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Holloway

A Novel by

E. M. Holloway

The Wandering Cartographer

A story drawn from the roads less travelled — Norfolk to Oxford, Cardiff to a village called Beguildy.

Begin the Journey

Chapter I

The Woman Behind the Map

E. M. Holloway, author

I was born in Norfolk. My father was in the RAF, so our family moved regularly (about every 3-4 years). We did not have a TV, so I spent hours reading a wide range of novels from fantasy fiction to murder mysteries.

I met my husband in Oxford where I was working as a clerk/typist. Soon after marrying we moved to Wales, where we initially lived in Cardiff, then moved to Mid Wales to a tiny village called Beguildy. It was there that I started to write this book.

We moved again to Swansea, and then to London. My passion for writing was paused due to having my children and then training to become a teacher. During my final years of teaching I returned to this book, redrafted it and decided to retry publishing it.

Chapter II

The Wandering Cartographer

Some stories are mapped long before they are written. This is one of them.

Drawn from a life spent in motion — from Norfolk airfields to Oxford libraries, from Cardiff streets to the quiet Welsh hills around Beguildy — The Wandering Cartographer follows a woman whose pen has always known the way home, even when her feet did not.

It is a novel about the rooms we leave behind, the books that raise us, and the long, patient years between a first draft and a second chance. A book for anyone who has ever set a manuscript aside — and wondered whether to pick it up again.

MemoryWalesMotherhoodMapsSecond Chances
✦ ✦ ✦

A Novel

The
Wandering
Cartographer

E. M. HOLLOWAY

— est. Norfolk, written in Beguildy —

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A Preview

The Book Trailer

Watch the trailer · 1:42

A cinematic glimpse into the landscapes, libraries and quiet Welsh hills that shaped the novel.

Chapter III

Whispers from Readers

A book that feels like opening a long-lost journal by candlelight — gentle, knowing, and quietly impossible to put down.

Margaret Ellis

The Welsh Review

Holloway writes the way cartographers used to draw coastlines: with care, with wonder, and with the patience of someone who has actually been there.

Dr. Patrick Llewellyn

Author & Critic

There is a tender, second-chance quality to this novel that will stay with anyone who ever set a dream aside to look after the people they love.

From the Journal

Notes Between the Lines

Essays · 6 min read

How a Village Called Beguildy Became the First Page

On the strange alchemy of place, silence, and finally sitting down to write the book that had been waiting for thirty years.

Read essay

Craft · 4 min read

Why I Never Owned a Television (And What I Read Instead)

A childhood spent between RAF bases, raised on Tolkien, Christie, and the quiet conviction that stories could take you anywhere.

Read essay

Personal · 5 min read

Returning to the Manuscript After the Children Have Grown

On the particular courage of reopening a draft you abandoned a lifetime ago — and finding, between the lines, a younger you still waiting.

Read essay