I Hold Captive the Moon

I Hold Captive The Moon
© Valerie Gould, 2025. All rights reserved.
Published by AbgrundBooks, Sandwich, Kent, UK (kaiandmikspics@mailfence.com)
Layout and design by michael pennamacoor of Abgrundrisse
(kaiandmikspics@mailfence.com)
Cover photograph by Valerie Gould
Printed by Lulu (www.lulu.com)
ISBN: 978-1-7395956-5-4

I dreamt a nightmare.
I woke a dream.
I dreamt I woke and
Found my dream.
I will not let the fears
Invade the peace I feel
as I lie here in my dream.
Not the dream of stress
Not the one of loss,
But the one I wrote,
The one I need,
The one where you are whole indeed.
I wake before the sun and lie here in a dream.
Not the one of stress,
Not the one of loss,
But the one I wrote…
I repeat this in my head
Whilst reaching out to hold
The feathered tails of birds in flight
I will coax them back before the night.

A further insight into Valerie Gould’s magical use of words.
I think you will find it intriguing, poetic, sensitive, humorous, artistic and
deeply moving. She has an ability to compose a story which is both totally
plausible and fantastic.
Her characters’ feelings so accurately expressed that one empathises. She
takes you on a metaphorical flight and you do not want to get off. Her descriptive passages are paintings with words – just that little bit different.
I sat on the shore and let the thoughts come, they floated through my mind
like tiny birds, each leaving a seed in the nest of my brain, ready to germinate…
Ribbons of our beautiful dreams,
Float in warm seas of love’s ocean,
Embroidered with hearts of emotion…
I suddenly felt incredibly small, like a tiny seashell on the beach rolled and
tumbled, crashed, and crushed, daily, nightly, eternally until I finally ended
up as dust. My still small voice of calm – unheard…
Be it these passages where you walk with her, experience her mischievous
tease or a love of such depth you can feel the warmth of skin on skin, Valerie
captures the essence of them all.
Ironing out the wrinkles of a crumpled affection.
Her writing reaches new heights and explores deeper depths with each publication. She manages to take us with her, physically, emotionally, spiritually,
in such a way as to make us feel we are her sole companion, her chosen one.
Her humour can be subtle or blatantly silly. One, you cannot miss and the
other may slip by until you think about it later. Enjoy. I know I did.
Cheryl Culver PPPS RBA

Another compelling novel from Sandwich author, Valerie Gould. But this is
not ‘just another story’. Here she has taken a leap into another league. The
story’
story’. Here she has taken a leap into another league. The
narrative keeps the pages turning while the reader must pause frequently to
absorb the depth of her colourful, refl ective prose. Oh, and you will have to
wait excitedly for the brilliant conclusion.
Michael Turnbull

This novel, Valerie Gould’s ninth, is set around 1968, at the height of flower
power and an embryonic reconnection to the beauty of the natural world. Her
story builds on this return to nature, specifi cally in the form of a developing
relationship between the main character, Kate, and an ancient and beautiful
tree growing in the woods close to her parents’ home in Wales, where she
spent her formative years.
Kate is an imaginative, talented, and creative individual, prone to visions,
and a writer of lyrical poetry which she weaves throughout her narrative,
along with her knowledge of English Literature. The narrative is written
from her perspective, enabling us to see the world as she sees it, share her
concerns, anxieties, and revelations.
When the novel opens, we find her living in a small Kent coastal town (the
thinly-veiled Cinque Port of Sandwich, where the author currently lives). She
is completing the final year of her undergraduate degree in Literature at Kent
University before returning, after graduation, to her beloved Wales. Here,
she feels directionless and misses the strong bond she had forged with her
student flatmate, Sophie. The shifting nature of their friendship permeates
the novel. Similarly, Kate’s relationship with the singular, ancient forest tree
(whom she names Prince) is pivotal as he becomes a major character in the
novel’s literal and metaphorical landscape. Kate tells the reader:
“There is something about these trees which drew me to them, a feeling of
safety? Possibly. But it was more like reverence, what they could tell us if we
should deign to listen. I often paused in my walks and waited to hear their
wisdom. There was one in particular which stood alone and to which I leaned,
and from which I learned…” (p 28).
The novel’s plot centres around Kate’s relationship with a man who comes
into her life as unexpectedly and as mysteriously as this enigmatic tree. Like
Prince, this man enters Kate’s life unbidden (or is he?) and draws her to him
with the same primal power as the tree. But can she trust him as she does her
wise and resilient tree? Kate’s relationship with both takes her on a journey
of personal growth in which her strength and perseverance are tested to the
limit until the story arrives at an ultimate revelation which amazes the reader
as much as it does the protagonists.
The novel delivers a gripping plot, a tantalising main character, and a feisty,
poetic heroine. At a time when we are increasingly recognising that the
sovereignty of the natural world is equal, if not superior to, our own human one,
this story speaks of how everything is in relationship. By the end, we realise
that our hold on those we love can at times be as elusive yet as beautiful as
a tree capturing the moon in its branches.
Anni Harrison Brooks (2026)