The Lady in the Bay Window: Sheffield author’s haunting first novel raises £20k for charity who helped his mum

A book about paranormal happenings in a Sheffield home has raised £20,000 for Cavendish Cancer Care, who cared for first-time author William C Grave’s late mum.

They both agreed “every penny” of profit from The Lady in the Bay Window, which hit the milestone today (January 12), would go to the charity.

William*, aged 38, said: “I am so proud, and I know mum would be too. I wanted to get about £2,500 so to get to £20,000 - and be on Look North on Friday, and speaking to The Star - I am chuffed. 

“That’s the Sheffield way to say it. I'm chuffed with it.”

William’s mum was diagnosed with a rare form of breast cancer five years ago and passed away in May last year, aged 65, just three days after her grandson was born.

“My little boy was born three days later. So she did get to meet him,” he said.

“When she was diagnosed, I felt helpless. It was kind of hard to know how to support her, or know what I could do, so I decided to raise some money.”

William first raised £3,000 for Cancer Research through dog walking, but had to stop this after a knee operation three years ago.

“After the knee operation, I had a friend round to help with something in the house. He used to live there and rented it out, and he asked, ‘has anything strange happened in the last few months?’”

William bought the house in Gleadless Town End at age 19, where he now lives with his wife, stepson and baby, and has experienced some strange events over the years.

The week prior to his conversation with his friend, he had found an American coin on the floor upstairs. He put it back in the draw, and made a point of hoovering the whole house the next day.

As he was going upstairs the same night, the coin - with the same date - was on the staircase, missing from the draw.

William said: “I am quite a sceptic. I always just try to explain things, so at the end of each story in the book, I have written out my thoughts about it and otherwise left it to people’s own devices. 

“The week after the first incidents with the coin, I was having a shower and was thinking about it when I felt something slap quite hard on the back of the leg - and then the coin hit the floor.

“I told my friend about it and his face dropped. He said the Sunday before, he had passed his work trousers to his wife, and she said ‘why have you got an american cent in your pocket?’” 

Another friend told William he should write about the events, and so he turned his energy to writing, completing five drafts over three years with the help of friends and family.

He said: “I haven't dramatised anything, it’s just, ‘here are things that happened’ through mine and other people’s stories.

“I wrote the first two drafts alone and the next three with dad, with mum on the sofa nearby. She perked up and gave me better ways to phrase things, every now and again.”

Over 4,800 copies of the book have been sold, making it an Amazon bestseller in six categories.

Emma Draper, CEO of Cavendish Cancer Care, said: “We’re amazed by how well William has done with this book and we can’t thank him enough for supporting us in this way. It’s a fantastic read!

“Every penny counts for us as a charity and we simply couldn’t support so many people affected by cancer without efforts like this.”

The Lady in the Bay Window is available on Amazon.

*William C Grave is a pseudonym.