I shall be having a launch party at Linghams Bookshop in Heswall on Tuesday September 12th, 6.30 for 7pm. Tickets £5.00 to include a glass of wine.
PLEASE COME AND SUPPORT ME IF YOU ARE IN THE AREA.
Newsletter for July 2017
Well, it’s that time of year again. Picking and freezing I lay waste my powers – to misquote Wordsworth. There are strawberries and raspberries from the local PYO farm to make into ice cream and summer puddings; French beans and mange tout peas and tons of courgettes to be frozen somehow, or turned into something else. To say nothing of keeping on top of the weeds!
But it doesn’t matter. For once I am well ahead with my writing. WORKHOUSE ORPHANS, my first Holly Green book, will be out in paperback on August 24th. The sequel, WORKHOUSE ANGEL, is finished and at the copy-editing stage. It should be in the libraries before the end of the year and out in paperback next summer. And I hope to finish the third book in the quartet by next spring. So for once I am free to enjoy the summer without feeling I should be at my desk.
I have found the research for these books really interesting. I knew very little about workhouses and the people who had to live in them but I soon had to expand my field of enquiry to take in Victorian society in general, and Liverpool in that period in particular. As always, I found the story taking me off in unexpected directions. Who could have guessed that it would lead me to the American Civil War and the blockade running ships built for the south in the dockyards of Liverpool and Birkenhead? Did you know that the final act of that conflict took place in the Mersey estuary? Or that Birkenhead Park was the first civic park designed for public use, and was the pattern for Central Park in New York? Book Two has taken me to Ireland, to look into the aftermath of the famine and convent education for girls, and the lives of Irish tinkers. And I found myself reverting to more familiar territory when the story led me to a travelling company of variety artistes.
Book Three will require research into nursing in the mid-Victorian era and the work of Florence Nightingale.
One good thing has come out of all this. I have found myself reading or re-reading Victorian authors – Dickens and the Brontes in particular. Nicholas Nickleby and Jane Eyre were potent sources of inspiration.
We have had two holidays this year. The first was a cruise from Amsterdam to Budapest with Viking and I must say we were very well looked after. It was a fascinating journey, with so many beautiful and interesting cities and landscapes on the way. I should have liked to spend longer in Vienna, but Budapest was definitely the highlight. Then, at the beginning of this month, we went with our son and his wife to the Verdon Gorges in the Alpes Maritimes, north of Nice. It is a spectacularly beautiful area and we had glorious weather. The only bad things were the journeys out and back. We flew into Nice quite late in the evening and had to queue for a long time to pick up our hire car. Then the sat-nav went mad and took us on a scenic tour of the area – which might have been nice if it had not been pitch dark! We finally reached our rented villa at 3am! Then, coming back, our flight was cancelled. After a long wait in another queue we were sent to a hotel for the night and told we could fly back the next day to Gatwick. Considering the fact that our car was at Liverpool airport, this was less than convenient. However, it turned out that there were seven of us in the same boat and easyjet sent us back by taxi. The other five were really lively companions and we passed the time chatting and telling travellers’ tales. I think I may also have sold a few books!
I hope you are all enjoying the summer and finding time to do some reading.
With best wishes
Hilary
Newsletter for February 2017
I am delighted to tell you that my new novel, WORKHOUSE ORPHANS, which is published under my new pen name of Holly Green, will be in the libraries from March 3rd. Please put in a request for it straight away, so you will be at the head of the queue when it arrives.
I am already half way through the second book in the series, hoping to get it finished before the summer comes, so I will have a bit more time for the garden. This book takes on the story of May and Gus, but the main focus is on Angelina, the little girl to whom May became devoted in the workhouse but who was then adopted. This has led into new areas of research, including the beginnings of the Fenian movement in Ireland and the lifestyle of Irish tinkers. I have also been looking into convent schools in nineteenth century Ireland and have found a very interesting novel called ‘Land of Spices’ by Kate O’Brian, set in the convent of the Faithful Companions Of Jesus near Limerick. Well worth a read on its own account and invaluable for research. The next step is to investigate the role of children on the Victorian stage. I hope this is enough to pique your curiosity without giving away too much of the plot!
Newsletter for December 2016
WORKHOUSE ORPHANS is now complete and in the hands of my editor, though I have no doubt there will be some tweaks required before the final version. It has been hard going, but enjoyable. There are so many areas to research, particularly as the nineteenth century is not a period I have written about before. It has also made me look into the history of Liverpool more closely. You might think that, living just across the Mersey as I do, I would have done it before and there are aspects of it which I discovered long ago when writing WE’LL MEET AGAIN; but there is so much I didn’t know. For example, during the American Civil War, while the UK was official neutral, the citizens of Liverpool supported the Confederate States of the south. Many of them were troubled in their consciences by the slave owning ethos of the south, but Liverpool relied for much of its wealth on the trade in cotton and Manchester was desperate for supplies for the mills. The northern states were blockading the ports from which the cotton was exported, so ship builders in Liverpool and Birkenhead began building ‘blockade runners’, steam ships built to evade the blockade and bring out the cotton. Researching this, I came across the story of the CSS Shenandoah, a ship whose purpose was to capture and destroy merchant ships belonging to the northern states and in particular to target the whaling fleet which produced much of the north’s riches. She was not built in Liverpool, but many of her crew came from there, and it was in Liverpool that she finally surrendered, as the very last act of the civil war. You will find that her voyage features in my book. Also there, is the creation of the first department store, a new concept in merchandising.
My two protagonists, May and Augustus (Gus), brought up in the orphanage attached to the workhouse, have to struggle against the odds, and in the face of Victorian class prejudice, which required people to ‘know their place’, in order to escape a life of drudgery and brutality. It takes courage and determination, and a few lucky breaks, but they get there in the end. En route, they learn a great deal about themselves and about the society they live in, fall in and out of love and find kindness in strangers. I am very fond of both of them, and I hope you will be too.
Good News!
After a long period of drought I am delighted to tell you that there are four new books to look forward to. I have been commissioned by Ebury Press, part of the Penguin/Random House group, to write four novels set in nineteenth century Liverpool and centring on the inhabitants of the huge workhouse/orphanage which once stood on the site now occupied by the Roman Catholic cathedral. The reasons for how they came to be there, and their ultimate fate, offer many narrative possibilities and I have found the initial research fascinating. Book 1 will focus on a sister and brother sent to the orphanage after their father was ‘lost at sea’ and their mother died. The story of how they transcend their difficulty beginnings and find new lives will take in the foundation of Liverpool’s first department store, blockade running in the American Civil War and the Australian Gold Rush, to give you just a flavour of what to expect.
Hopefully, Book 1 will be in the libraries next summer and the book stores in the autumn, but that depends on me getting it finished by the end of this year. It’s a tall order as so far I have only written one chapter, so I’m going to have to work hard but it’s great to know that there is still a market for my work. The commission came about because the publishing director’s mother read We’ll Meet Again and raved about it. I shall be eternally grateful to that lady!
Latest Novel
A BRIGHT PARTICULAR STAR
The year is 2005. Britain has left the EU and has been subjected to a terrorist attack similar to that of 9/11. As a result, the country is now governed by an extreme right-wing party, kept in power by nationalist thugs…
I called it ‘alternative history’ …. now it seems to be coming true. Am I clairvoyant – or is this just coincidence?
NEW NOVEL
A BRIGHT PARTICULAR STAR
The year is 2005. Britain has left the EU and has been subjected to a terrorist attack similar to that of 9/11. As a result, the country is now governed by an extreme right-wing party, kept in power by nationalist thugs. The Prince of Wales in assassinated and the Queen dies, leaving twenty-three year old Prince William to accede to the throne. He refuses to act as a figurehead for a regime he abhors, but what is the alternative? Into this situation comes a beautiful young American starlet, in Britain to make a film about Bonnie Prince Charlie. What follows is a series of exciting events which will change the history of the country. Romance, conspiracy, kidnapping, plot and counter plot create a fast moving thriller which will keep the reader on the edge of the seat to the last page.
Out on Kindle on June 23rd. Available for pre-order now.
Swan Lake — Scottish Ballet
I went to see the Scottish Ballet’s new production of Swan Lake at the Empire Theatre in Liverpool last Thursday. I have to admit I was disappointed.
The objective, obviously, was to produce an updated version, freed of the clutter of the traditional staging. So, out went the beautiful scenery and the lovely costumes. No opulent court, no mysterious, magical forest, no lake – and no swans. The corps de ballet wore leotards, colour shaded to give each of them a very unflattering white bum. Out went all the conventional choreography,; no dance of the little swans, no variations for the attendants of the potential brides. Out, too, went most of the story. No pushy queen mother desperate to get her son married off, replaced by a friend of the prince’s own age who seemed unnaturally concerned that he should find a girl friend. More importantly, no wicked wizard Rothbart, thus removing the mainspring of the plot. Just who Odette was, and what her problem was, was never made clear. We had Odile, and her seduction of the prince was the liveliest section of the ballet; but no mutual suicide after his betrayal, no apotheosis for the lovers; instead a fourth act which largely consisted of an overlong pas de deux for the prince and Odette, who should have been swept out of his reach as soon as he proposed to her double.
So what are we left with? A group of talented young people dancing their socks off in a grey box. Call me old fashioned, but I’ll take the conventional production any day.
Newsletter for January, February ad March 2016
This is a hard letter to write. As you know, I was working as a creative writing teacher on board the Marco Polo, en route to S. America. We got as far as Rio and then received a phone call to tell us our elder son had been killed in a road traffic accident in China. He was there on business and he was in a taxi on his way to the airport when there was a collision and he suffered fatal head injuries. Of course, we had to cancel the rest of the cruise and head for home. It took us 28 hours to get back. Since then, life had revolved around arrangements for the funeral, which will take place on March 18th. We have had to wait such a long time because it took weeks to get his body repatriated. It is a time when your whole view of the future is completely disrupted and so much needs to be re-thought. He leaves a wife and two children – Amy was 18 just a week after her father’s death.
Needless to say, I have not been writing; but there seems little point anyway. My career as an author has hit the buffers. Now that Robert Hale Ltd has gone out of business I am without a publisher and so far I can’t get any agents interested in my work. I have two volumes of a projected trilogy set around the time of the First Crusade ready to publish, but no one is interested. I don’t know whether to go back to writing about WWll or try something completely different. We had such hopes of Twice Royal Lady. John Hale said it was one of the best pieces of historical fiction he had ever read, but sales have been disappointing. It seems you have to write either about the Romans or the Tudors to find a readership these days.
Enough of my moaning! Perhaps I will be able to write more positively in a month or two.
NEWSLETTER FOR DECEMBER 2015
It has been a quieter month than October/November, thank goodness! Less rushing around, but still busy. The talk at Darwen was a bit disappointing because very few people turned up; but on the plus side it was lovely to meet Elizabeth Ashworth, a facebook friend and fellow writer, in the flesh. We found we had a lot in common and had a good chat at the end of the session. The ladies who did come along were very friendly and seemed to really enjoy the talk, and bought several books, which was encouraging.
The big new is that we are off on another cruise on January 5th. I’ve been asked to teach Creative Writing on board the Cruise and Maritime ship Marco Polo, cruising to South America. We call at ports all along the eastern coast, including Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires, then go over to the Falklands and the Straits of Magellan, and then work our way back northwards. It sounds really exciting, as we have never been to South America before. I shall only have to teach on the days when we are at sea, but that adds up to about 30, so it is a lot of time to fill. I am hoping for a really lively group of passengers to help things go with a swing. Whatever happens, it will be easier than the drama coach job I did on the last voyage!
This means, of course, that I have had to get ahead with a lot of things I might otherwise have left until after Christmas, particularly in the garden. We shall not be home until the last day of February, so clearing up dead stuff and pruning shrubs can’t be left until we get back. That, along with the usual preparations for Christmas, has kept me pretty busy, as you can imagine.
I am still hoping to find an agent who will take me on and, hopefully, get a publisher interested in IRONHAND. I’ve finished the sequel, GOD’S WARRIOR, but the third book in the series will probably have to wait until we get back from the cruise.
I’ll try to keep in touch while we are away, but knowing how difficult and expensive internet connections can be on board ship I shall have to keep my posts to a minimum.
Meanwhile, I wish you all a Very Happy Christmas and health and good fortune in the New Year.
Hilary