Tag: Seventies

Home is Where the Heart is

Morley in the seventies. Nothing much has changed apart from the cars parked on the roadside. Photo from David Atkinson Archive, Morley Memories.

Hiraeth is a delicious Welsh word as it captures that nostalgic longing for home. As a Yorkshire lass living in Wales, I often yearn for Morley, a town in Leeds, where my family still live. Yet I also feel at home in certain places in Wales that connect to the spirit and soul of place I long for. Maybe it’s the spirit of the industrial past that connects me to South Wales.

Morley is a large town in West Yorkshire that was constructed from the blood, sweat and tears of coal and textiles. The stone buildings of Morley are crooked and leaned towards me with whispers of secrets. I always identified a beauty in the urban landscape of home and feel so happy when I return to visit my family. There is a community spirit in Morley and people will always chat and make me laugh.

I imagined Jim driving along this road in his Zephyr. The photo is from Wales online and is captures Cardiff fifty years ago.

Last year, I stumbled on some newspaper photos of Cardiff in the sixties and seventies and the people huddled together chatting connected me to a familiar community spirit and evocated a nostalgia. When imagining the people’s stories, I met Pearl and Jim, characters from my novel, Loving You (working title), searching for their dreams in a fictional Welsh town near to Cardiff.

Photo of the Welsh factory woman in the sixties is from BBC News in an article written by Gwyneth Rees, BBC Wales News

Pearl is a seamstress who dreams of becoming a singer. Jim is a car mechanic who yearns to be an artist. Secrets about Pearl’s late father thrive in Aberynys as people still gossip about him. Pearl and Jim’s dreams push them together and pull them apart. Pearl is immersed in a community, but Jim is a loner. Both characters are shaped by their lives in Aberynys and want to escape in different ways. Pearl’s friends in the sewing factory are influenced by the people my grandmother brought to life for me when I was a child, and their sense of humour is both northern and Welsh. Of course, a colourful cast of characters also barged into the book, and my fictional town of Aberynys is a port which was also influenced by visits to Barry Island, Cardiff Bay and the Valleys.

This photo of the Valleys inspired Aberynys.

Aberynys is the nostalgic place in my heart: a place built on stories I listened to when chatting to folk in Yorkshire and Wales. I created a place name with lyrical Welsh words: Aber is the Welsh word for estuary and ynys means island. Aberynys is a montage of my life experiences and a place that makes folk dream their dreams. Loving You remains one of my works in progress as I just love to visit the place in my heart where I can seek sanctuary from what is happening to us all at the moment.

Which place do you call home and is this different to place you live in now?

 

Please see all my adventures at Handbag Adventures and My Writing. 

How to Travel

The river meandered through the valley and spring was in the air in Delfryn.

Planes are grounded, but we can travel.  As writers we can allow our characters explore the places we long to visit.  I am forcing my fictitious friends to visit restaurants, parties and the fairground.  I am delighting in the hustle and bustle of the crowded locations and soaking up the atmosphere more than ever before.  A lockdown cannot lock my imagination and the silence helps me to find the words.

I have selected my seventies outfit, added some powerful eyeliner and made my way to a Valentine’s party

My work in progress, Loving You (working title) is set in the seventies so I escaped to another time and place. I selected my seventies outfit, added some powerful eyeliner and made my way to a Valentine’s party in a café located in Dockers Row, Aberynys. Lorenzo and Stella Ferrari introduced a community to Italian food.  It may be a simple menu, but I enjoyed the comforting aroma of garlic.  Food was plentiful and the atmosphere was heavy with the laughter.  I departed from the café before there was any sign of love, but I heard some soulful singing.  There were whispers of strike action at the sewing factory from some of the other guests.  I may need to share some of my store cupboard recipes with the factory girls.

Welcome to Aberynys, the home of my characters.

I bought a lovely red Mini Cooper and followed a Ford Zephyr out to Delfryn.  Oh, it is so beautiful there.  The river meandered through the valley and spring was in the air.  I spotted a young man absorbed in a painting.  I did not chat to Jim as I found myself back here in front of my laptop when the news headlines disturbed the flight of my imagination. Cake o’clock with and strong pot of filter coffee always gets me through the days at the moment.

I bought a lovely red Mini Cooper and followed a Ford Zephyr out to Delfryn.

Time to leave reality again, I travelled to France via Roseanna Ley’s novel, Her Mother’s Secret.  I met a writer in the novel who explained that:
‘The writer could be as selfish as he pleased. He could nip into that other world whenever the urge arose, returning to reality only when the necessary work was done.’

I love nipping in and out of reality and I find myself breaking simple rules of life to shake it up.  I can have cake for breakfast, bacon and eggs for tea and make up a silly dance to Abba music if the mood takes me.  I don’t care if the neighbour sees me dancing in the garden room: anything goes at the moment.

I invite you to make up your own rules in the comfort of your own home.  Book yourself into a good book or write yourself into the places you miss.  Seek solace in good old fashioned comfort food.  For instance, I made tomato soup with fresh tomatoes that were too soft and squishy.  I roasted the tomatoes with dried herbs, seasoning and olive oil at 180 degrees. When the tomatoes were cooked and deliciously sweet, I blended them with stale bread to thicken up the soup.  Delicious! This upside-down world meant we ate the soup at midnight and then I went on to plan a new village I will immerse myself in when writing my third novel. When my editor checks into Delfryn and Aberynys, I am going to write a light-hearted story set in Yorkshire.  I have already met Maisie and called in at Heatherbridge.

I am going to love you and leave you and wish you the power of your imagination to help you through this difficult time.

 

Please all my Handbag Adventures and my website and blog at JessieCahalin.com.

A copy of my first novel is available here.

Happy New Year Characters and Friends

The familiar view of Penarth

I’ve become so familiar with the seafront in Penarth that I’ve never ventured from the main path. Contented with the changes in the light, I found comfort in the same view.  On Boxing Day, crowds of people in Penarth forced me to walk a new path above the seafront.

An unfamiliar perspective of Penarth pier that allows me to look at the bigger picture

As I looked down on a familiar view from a new perspective, I released some of the characters in my work in progress. Maybe these characters will remain forever lost or appear in another story.  Who knows?  I’ve worked in my tiny writing room, with my cast of characters, for many months.  In the new year, I will print out my work in progress, read it aloud and look at it from a fresh perspective.

I realised that I needed to release some of the characters

It’s certain I will remain with Pearl and Jim who will also need to digress from their familiar paths.  Alas, they can’t text each other, connect via social media or email each other.  When the characters are a distance apart, they must physically travel to meet up or write a proper letter.  They can’t even use a landline as they don’t have telephones.

As the sun sets on another year, I wish you and my characters some happy and new destinations.

However, I’m grateful Anne Williams sent me back to the seventies to meet the young Pearl and Jim.   Maybe Anne could have a word with Pearl and find out more. Meanwhile, attitudes and beliefs in this era continue to shock me.  My twenty first century perspective means I can support my characters a little yet cannot control their anxiety.  The girls in the factory are currently on strike and they can’t google the legislation to find out more.  It would’ve helped if they could connect with the Dagenham strikers in a Facebook Group, but social media is decades away.  Of course, they’ve seen the headlines and the world seems to have gone on strike.  And I’m in despair because some of the women have been tempted to parade in a fashion show of clothes for the bosses. In future, they will learn about the Miss World protests.  I know these destinations are ahead of them but how can I navigate them and force them to take new paths?

Characters are distracting me and fluttering around in my mind and a couple of them have decided to take time out on the beach.  Do you see them? Pearl and Jim’s perspective remain strong in my head. I’ll stay on the new path that has a clearer overview.  With patience, they will eventually reach their intended destination.  I have no idea how to get Jim back home, but I do know what car he will drive and how much it cost.  Like me they are facing January, but the January of 1970 was a harsh one.  I have twenty ideas for the title of my next novel and all suggestions include the word ‘love’.  Love will guide my characters. In the words of Dylan Thomas. ‘Though lovers be lost, love shall not…’

As the sun sets on another year, I wish you and my characters some happy and new destinations.

 

Please see all my adventures at Handbag Adventures and my website and blog at JessieCahalin.com.