A NEW novel has as its backdrop the English Civil War in Dorset, from Poole to a besieged Lyme Regis.

Steve Cox has spent more than two decades researching and writing As The Sparks Fly Upwards, which tells the story of ordinary people caught up in tumultuous events.

A key part of the book focuses on the siege of Lyme Regis in 1644, when supporters of Oliver Cromwell’s Parliamentarians repelled an attack from Royalist forces loyal to Charles I.

“Learning about the siege was one of the trigger points for writing the novel,” said Mr Cox.

“I was amazed that a small fishing town at the bottom of a valley, with no significant defences, could withstand an army for six weeks and be victorious.”

His story starts in Poole and moves to Wareham, Wimborne, Bridport, Dorchester, Charmouth and Lyme Regis, before returning to Dorchester and Poole.

He said: “As the Sparks Fly Upwards is the start of a series of books following the life of my hero Tom Tyler. The story starts with Tom losing everything. He loses his family, job, and home, and is cast out into the middle of the English Civil War, in the middle of winter.

“He ends up on a journey to try to rebuild his life, but first he must learn to stay alive, and he can’t do that alone.”

Mr Cox has lived in Poole for more than 25 years and is managing director of an arboricultural business, Treecall Consulting Ltd. His only previous book is on that subject, Urban Trees: A Practical Management Guide.

The author said he spent many hours at Dorset History Centre to “try and get those details not absolutely, 100 per cent right but authentic enough to make it feel like a story set in that time”.

He added: “You can disappear down a research rabbit hole for months, especially trying to figure out ‘How did they do that and why?’ and then something else.”

The author, 63, launched a new business, Frith Publishing, to get the book out and into shops. He is already writing the second novel in the series.

The book is on sale at Gullivers, Wimborne; DJ Brooking, Parkstone; Lyme Regis Bookshop; Little Toller Books, Beaminster; and the Dorset Bookshop, Blandford, as well as online. Details are at stevecox.co.uk