Stalling an Ambush and protecting more than the countryside

The Rutland Panther and the Blair government's abandoned plan to build an eco-town in the Harborough District both feature in a new novel, Stalling an Ambush. In a guest post, its author, Emma Lee, introduces the book.

My novel Stalling an Ambush is set in and around the village of Stoughton in Leicestershire, where, in 2009, an eco-town of at least 15,000 houses, called Pennbury, was proposed. 

Pennbury met with strong local opposition. It was on the wrong side of Leicester city for motorway access, would have put extra cars on already congested roads and wasn’t even on a bus route. Not only that, it was going to be built on farmland at a time of growing concerns about food security, and would have closed Leicester Aero Club as the site included the airport the club use. 

Perhaps then it seems a minor thing to also raise concerns about the so-called Rutland Panther, a large black cat whose territory stretches from the Harborough District in Leicestershire to Rutland. There’s no definitive evidence of the cat, but many sightings have been reported, including one from a surprised motorcyclist in Kings Norton, near Stoughton. Periodically, BBC Wildlife and Big Cat Conversations podcast report on sightings nationwide.

Generally, countryside residents tolerate these mythical cats. If they are real, they are unlikely to impinge on humans. The panther in Stalling an Ambush observes:

She knew two things about humans. They weren’t edible but they were dangerous.

So, in the novel, when radio programme researcher Frances Winter is despatched to interview a Stoughton resident about another sighting, she runs through the interview on autopilot. The interviewee doesn’t have any evidence. Frances drives out to the airfield to take a photo. The novel imagines Pennbury got the go ahead, but was stalled as the economy stalled in the Credit Crunch, and the aero club had abandoned their home. 

Frances discovers something that shouldn’t be there – observing waiting, adapting – and now has the unlooked for responsibility of deciding how much the world needs to know and what the cost of knowing can be. Stalling an Ambush is described as an uncomfortable, tense novel of observation, responsibility and the consequences of the wild not being in secluded places. Her manager observes,  "You know, when you get over the fact that these are serious killing machines, they’re actually quite attractive."

The novel is firmly rooted in the eastern Leicestershire countryside, drawing on both real and fictional locations. Previously I had a short story, Snowena, printed in an anthology, Gentle Footprints which included what turned out to be Richard Adams' last published short story. His story Leopard Aware was written from the viewpoint of a leopard. 

That prompted the idea of exploring some of the story of Stalling an Ambush from the panther’s viewpoint:

"There were old traces of fox, badger and pheasant. No recent scents. No other cats. No recent smell of human either. She slid into the undergrowth. This was her territory now.”

Stalling an Ambush is available from most online bookshops, including Bookshop.org.

Emma Lee was born in South Gloucestershire and now lives in Leicestershire. Her poems, short stories and articles have appeared in many anthologies and magazines in Britain and abroad.