This is a fictitious story set against the factual events that took place during the summer of 1851, when Queen Victoria and Prince Albert stopped for eight minutes at Hitchin Railway Station, on their way to Balmoral.
 
It is a story of grief and the answers people can conceive unconsciously, when struggling with the devastating loss of someone they love. 
 
It is not just a book of darkness, for the world Sarah lives in is full of humour, friendship, historical curiosity, passion and romance. It is a fast moving, informative, vibrant story of coming to terms with death and facing reality. Something that will challenge all of us at some point in our lives. 
 
More details from the writer - K.R.S. Foster
 
This book is not unique, but it is unusual. Rather than a play written from a book, Smell of Lavender is the book behind the play. 
 
Kirk Foster is founder and Artistic Director of the Market Theatre, Hitchin and he has written over two hundred plays for this venue. The theatre has a strong and varied programme of plays produced for Hitchin audiences and the company tours nationally to over thirty theatres. The genres include scary, thrillers, whodunits, comedies, farces, musicals, children’s plays, pantos, adult pantos and historical plays, both national and local in subject matter.
 
July each year sees the vibrant Hitchin Festival take place and the Market Theatre produces a local historic story in conjunction. The play Smell of Lavender was performed in July 2017 and featured Claire Bowman, Bethany Filler and Lizzie Buckingham.
 
It was because of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the uncertainties surrounding the re-opening of theatres around the country, that this book was written. (You don’t need a theatre to produce a book.) Only time will tell if this book is successful or not, but if it should be well received, there are another couple of hundred books that could follow this one!