After thirty years of writing books, John Payne is wondering if this might be his last. Born locally, John attended the City of Bath Boys School Beechen Cliff before a travelling life took him to Scotland, Spain and London, with university degrees from Manchester, Glasgow and King’s College London.

In 1998, he returned west and has lived ever since in Frome. A West Country Homecoming is a fun book about returning to your roots, with some serious bits as well. Memoir, social history, family history. But all held together by the local - Frome, Bath, Chewton Mendip; Holt, Draycot Cerne and Yatesbury in Wiltshire. There are chapters on place, education, religion, health, water, politics - something for everyone, really.

How many books? Well, John only lays claim to nine, or maybe ten. But this doesn’t include contributions to anthologies, co-authored books and a stream of what he calls ‘Community Writing’. This includes his work as Editor of the highly praised Working Memories book and website in Frome.

A central character is Charles Payne, a farm labourer from Chewton Mendip. He went to Bath to make his fortune, but ended up dying in the Bath Workhouse. He and his wife, Ann, are buried in unmarked graves at the Workhouse Burial Ground at Odd Down. Other Paynes stayed and prospered in Chewton. Seward Payne lived his whole life in the village at Vine Cottage, in the hamlet of Ford. He worked for the Mendip Motor Company and died in 1993 at the age of 93.

Maurice Payne built up the famous Chewton Mendip garage opposite the Waldegrave Arms on the main road.

It’s a beautifully illustrated book with over 100 pictures in colour (the recent ones) and black-and-white (the old ones). Many are from the photo albums of John and his family.

The book is on sale at Hunting Raven bookshop in Frome and the Oldfield Park Bookshop in Bath, or can be ordered from any bookshop (when they reopen).