Horsham return for author Ian Moore

Ian, who also lived in Crawley, said: “I have lots of local stories to tell obviously and am really looking forward to coming home especially, as a writer, to the place where I studied English at Forest Boys and Collyers.”

The new book is Death at the Chateau (Farrago Books, March 14, £8.99) and “available at all good bookshops, but it’s included with the ticket at the event at Horsham Waterstones on March 19,”

In the book, Richard Ainsworth's French B&B has been taken over by a production company shooting a historical film at the Château de Valençay. But everything grinds to a halt with the sudden passing of an actor under suspicious circumstances. To get to the bottom of things, Valérie Dorçay and Richard offer catering services to the hastily resumed production. There they discover that the vanity, duplicity and murder of an 18th-century French court is nothing compared to that of a 21st-century film set, with more heads yet to roll.

Ian, aged 53, now lives in France. “But I grew up in Horsham, went to Forest Boys and Collyers. I worked at The Forrester’s Arms, Tesco and Millets and played football and cricket for Roffey – and still go back to visit friends often. I met my half-French wife at Collyer’s Sixth Form in Horsham when we did our A-levels there.

As for the writing: “My first book in this series, Death and Croissants, is an international bestseller. Death at the Chateau is the third in the series and the paperback comes out on March 14. This is a series of cosy crime mysteries which pits a very English stereotype against a very French stereotype but who also try to solve a series of murders… Death at the Chateau is the third in the series after Death and Croissants and Death and Fromage. Death in Le Jardin will be published in hardback in June.

“I wrote a couple of memoirs ten years ago about my life. I spent half the time in rural France and half the time on the world comedy circuit. The Man Who Didn’t Burn, a Judge Lombard thriller, was published in October 2023 by Duckworth.”