The real story behind my dual-timeline novel and why it means so much to me
Meet the owners of a Booker Prize-lauded bookshop on a boat, my travel writer trip to Grenada, NaNoWriMo, plus news, events & opportunities
My dear wordsmiths,
How’s the word count this week? Are words flowing out of you like a tap or are you bunged up and binge-watching Ted Lasso? (That might just be me..) If you were waiting for a sign to get going, consider it the one I have inserted above. Yes, I AI-generated a road sign especially for you with a typo in it, you’re welcome. It’s your reminder, if needed, that anything is better than nothing. Get those words down. Also NaNoWriMo might help (I talk more about that in the opportunities section).
Anyway, after that Ted Talk, how are you this week? I’m still reeling from my decision to start charging for this newsletter so if you feel you can please subscribe or I’ll vanish into a vat of self-loathing and existentialism that will likely involve salt n’ vinegar crisps and wine from Aldi. Save the Write Reject Repeat one..
This week I’m sharing, for the first time, the real story behind my novel inspiration - the reality is it’s incredibly personal and winds fact with fiction so I’ve been somewhat reluctant. But the reality begins amongst the trailing echoes of the British Raj in India and it’s once booming cotton industry - and a small girl whose boarding school was evacuated to magnificent Chatsworth House in Derbyshire in the war years. The current day inspiration..
..continues on themes of a woman beset by infertility and resultant relationship breakdown. The fiction begins when a granddaughter reads her grandmother’s diary and finds a mystery which tears her world apart.
My novel is working titled The daughter she never had
So here’s how it came about - true story: The novel is very much fiction. But the dual timeline was inspired by my grandmother’s remarkable story and my own not as remarkable but perhaps relatable journey with infertility.
My grandmother
Let’s start with my maternal grandmother - her name was Norma which is a name reused in the novel in a different context). A small girl born and brought up in India (Cawnpore) with her British colonial parents - my great-grandfather ran a cotton mill. Aged just six Norma was sent from the warmth of India to boarding school on a windy cliff in in Wales. It became her home - when she was alive she told me she barely knew her parents as a child. Then in 1939, war broke out, and the school building was requisitioned by the Ministry of Food, and the schoolgirls were sent to Chatsworth House in Derbyshire. In the novel I use these historical facts, including details of the schoolgirls’ time at Chatsworth to inform the fiction and it’s fascinating - a story barely told and enhanced hugely by the practical detail in diaries.
By quirk of fate, I have both my grandmother’s and grandfather’s diaries from the war years and beyond - before and after they met. While less whimsical, perhaps, than the fictional one I have invented as a literary device in the novel, there were useful details about granny’s time at Chatsworth. Her collection of letters and documents from the time were also useful. She kept these close, precious, memories from the school that meant so much to her and little knowing that one day they would inspire me.
In case you are wondering, my grandfather’s is the slightly secretive diary of a war time bomber pilot and less informative as a result. Yet the novel protagonist Anne’s father is inspired by him, although the character is a peripheral figure in the story and in Anne’s life.
I’ll share more next week about how my own battle with infertility ( I remain childless) informs the present day character - and why she is definitely not me! But what do you think - interesting so far?
Meet the owners of the Booker Prize-lauded bookshop on a boat
“If there is anything better than chatting about books all day, we have yet to find it and it’s such a vital part of independent bookselling.”
Victoria and Chris Bonner from Hold Fast Bookshop
Meet the owners of one of the Booker Prize Indie Bookshop Spotlight competition winners - and it’s a bookshop on a boat. The competition, in its second year, invited independent bookshops and booksellers from across the UK and Ireland to celebrate this year’s Booker Prize shortlist by assembling an in-store display of the titles nominated for the prize and posting images of their activity on their social media channels.
The six winning bookshops of the Booker Prize Indie Bookshop Spotlight competition are:
Hold Fast Bookshop, Leeds
The Portobello Bookshop, Edinburgh
Fourbears Books, Reading
Bàrd Books, London
The Secret Bookshelf, Carrickfergus
Books Upstairs, Dublin
Meet Victoria and Chris Bonner, owners of Hold Fast Bookshop, Leeds..
Tell us a bit about your bookshop, and what makes it unique.
We are Victoria and Chris, and we opened Hold Fast Bookshop in November 2022. You can find us floating in Leeds Dock onboard National Historic Ship Marjorie R, a converted Yorkshire Coal Barge. She is moored in the former commercial dock in Leeds where boats like her were loaded and unloaded – these days the industry is gone and we now have coffee shops, wine bars, and an artisan bakery in the dock nearby. We often share the water with paddle boarders and swimmers, as well as a stroppy heron called Keith who fears no human or dog. We have seats on our upper deck where people can read on those rare rainless days we get in Leeds. We also sell plants which adds a much-needed splash of colour to the area.
How did you start out bookselling and what do you enjoy most about it, and working in a bookshop?
People often ask where we got the idea to set up a bookshop on a boat – in truth, we have lived and worked on the water for 22 years so it never really occurred to us to try and find a shop on dry land. Having the shop has changed our taste in books – reading more widely has introduced us both to new genres we never would have picked up before.
Why do you think independent bookselling is so important?
If there is anything better than chatting about books all day, we have yet to find it and it’s such a vital part of independent bookselling. It’s great to see the interactions in a bookshop – customers often start chatting to each other about what they have read or enjoyed. That doesn’t really happen in other shops – it’s as if ‘normal rules’ don’t apply in bookshops and by stepping in you know things will be a little calmer, more chatty and comfortable. It’s also so important for readers to see a range of books of all kinds of genres. I think most have more courage and a sense of adventure with their book choices than the dreaded algorithm would ever give them credit for.
What does the Booker Prize mean to you as a bookseller and what does it mean to your customers?
The Booker Prize is such a great conversation starter in the shop – people have been hearing about the shortlisted books and authors on the radio, on TV and online and there is a real buzz around the selection. Sometimes there is nothing better than a long lingering browse in a bookshop, and other times you just want someone to give you a book and say ‘read this, it’s good’. The Booker Prize is a shortcut readers need when fatigued by choice or too time-poor to wander the shelves.
Which of the Booker Prize 2024 shortlisted titles would you like to see win, and why?
We would be so happy for Samantha Harvey to win. Orbital is a fantastic story and I also like how accessible it is. It’s an extraordinary book, so emotive but quite short and very easy to read. Our customers are enjoying it, and we have lots of people coming in for it after friends have recommended it. I was lucky enough to meet Samantha at an event and she was so nice – and ironically very down to earth – we talked about trying to write on trains and how it’s almost impossible not to be distracted. I’d love to be able to say I had a cuppa with a Booker Prize winner!
More about the competition: The Booker Prize Foundation also worked alongside The Reading Agency to run a competition for libraries across the UK, who were tasked with creating an imaginative display to encourage readers to take part in the Booker Prize Reading Challenge. The winner is Plymstock Library team, part of Plymouth Libraries.
Grenada travel article
Talking of former British Empire - My travel article about the wonderful Caribbean island of Grenada, with its storied history and fabulous food, is now online across various titles. It begins:
If I squint, I could be in my parents 1980s sitting room chock full with fringed lamps, squishy sofas and family photos on the dark-hued furniture. It’s the warmth that gives away our more exotic location and I tuck myself close to the fan as our host -Dexter - welcomes us effusively into his home.
It’s been a straightforward if long day flying from Heathrow to the Caribbean island of Grenada with British Airways, including a brief stop to drop people off on the runway at nearby St Lucia. After a quick hotel check we’ve just landed at Dexter’s restaurant, which spans the balcony of his traditional clapboard house, and we’ve already met half his family. Read the rest here via THE SCOTSMAN.
News, events & opportunities
WRITING CHALLENGE - NANOWRIMO: It’s already here but you can still get involved and become a ‘Wrimo’. National Novel Writing Month is a collective inspiration of authors all writing their hearts out during the month of November. Don’t toil alone but find a writing collective across the world. National Novel Writing Month began in 1999 as a daunting but straightforward challenge: to write 50,000 words of a novel in thirty days. Now, each year on November 1, hundreds of thousands of people around the world begin to write, determined to end the month with a first draft. They enter the month as teachers, mechanics, or stay-at-home parents and they leave novelists.
Ways of working:
If you prefer to write on your own timeline set independent writing goals and work at your own pace.
If you prefer the pressure of an ambitious deadline and enthusiastic community egging you on set an official challenge goal during National Novel Writing Month in November or Camp NaNoWriMo in April or July.
JOURNALISM - Justice Reform bill: The Society of Editors has welcomed a pledge by the Courts Minister “to fundamentally reform” the Single Justice Procedure (SJP) if improvements are not made to the way the fast-track system is used. It has has supported a review of the use of the Single Justice Procedure and called for greater scrutiny of how decisions are being made. Concern over the use of the fast-track courts procedure for minor offences such as driving without car insurance, non-payment of TV licences or not having a valid train ticket follows an investigation by the Standard which has highlighted flaws in the system and a lack of transparency over how decisions are being made.
MEDIA FREEDOM AWARDS: Georgina Henry award: The shortlist for Women in Journalism's (WIJ) Georgina Henry Award has been announced with the winner to be announced at the Media Freedom Awards next week. Organised by WIJ and sponsored by Wiggin, the award is used to support an initiative by the applicant. Applicants could be any age, working in either print or multimedia and the winner will also join the WiJ committee, and become an honorary Women in Journalism Fellow. Shortlist is linked.
BOOK LAUNCH - The Coal Anthology:
“The COAL Anthology is a moving and impactful tribute to the resilience and spirit of our mining communities.”
Lynn Dunning, CEO, National Coal Mining Museum England
A powerful collection of poems, prose and photographs, The Coal Anthology, is being launched at the National Coal Mining Museum England at Caphouse Colliery, Wakefield, on Saturday (November 9). The anthology commemorates the 40th anniversary of the Miners’ Strike with a rich and emotive tapestry of creative responses. To mark the launch, a special event will be taking place at the museum between 2pm and 3.30pm featuring readings from the anthology by the editors and contributors. Contributors to the book include the Poet Laureate Simon Armitage, Liz Berry, Gillian Clarke, Ian McMillan and Helen Mort, alongside newer voices also writing about mining and the communities that mean or meant so much to them. Tickets for the book launch are £5.
Thanks for reading and please like, share and subscribe. You are all wonderful! Nx