IMAGINE being caught in Hurricane Catriona, in which 1,833 people died and $108bn worth of damage was caused.

Then imagine a storm much, much worse – and that is an experience Summertime, by Wiltshire-based author Vanessa Lafaye, will lead you through.

Set in the Florida Keys in 1935, American-born Lafaye has chosen a turbulent and much forgotten part of America’s history.

War veterans, let down by the government over the promise of a bonus and hit by the Depression, find themselves dispatched to Florida to work in construction as a way of giving them a living and getting them out of the way.

The townsfolk aren’t too keen on these incomers — and nobody is keen on the black ex-soldiers, fearful they have returned from their experiences in Europe with a taste of freedom and equality and dangerous new ideas.

On top of that maelstrom of interpersonal warfare, a storm like no other is brewing and will wreak devastation in the most unimaginable way.

Taking the form of a Q&A hosted by Louisa Davison, Lafaye held yesterday lunchtime’s lit fest audience rapt as she discussed her inspiration for the book, the meticulous research she undertook and the process of writing – and rewriting – itself.

From which bit of the book she wrote first to which bit was the biggest challenge to write to how she fits in any writing at all around family life and two jobs, it was a fascinating insight into the world of the writer.

As for The book itself, it has been chosen as one of Richard and Judy’s Summer Book Club reads this year and is already being translated into several languages around the world.

It simmers with the tension and stifling heat of that pivotal summer so long ago. And so many of the issues it tackles are still, horrifyingly perhaps, relevant today. Definitely one not to miss.