My First Author Talk

Selling books with long-time friend Vera

My first official author talk! I’ve done a couple before to small groups mostly made up of people I know but this was something completely different. For a start it was in a large hall, attended by about 40 people and I actually had a microphone!

I’d actually been quite nervous beforehand, knowing that I would be facing a larger crowd than normal, and I must confess I’d been honing and refining my talk for a couple of weeks beforehand. I hoped I’d set the right tone.

Let me set the scene. My novel A Suitable Young Man is set in the very real town of Horwich in Lancashire (mentioned before in one of my blogs Eulogy To my Home Town) in the 1950s when it was a bustling thriving town, quite heavily industrialised, the main source of employment for men being the Locomotive Works. When this closed down in 1983, the town was devastated. To hopefully give people more pride in their town, the organisation Horwich Heritage was founded. Thirty years on, it’s still thriving with an active membership. Even though I no longer live in Horwich, it still holds a very special place in my heart and I am a long-distance member.

Some months ago, it was arranged that I should give this author talk on the evening of Tuesday, 11^th August. I had been advised by a writer friend not just to talk about my writing and my book but to give lots of background information to my life. As many of you know, I spent quite a lot of my childhood years with my parents in domestic service so that was something I could describe. When I was 13, we moved back to Horwich. It’s been said that the person you are is synonymous with the place where you grew up and I think this is particularly true of me and the influence Horwich has had on me.

In my talk, I incorporated many memories of people and places eventually leading on to how and why I became a writer, finishing with a couple of readings from my book. Talking of my own experiences seemed to resonate with many attendees because, of course, the memories were theirs too. Despite my nervousness, I think the talk went down well, certainly people said they’d enjoyed it. My long-time friend Vera was helping me with selling books afterwards and I was delighted when a couple of women came up to me and said they’d already read my book!

The chairman, Stuart Whittle, suggested afterwards that I get in touch with a couple of free local papers and once back home this is what I did. To my delight, the editor contacted me for more details and has promised to plug my book in this weeks’ edition. And she’s promised to do a review of it.

Very happy with the way things have worked out!

Eulogy for my home town

After much thought, I decided to set my novel Save The Last Dance For Me (or it could well be called A Suitable Young Man - I haven't made up my mind yet), in my home town of Horwich in Lancashire. My logic was that I knew it well. When I lived there in the 1950s/1960s, it was a vibrant thriving town with a couple of mills and the Locomotive Works and many traditional independent shops. I found that using it as the location for my novel, it became as much a character of the book as any of the other characters.

Sadly, the Locomotive Works, then the main source of work for Horwich men, closed about 1968 followed soon after by the mills. 

I haven't lived there since 1967 but have returned there many times, especially with my mother before she died. Now that I live in Derbyshire, hubby and I try to go back at least once a year to tend the family grave and spend some time with a friend I've known for 60 years. 

Last weekend, we took a short break holiday to the area and on Saturday morning, as usual, took a walk around Horwich. It seemed as if every other shop was shuttered and the rest of the town looked shabby and careworn. One of my abiding memories had been the independent ironmongers', Buchanan's, with its pervading smell of firewood and paraffin. We were so sad, on Saturday, to see that, too, was closed and shuttered. It seemed to me then that the heart and soul of Horwich has gone. There's no doubt it my mind that the town has been killed off by the nearby retail park of Middlebrook.

At least, Horwich lives on in my memory and in my book!