Cromer inspired Norwich author Samantha Bentley's first book

Samantha Bentley chose the coastal town due to happy memories of childhood holidays, with one of the characters inspired by her late mother.

The artist was in the process of separating from her husband as the pandemic arrived in early 2020, with her house due to be valued to go on sale.

However, the first lockdown arrived and it was a further eight months until the valuation could be completed.

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The stressful situation prompted Samanta to seek solace in writing her book, which tells the story of a woman who decides to end her marriage, leave her job and move to a small beach house.

Norwich author Samantha Bentley with her novel The Beach Cafe (Image: Samantha Bentley)

It is there that the lead character, Anna, meets Maggie who becomes her support and helps to find new opportunities, including managing a beach cafe.

"The book is very loosely based on my situation at the time and seemed to write itself," Samantha explains. 

"The character Maggie is based on my late mother, who was a very flamboyant character, Molly is based on my two youngest children and Em on my eldest.

"The setting, Cromer, is where I holidayed as a child and holds many fond memories for me."

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It took Samanta two years to write the book, followed by another 18 months to publish it.

Cromer provided some of the inspiration for Samantha Bentley's first novel (Image: Denise Bradley/Newsquest)

She added: "There were days I stayed in a hotel on Cromer beach overlooking the sea, where I was embraced by warm childhood memories and was inspired to write this book with an incredible view."

The Beach Cafe was released in December by Austin Macauley Publishers and can be purchased online from Amazon.