

The author said inspiration to include West Cork came from his former colleague at Granada TV, make-up artist and Ballydehob-based artist Patricia Coogan O’Dell.

Patricia gave him useful background information about the area. The novel’s plot is linked to historical events, such as the era of Mother and Baby homes in Ireland.  

‘A lot of young women were forced to give up their babies,’ Geoffrey said.

‘The character in the book carries the burden of that loss throughout her life. I had access to private documents of two women and their families who this happened to, and was able to use those documents as source material for the novel.’ 

The book begins with the suspicious death of a former spy.

The story then takes readers on a journey through history that revisits the 1968 Hungarian uprising and the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the late 1970s and 1980s, eventually leading to confrontation in Florida. 

Former journalist Geoffrey, now in his 70s, reported from Ireland and Northern Ireland during the Troubles, covering political events such as the H-Block hunger strikes.

His work was subject to two investigations under the UK’s Official Secrets Act and detention under the Prevention of Terrorism Act.

He said: ‘The only time I visited West Cork was when a suspected shipment of IRA weapons was supposed to come in. We flew to the Southwest and hung around for two or three days. Nothing came of it. It was a story that never happened.’

After his time reporting from Northern Ireland in the 1970s, Geoffrey contributed to BBC Panorama and World in Action, producing documentaries on corruption and conflict in Africa and Latin America.

Actor Patrick Malahide encouraged him to adapt his reporter’s notebooks into fiction, shaping his blend of thriller plots and literary style.

And the Manchester City fan, who was born and raised in Manchester, said his dysfunctional childhood after World War 2 was the basis of one of his earlier books, The Boy From Zion Street.
His latest novel has received praise from Alan Partridge creator Steve Coogan for its ‘elegant storytelling’, and from spy novel author Edward Wilson as ‘a rare combination of thriller and
literary novel.’

Where The Past Lies is available as an e-book and can also be ordered in local bookshops.