George and Donella East are nothing if not determined. Stubborn might be a more accurate description.

Their persistence and self-confessed bloody-mindedness has finally paid off, and the couple now lead what most people would consider an idyllic life in a water mill on ten acres of ponds, streams and woodland in the Normandy region of France.

But their voyage to the Mill of the Flea and a remarkably successful micropublishing business has been a long and challenging one.

George wrote his first novel in 1967, and sent it off from their Portsmouth, Hampshire home to the top literary agent in London.

‘With the naivete and optimism of youth,’ he recalls, ‘I expected it to be well-received, and was not unduly excited when the agency got straight back and said my book was a terrific read, and that they were sure they would be able to place it with a suitable publisher within weeks.’

The leading publishing houses did not share the agency’s enthusiasm, and the manuscript was returned by an apologetic and clearly mystified executive three months later. Convinced that this was just a hiccup, George put the manuscript in a bottom drawer of his desk, put a clean sheet of paper in his typewriter, and started on his second book.

Five full-length book manuscripts and twenty years later, the couple were still desperately searching for a publisher.

‘At times it seemed as if we were cursed,’ recalls Donella East. ‘In all, we sent George’s manuscripts off to more than five hundred publishers around the world. We even tried Walt Disney and Stephen Spielberg and other filmmakers when the publishing houses turned us down! Virtually all the publishers said how well George wrote, but there were always other reasons for the rejections. Sometimes they said that another author had just had a big hit with a book on a similar theme. Sometimes they said that the theme was too much ahead of its time, whatever that meant. One publisher even said that George’s work was ‘too good’ to be published modestly, and would need to be launched with a huge print run and lots of advance publicity to make it a best seller. But they weren’t prepared to take such a risk on an unknown author…’

Meanwhile, the couple were finding some success with George’s freelance journalism and their small public relations and marketing company. ‘We set up the business so that we could at least earn a living until one of the books found a publisher,’ says Donella. ‘ George said that he was never ever going to write another word which he was not certain to be paid for, and he obviously had a natural ability to get stories about other people’s products and services into print.’

But even though their business was thriving, the couple were still determined to see George’s name on the cover of at least one book, and the turning point in their lives came when they bought a holiday home across the Channel in Normandy.

‘Like millions of other Britons,’ says George, ‘ we loved holidaying in France, and found a beautiful but ruined water mill which we would be able to visit for long weekends and restore over the years. We couldn’t speak French at the time and knew nothing of the pitfalls of buying a property in another land. We made all the mistakes in the book that, as far as I could see, had not yet been written on the subject.’

That was a good enough excuse for George to boot up the computer and start work on yet another book, this time a non-fiction ‘how to’ humorous guide for would-be French property buyers.

‘ We were sure that there would be a healthy niche for this sort of book,’ Donella recalls, ‘ and sent the manuscript off filled with confidence that at least one major publisher would agree.’ Unfortunately, history repeated itself, and the manuscript was rejected by more than one hundred publishers. But this time the Easts were certain that there was a market for Home & Dry in France. They decided that if no existing publishing house would accept the book, they would create one that would.