Tag: Family Saga

Yorkshire Lasses in Wales: When Jessie Met Judith Barrow

Judith Barrow, originally from Saddleworth, near Oldham, and on the wrong side of the Pennines but still in Yorkshire

Judith Barrow

Judith Barrow, originally from Saddleworth, near Oldham, and on the wrong side of the Pennines but still in Yorkshire, has lived in Pembrokeshire, Wales, for forty years.

She has an MA in Creative Writing with the University of Wales Trinity St David’s College, Carmarthen, a BA (Hons) in Literature with the Open University and a Diploma in Drama from Swansea University. She has had short stories, plays, reviews and articles, published throughout the British Isles and has won several poetry competitions. She has completed three children’s books.

She is also a Creative Writing tutor for Pembrokeshire County Council.

Jessie:  Judith, tell me what a Yorkshire lass is doing in Pembrokeshire.

Judith:  We went on holiday to Pembrokeshire, loved it and never returned to Saddleworth.  We bought a half-built house and renovated it.

Jessie:  Do you miss Yorkshire?

Judith Barrow – Secrets

Judith:  Pembrokeshire was a great place for our kids to grow up.  I miss Yorkshire stone, craggy landscape and the meandering moors. I love our house, in Pembrokeshire, but I always expected I’d live in a stone cottage in my old age.  As you can hear, even after forty years in Wales my accent hasn’t changed – I’m still a Yorkshire lass.  People say they can hear my voice in their heads when they read my books.  Lucky them!

Jessie:  Obviously, people love your voice as you have written eight books.  How did the writing start?

Judith:  Well, I hope they do. As for the writing, I’d written since I was a child but never done anything much about it. Then I went to night school with my daughter. I finished A Level English and went on to gain a degree through the Open University. Whilst studying for the degree, I had breast cancer, and this made me see life differently.  I decided to follow my dream to become a writer.

A place that inspired the setting of Judith’s novels

Jessie: I am so sorry to hear about your health issues. It is wonderful you decided to follow your dream. What kind of books do you write?

Judith:  I write people driven, gritty dramas and wasn’t prepared to adapt my writing.  Eventually, I got a contract with Honno Press – an independent publisher in Wales- and found their approach personal and supportive.  My first book ‘Pattern of Shadows’

Jessie:  What’s Pattern of Shadows about?

Judith:  It’s the story of a nursing sister, Mary Howarth, and her family, during World War Two and is set around a POW camp located in a disused cotton mill in a Lancashire town.  When I was a child my mother was a winder in a cotton mill and I would go there to wait for her to finish work; I remember the smell of the grease and cotton, the sound of the loud machinery and the colours of the threads and bales of material.  Pattern of Shadows was meant to be a standalone book, but the characters wanted me to carry on with their lives. Eventually, it developed into a family saga trilogy. My recent book, the prequel, is A Hundred Tiny Threads. The two main characters, Winifred and Bill, are the parents of the protagonist in the trilogy, Mary Howarth. They wanted me to explain their, how they had become what they are in the trilogy. I was happy to; I think, as we get older, we are made by our life experiences.

Hundred Tiny Threads. The two main characters, Winifred and Bill, are the parents of the protagonist in the trilogy, Mary Howarth

Jessie:  I’m reading One Hundred Tiny Threads. The opening is engrossing with Winifred waking up to another day in the shop. The characters are so real, and I love getting inside their heads.  I’m shouting at them all the time. The way you thread the characters’ attitudes towards women is brilliant.  I’m fascinated by the Suffragettes in Leeds.  For some reason, I always imagined the movement to be concentrated in London.

Judith:  Researching the Suffragettes opened up my eyes.  I wanted to tell their story through the voices of the characters and show how women, in the society at that time, were ready for the change. Stories draw people into to the political background of the era, and life was certainly a challenge then.  People say my books are dark.  Have you got to the gory bits?

Jessie:  Well, there has been a murder.

Judith:  No, I’m thinking of scene after that – you wait.  Bill’s a bastard but it’s his background.  I don’t know why Winifred married him.

Jessie:  Oh no, what was Winifred thinking of?  I’m furious with her, as I haven’t read the terrible news yet.  I’m intrigued as to why she didn’t marry the love of her life and scared for her.

Judith: Oh ‘eck, hope I haven’t I haven’t spoiled it for you, Jessie.  But, you must understand Bill had a terrible life as a child with his father.  And then he was a soldier in the horrendous First World Wars. He was also one of the Black and Tans when he returned from the Front. He’s a bastard but didn’t have it easy.  As I said, our lives shape us.

Jessie:  I agree and people interest me too.

Judith:  Yes, well your novel is also character driven and could become a family saga.  I can see it now.  I want to know more about Luke and Rosa and their parents.

Jessie:  I plan to do that, and you have inspired me to complete historical research.  I would have to look carefully into the eras the generations were born into.   Thanks for your advice.

Judith:  No problem, I teach creative writing in Pembrokeshire, so I just can’t help myself (some would say it’s interfering!!).  Writing is like looking at the world through the eyes of a child and I love it. I watch folk walk past my window, at home.  It’s hilarious how people walk. I can’t stop people watching and passing it on through my books.  I never stop watching and am always so busy.

Jessie:  What advice would you give to fledgling writers?

Judith:  Get a professional editor and be prepared for a slog.  The first draft of the book is the best bit. I always cry when I get my editor’s comments.

Contact Judith at:
Twitter: @judithbarrow77 
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/judith.barrow.3

Amazon link to her books:

Secrets
A Hundred Tiny Threads

Secrets

Winifred is a determined young woman eager for new experiences, for a life beyond the grocer’s shop counter ruled over by her domineering mother. When her friend Honora – an Irish girl, with the freedom to do as she pleases – drags Winifred along to a suffragette rally, she realises that there is more to life than the shop and her parents’ humdrum lives of work and grumbling. Bill Howarth’s troubled childhood echoes through his early adult life and the scars linger, affecting his work, his relationships and his health. The only light in his life comes from a chance meeting with Winifred, the daughter of a Lancashire grocer. The girl he determines to make his wife. Meeting Honora’s intelligent and silver-tongued medical student brother turns Winifred’s heart upside down and she finds herself suddenly pregnant. Bill Howarth reappears on the scene offering her a way out.

 

 

Inside the Handbags of The Foyles Bookshop Girls

Elaine Roberts posting me a letter

As the Great War takes hold is there room for what lies ahead in The Foyles Bookshop Girls’ handbags? The Foyles Bookshop Girls is a story about love and friendships, which are tested as war grips the country. The girls, in age order, are Alice, Victoria and Molly and have been friends for most of their lives. When they invited me to peek inside each of their bags I was surprised at what I discovered.

Alice doesn’t overfill her bag, leaving a space in the corner for hope; hope that the men she loves will return safe and sound from the Great War.

Alice’s hand bag, a colourful tapestry, contained a comb, Kirby hairgrips, a small black purse, keys, a sewing kit, a lace trimmed handkerchief, a small black velvet box containing pearl earrings, nail scissors, a gold pen, the latest book she was reading and receipts for books that she’s purchased. Alice doesn’t overfill her bag, leaving a space in the corner for hope; hope that the men she loves will return safe and sound from the Great War.

Victoria’s bag is bursting at the seams with the responsibility of holding everything inside.

Victoria’s handbag is plain black and used to belong to her mother. The contents of her bag were a comb, keys, sewing kit, a plaster, a worn white cotton handkerchief with her initials embroidered in the corner, a well-thumbed second hand paperback book, some yellowed tickets, a dried flower pressed between two pieces of off white paper in an envelope with a photograph of a young man, a small torch, a shopping list with money off coupons, old receipts and a photograph of her parents. Victoria’s bag is bursting at the seams with the responsibility of holding everything inside. It has been crammed with everyday items and treasured belongings leaving no room for hope, faith or love.

Molly’s handbag contains things to make her feel better, to improve her, to try to rid her of the guilt that is hidden amongst the finery it holds.

Molly’s handbag is peacock blue with glass beads hanging down from it. Her bag contains silver bangles, a compact, a small pot of rouge, a white cotton handkerchief, a small glass bottle filled with perfume, loose hairclips and bands, a black coin purse, which has her notes screwed up and forced inside. A half eaten chocolate bar, a nail file, comb and a pad and pen. Molly’s handbag contains things to make her feel better, to improve her, to try to rid her of the guilt that is hidden amongst the finery it holds.

Elaine Roberts had a dream to write for a living.

Elaine’s guest post demonstrates she knows her characters inside out.  The characters’ handbags reveal so much about these characters and make me want to delve into their worlds. I can’t resist walking into a bookshop.  The Foyles Bookshop Girls is ‘a delightful story of friendship, love and hope during the dark days of WW1. Elaine Roberts is a bright new star in the world of sagas’
About Elaine

Elaine Roberts had a dream to write for a living. She completed her first novel in her twenties and received her first very nice rejection. Life then got in the way until circumstances made her re-evaluate her life, and she picked up her dream again in 2010. She joined a creative writing class, The Write Place, in 2012 and shortly afterwards had her first short story published. She was thrilled when many more followed and started to believe in herself.

As a member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association, progressing to full membership from the New Writers Scheme, and The Society of Women Writers & Journalists, Elaine attends many conferences, workshops, seminars and wonderful parties. Meeting other writers gives her encouragement, finding most face similar problems.

Elaine and her patient husband, Dave, have five children who have flown the nest. Home is in Dartford, Kent and is always busy with their children, grandchildren, grand dogs and cats visiting. Without her wonderful family and supportive friends, she knows the dream would never have been realised.

Blurb

London, 1914: one ordinary day, three girls arrive for work at London’s renowned Foyles bookshop. But when war with Germany is declared their lives will never be the same again…

Alice has always been the ‘sensible’ one in her family – especially in comparison with her suffrage-supporting sister! But decidedly against her father’s wishes, she accepts a job at Foyles Bookshop; and for bookworm Alice it’s a dream come true.

But with the country at war, Alice’s happy world is shattered in an instant. Determined to do what she can, Alice works in the bookshop by day, and risks her own life driving an ambulance around bomb-ravaged London by night. But however busy she keeps herself, she can’t help but think of the constant danger those she loves are facing on the frontline…

Alice, Victoria and Molly couldn’t be more different and yet they share a friendship that stems back to their childhood – a friendship that provides everyday solace from the tribulations and heartbreak of war.

 

Please see all my guests’ posts at Mail from the Creative Community and my website and blog at JessieCahalin.com.

 

Real folk in One Hundred Tiny Threads

I urge you to read One Hundred Tiny Threads

Judith Barrow’s ‘One Hundred Tiny Threads’ reawakened my reading addiction.  I stretched on a Devon beach, during a heatwave, but sat in Lancashire during 1911. Vivid figurative language moved me from the colours of a Monet painting to a Lowry painting.

One Hundred Tiny Threads is the prequel to Judith’s Howarth family saga but was the perfect book to begin with.  Bill was trapped down the mine and the explosion deafened me.  I stood in the dark, grimy streets as the ‘knocker-upper’ tapped on the Winifred’s window. I forgot the heat of the sun as ‘frost patterns covered the panes of the windows’.  ‘The clatter of clogs’ on the cobbles turned my head to the dark streets and ‘the feeling there was a shadow lurking around the corners’.

A life beyond the grocer’s shop counter ruled over by Winifred’s domineering mother.

Despite shivering with Winifred, I found warmth in her friendship.  Winifred presented me with an honest account of a woman’s plight during the beginning of the last century.  Her rebellion against her dominant mother placed me firmly on Winifred’s side.  I was driven mad to discover Winifred’s mother’s secret; I could not fathom her bitterness. Barrow demonstrates why Winifred needs to befriend Honora, a suffragette, and why she finds comfort in Conal’s arms.  Every strand of the characters’ backgrounds is woven into their actions and responses.

I stretched on a Devon beach, during a heatwave, but sat in Lancashire during 1911. ‘The clatter of clogs’ on the cobbles…

I felt for Winifred.  Her naivety and love for Conal present tender moments.  How I ached for Winifred’s happy ending.  The narrative wrenches the heartstrings and punches your senses, but the strands of the plot are taught and well structured. But there is no time to mollycoddle the characters: there’s ‘nowt’ you can do as the characters face life, love and loss. I advise you set time aside and listen to the characters’ voices and let the gritty drama unfold.  The dulcet tones of the Lancashire people rattle your emotions with the powerful dialogue. Be aware of Ethel who makes the ‘air seem rancid with hostility.’

The artfully woven narrative is populated with real folk: ‘good Northern stock’.  I couldn’t abide the hardship yet couldn’t stop reading.  I found myself thinking about the characters when not reading.  The folk got under my skin.  Barrow is not afraid to introduce some horrible people and conflict.  I loathed Bill because he is a hard-faced, rotten man.  Yet, I was forced to explore the motivation for his character.  It was most annoying to feel empathy for Bill. I wanted to banish him from the book and leave him to rot in a dark alley. Barrow made me understand the motivation for this bloke’s actions. 

‘…all they wanted was equality in voting’

Winifred was isolated from her mother Ethel and inhibited by the era but wanted to shake off the corset of stifling expectations.  Ironically, Winifred’s mother inhibits her more than her father.  Barrow demonstrates how women like Ethel were trapped by their own boundaries and expectations: fear of society’s rejection isolates those who have dared to follow their hearts.  Women such as Winifred who dared to articulate the inequalities of women in normal settings:

Women such as Winifred paved the way for the birth of the modern woman. 

‘…all they wanted was equality in voting; to be able to have as much as their husbands, their brothers, their fathers.’

The Suffragette Movement, World War One and the Irish War of Independence are threaded into the fabric of the novel.

Barrow squeezes every drop of empathy from her reader, because she explores the complex psychological motivations of the characters.  It is testimony to Judith Barrow that she creates such powerful characters.  The rhythms of the characters’ words are combined with the ebb and flow of the narrative to produce a phenomenal drama of epic proportions.  I am delighted there are more books to read in this family saga.  However, I am fearful for Winifred’s plight in the remaining novels. shh – don’t tell me what happens.  I am not sure Winifred has made a good choice of husband, but he does believe Winifred ‘was the one woman to keep him on the straight and narrow.’  Narrative perspectives of Winifred and Bill provide clever contrast in life experiences. The basis for their relationship is dynamic, yet I sense some threads will fray in the other books. Florence said, ‘men will have their way’; I hope this is not an omen.

The Suffragette Movement, World War One and the Irish War of Independence are threaded into the fabric of the novel. Hard times exasperate the loneliness suffered by the characters.  I urge you to read One Hundred Tiny Threads to find out more about the texture of these characters’ lives – you won’t be disappointed.

Judith Barrow, author

Connect with Judith at:

Website: https://judithbarrowblog.com

 

 

Find out more about Judith at:

Twitter: @judithbarrow

 https://www.facebook.com/judith.barrow.3

 

 

 

When Sue Moorcroft Visited Switzerland

This Christmas, the villagers of Middledip are off on a very Swiss adventure…

Christmas is never far away when Sue Moorcroft releases her Christmas novel.  I am excited to tell you that Let it Snow is out on 26th September.  When Sue agreed to chat to me about her latest novel, it felt like an early Christmas gift.  I also wanted to know how Sue manages to capture the Christmas spirit each year and tell yet another magical story. 

Jessie:  Let it Snow is a great title.  Did you think of the title while listening to the Christmas song?

Sue: No, my editor and the sales team chose it! It’s working title had been ‘A Christmas Adventure’. There’s a singing group in the book and I made ‘Let it Snow’ their favourite song.

Jessie: How do you manage to create such vivid settings?  Did you visit Switzerland to capture the sense of place for  Let it Snow?

Sue: Yes! My friend and fellow author Rosemary J Kind lives between the UK and Switzerland and she said, ‘If you want to set a book there, you can come with me.’ I instantly asked my editor if she was happy with Switzerland as a setting and went back to Ros to say, ‘I want to set a book there!’ She drove us – and her Entlebucher Hound Wilma – through England and France to Switzerland. It was lovely! I’d never visited Switzerland and I was thrilled with it. The Swiss really know how to do Christmas and we went to processions, markets, brunches, choirs and all kinds of things. I try hard to include all the tiny details that capture a setting: the snow on chalets and Christmas lights on balconies.

Sue celebrating Christmas editions of her books. Mark West took this pic of Sue at Christmas in a pub with The Christmas Promise and its German edition.

Jessie: How do you plan the narrative for  Let it Snow and did any of your characters misbehave and change events?

Sue: I met a woman in a same-sex marriage and she had just had a baby. It raised all kinds of questions in my mind and I wanted to write a heroine who had two mums. When she discovers she’s not the result of an anonymous one-night stand as she’d always thought but that her mother had a relationship with a man especially to get pregnant, she experiences a compulsion to discover what she can of her bio-family. I’m afraid my brother Kevan was ill while I was planning the book and I gave his heart failure to Tubb from the Pub. This meant I had to find a relief manager for the pub, The Three Fishes. He is my hero, Isaac O’Brien. I think of him as a reluctant hero because he’s on his way to a new life when he gets sucked into Lily’s. His ex, Hayley, played a much bigger part in the story than I expected her to. Sometimes a character can be secondary but also pivotal.

Jessie: When do you write your Christmas stories?  Do you immerse yourself in Christmas, grab a notebook and begin planning next year’s story gift, or are you writing during the summer and transport yourself to the scene?

Sue: It takes a while to write a book so though I planned Let it Snow in Malta in the sunshine, I wrote the majority of the first draft through the winter. Then the editing came in lovely weather again. When I used to write short stories for magazines it was normal to write Christmas stories in June and summer stories in December so I’m used to it. I had the chance to return to Switzerland when I was almost at the end of the first draft and that would have been fantastic. Sadly, the dates clashed with a professional engagement so I had to give it a miss.

Jessie: Your romance novels have layers and always explore contemporary issues and the changing family unit.  In Let it Snow, it’s that Lily has two mothers, and this adds a poignant dimension to the narrative as she searches for her father.   How did you research this?

Sue: My other brother, Trevor, volunteered to take on some of my research when he retired and he’s brilliant at it. I was able to send him emails asking whether lesbian couples could have received artificial insemination in 1983 and he’d come back with a factual answer. (Lily’s sister Zinnia was conceived via artificial insemination.) For the emotional side I was able to read case studies on websites and talk to someone about twins they know who are searching out all their half-siblings and learn something of their journey. There seemed to me to be two distinct attitudes amongst the children of same-sex relationships, however they’re conceived, and so I gave Lily one attitude and Zinnia the other. I don’t want to give details because they’d also be spoilers.

The ‘singing Christmas tree’ in Zürich. It’s a pyramidical stage for a choir. This appears in the book, of course!

Jessie: I am in awe of how you manage to vary your characters and always make them so likeable.  What three tips do you have for developing characters?

Sue: Thank you! My big tip is to look at each major character through the eyes of several other characters. If we take Lily, for example, I looked not just at the facts of her life, interesting as they were, but what Zinnia thought of her, what Roma her birth mother thought of her and also, importantly, Patsie, her ‘other mother’. How was she regarded at work? What about her ex husband? In real life we behave differently with and are perceived differently by different people and I use this to build multi-faceted characters.

Jessie: The sparks always fly in the brilliant dialogue between your characters.  What advice do you have for writers who wish to make their dialogue realistic?  Can you give us a snapshot of some of the dialogue in your latest novel.

Sue: I think one develops a feel for dialogue. I listen to people speak, think about the syntax they use and try and make it appropriate for age, background and region. An 18-year-old girl and an 80-year-old woman could each say, ‘He’s wicked!’ and mean two entirely different things. Dialogue’s wonderful. It breathes life into characters, allows them to interact with each other and passes information to the reader. Here’s a few lines from  Let it Snow, Chapter 1:

‘We’re your family!’ Zinnia declared, shoving her fingers through her chestnut hair. ‘What you’re doing could hurt Patsie and Roma.’

Lily climbed on a stool and began to feed the string of lights through hooks above the bar. ‘They understand it’s my decision. You know this, Zin. Let’s not press “repeat” on the conversation.’

Zinnia bulldozed on. ‘Aren’t we enough for you? You and I grew up sharing a bedroom! We’re sisters—’

‘And you’re the loveliest sister in the world.’ Lily hoped popping in a positive note would distract Zinnia. She jumped down, scraped her stool towards the next few hooks, gave Zinnia a hug then clambered up again. ‘How about twisting that tinsel around the ivy swags along the mantelpiece?’

Jessie: Do you give your books as Christmas gifts to family and friends?

Sue: No. I give out most of my free copies when they arrive to various members of my family who would read them and to anyone who has played a major part in research. Apart from that, people have to buy them themselves, I’m afraid.

Jessie: What is your typical Christmas like and are there any special family traditions or recipes?

Sue: I like the run up to Christmas and all the festive meetings of the various writing organisations to which I belong or Christmas meals with friends, but when Christmas itself comes around I like a quiet time with family. Between Christmas and New Year either my household or my brother’s household hosts an extended family lunch and that’s anything but quiet.

Sue wraps up her Christmas stories beautifully and her novels are perfect Christmas gifts.  The Ebook is out on the 26th September.  The paperback and audio book will be available on 14th November.

More about Let it Snow

This Christmas, the villagers of Middledip are off on a very Swiss adventure…

Family means everything to Lily Cortez and her sister Zinnia, and growing up in their non-conventional family unit, they and their two mums couldn’t have been closer.

So it’s a bolt out of the blue when Lily finds her father wasn’t the anonymous one-night stand she’d always believed – and is in fact the result of her mum’s reckless affair with a married man.

Confused, but determined to discover her true roots, Lily sets out to find the family she’s never known; an adventure that takes her from the frosted, thatched cottages of Middledip to the snow-capped mountains of Switzerland, via a memorable romantic encounter along the way…

The Sunday Times bestseller returns with a gloriously cosy read, perfect for fans of Katie Fforde, Trisha Ashley and Carole Matthews.

Contact details
Website: www.suemoorcroft.com
Blog: https://suemoorcroft.wordpress.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sue.moorcroft.3
Facebook author page: https://www.facebook.com/SueMoorcroftAuthor
Twitter @suemoorcroft
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/suemoorcroft
Instagram: suemoorcroftauthor

Christmas books:
The Christmas Promise
The Little Village Christmas
A Christmas Gift

 

Please see all my author interviews at My Guests and my website and blog at JessieCahalin.com.