Paul J. Scribbans — Author

About the Author

I’m Paul J. Scribbans, a UK author writing dark psychological fiction shaped by the mystery and landscapes of the English Lake District.

About the Book

The Mereland Chronicles: The Crier is set in early sixteenth-century Cumbria. When a young woman is found close to death on the cold sands of Morecambe Bay, Henry helps her is a matter of obligation and duty. She remembers nothing — not her name, not her past — and her survival depends entirely on his expertise.

What begins as duty grows more complex. As their lives intertwine, Henry’s integrity binds him to choices he cannot undo, and the cost of doing what feels right begins to surface in ways beyond his control.

A prequel to the legend of the Claife Crier, the novel imagines how stories are born not from myth, but from human action — taken quietly, with conviction, and followed by lasting consequence.

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The Abbey Mill Café

At the southern end of Furness Abbey in Barrow-in-Furness, tucked into the Beckansgill Valley (AKA Valley of Nightshade), stands the Abbey Mill Café , a welcoming place for coffee, snacks, and excellent cakes.

Abbey Mill Café building near Furness Abbey, a restored stone mill with blue-painted door and windows, set on grass with a paved path leading to the entrance.
Abbey Mill Café as it stands today beside Furness Abbey in Cumbria, Barrow-in-Furness.

Officially recorded as the Custodian’s Cottage, the building dates to the Victorian period and relates to the later management of the abbey ruins, not their medieval operation.

Yet its position beside Mill Beck, near what may once have been fishponds, has long prompted speculation. Changes in water flow, flooding, silt build-up, and railway construction reshaped this part of Cumbria over centuries. Earlier features may have been buried rather than removed.

There is no firm archaeological proof that this was once a medieval watermill.

What remains is possibility.

[Read the full article here]

The Fiction

The Mereland Chronicles: The Crier is a historical mystery set in the medieval Lake District. When a monk shelters a young woman found on the tidal sands of Morecambe Bay, a single act of compassion begins to unravel his ordered life.

Interested? See below for ways to order.

Front cover of The Mereland Chronicles: The Crier by Paul J. Scribbans, featuring a mysterious woman against a stormy blue Lake District landscape.
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Promotional image showing two The Mereland Chronicles: The Crier bookmarks alongside an illustrated fantasy-style map, with “COMING SOON” text across the centre.
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Fictional reimagining of the Abbey Mill with waterwheel and mill race in winter snow near Furness Abbey, Barrow-in-Furness, as depicted in The Mereland Chronicles.
A winter reimagining of the Abbey Mill beside Furness Abbey in Barrow-in-Furness, imagined as it appears in The Mereland Chronicles: The Crier, a fictional interpretation, not a historical reconstruction. (AI generated image)