Back in Time For a Cup of Coffee at The Criterion

Francesca talks about the inspiration behind her 3-part serial, The Criterion, which begins in The People’s Friend this coming week. 

The Criterion in the 1970s, having gone through a name change

I know I’ve mentioned before on this blog how some of my writing has been inspired by my family history. The very first novel I wrote, a Young Adult called Sea Angel, came about because of my own experience working in the family cafe as a teenager. My short story Far From Home,  published in the anthology 7 Food Stories from Rome began as my attempt to imagine what it might be like to move to England from Italy as a young widow with a twelve-year-old son, as my grandmother did. The idea for the historical novel I’m currently working on came from a World War One document I found on Ancestry.co.uk detailing the discharge of a Welsh great-grandfather on medical grounds.

The Criterion today, now a hair salon

The first of those is a contemporary, while the latter two both take place in 1915. My serial for The People’s Friend, The Criterion shifts to a different time entirely: 1955. It’s the era of the Ten Pound Poms, and the story begins with my main female character, Gwen Hughes, talking to her disgruntled grandmother about her impending departure to Australia. Renzo Crolla, the male protagonist, owns a cafe in Worthing, The Criterion of the title.

Some of the characters in the serial are based on real people, some are an amalgam, while others are completely fictitious. The story is based only very loosely on that of my family (I might tell you the real story one day). The Criterion in Worthing, however, was a real cafe, owned by my grandmother and father, a kind of character in itself. My grandmother, a war widow, emigrated to England in 1927 with my father. Much of her family were already over here. In 1930 she bought

My mum behind the counter c1958

The Criterion from her brother. I was born in the cafe twenty-eight years later and lived there until I was nearly four-years-old. My father rented the cafe out for a further seven years. Finally he sold it in 1968. It went on being a cafe for a number of years afterwards, known as the Californian, but today it’s a hairdressing salon.

The building itself is Georgian, so what it was originally I have no idea, presumably not a cafe. Perhaps my next project will be to find out something of its history. If I gather enough material I might be able to use it for another story!

Evening trade, c1958

 

The Criterion, a 3-part serial, starts in The People’s Friend in the issue dated 27th May.

7 Food Stories from Rome is available here.

In the story, Renzo was interned on the Isle of Man during World War 2, as was my father. The piece I wrote for The Guardian about it can be viewed here

 

Me outside the cafe, 1959, with Worthing promenade in the background

Mum and Dad in 1955

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

@FCapaldiBurgess

Hi-de-Hi! Welcome back to Elaine Everest, with her new novel, The Butlins Girls

Elaine Everest’s new novel, The Butlins Girls, is released today. We’re thrilled to welcome her back to the blog to tell us about it.

Thank you both for hosting me on your blog. I see you’ve moved the furniture about since I was last here and there’s more wine in the fridge! Ready to celebrate, Elaine!

It was nice meeting Freda again in The Butlins Girls. Did you enjoy bringing characters forward from The Woolworths Girls, and is it something you will continue to do?

I really like moving my characters from novel to novel. Even a small mention of a character will have a reader stop and think… Freda was the ideal person to appear in The Butlins Girls as, like Molly and her mother, she had links to the local Girl Guides and Brownies and in 1946 did not have a husband or young family.

What or who inspired the character Johnny Johnson?

I found Johnny because of my love of old musicals. I was watching Easter Parade, starring Fred Astaire and Judy Garland, when ‘my Johnny’ appeared as Jonathan Harrow III played by Peter Lawford. A tall handsome man with just a hint of humour – perfect!

Without giving too much away, Harriet and Simon are not very nice people. Do you enjoy writing the bad characters?

I love a baddie! They can do horrid things, and say almost what they like, then we can give them their comeuppance – great fun for a writer. I also like to see how my pleasant characters cope when they are faced with these kind of people.

The covers of your novels are very eye catching, particularly with the red spine. Do you have any input into them?

I’m fortunate in that Pan Macmillan included me when the models were chosen for the cover of The Woolworths Girls along with designs of the uniforms of that time. This set the style of my covers and the design team have so far kept faithfully to that theme. Having just seen the cover design for the next Woolworths book I can say that they have done another great job!

I’m sure your readers will love to know how you come up with the ideas for your novels.

I usually start with my setting. I like to keep my ‘patch’ as South East London. Erith was still in Kent ‘back then’ but, as London grew, it was swallowed up and lost the image of a little town on the banks of the Thames. These days older people have only memories of the town as it used to be and it is these memories I keep true when writing my books. I like to find out what was happening at the time I set the book and then weave my characters through this with their problems and dreams.

Your books are sagas, so are traditionally longer then contemporary novels. How much time do you allow for writing them?

Sometimes not enough when a deadline is looming! My writing time would be 5 – 6 months but before that I’d be thinking what to write and jotting down ideas and links to research material. I’ve been busier this past year as there is more than my one book being published in 2017.

Research is obviously involved with your books. How much do you do and how do you resource it?

When I plan a story I like to do this fairly quickly and pencil in any research I need to do. At the stage where I flesh out my outline into a chapter breakdown I add links to information and start to pile up my collection of non-fiction books and articles that I’ve collected over the years. Most of these books remain on the table until I type ‘the end’. Apart from written material I will use online sources as well as local council archives. You will also find me watching old movies and documentaries to get a flavour of what life was like in the period of time where my book is set.

What’s next?

I’d like to say a six-month cruise but no, I’m already working on another novel that’s due for publication in May 2018 and my deadline is five months away. I’m thrilled there is another Woolworths novel being published in time for Christmas and that I can revisit my Woolies Girls and also introduce a few new characters and romances.

Thank you for your interesting questions.

Thank you, Elaine, and good luck with the book.

 

About Elaine

Elaine Everest was born and brought up in North West Kent, where many of her books are set. She has written widely for women’s magazines, with both short stories and features. When she isn’t writing, Elaine runs The Write Place creative writing school in Dartford, Kent, and runs social media for the Romantic Novelists’ Association.

Elaine lives with her husband, Michael, and their Polish Lowland Sheepdog, Henry, in Swanley, Kent.

Facebook Author Page

Twitter: @ElaineEverest

 

‘Molly Missons gazed around in awe. So this was Butlin’s. Whitewashed buildings, bordered by rhododendrons, gave a cheerful feeling to a world still recovering from six years of war. The Skegness holiday camp covered a vast area, much larger than Molly expected to see.’

Molly Missons hasn’t had the best of times recently. Having lost her parents, now some dubious long-lost family have darkened her door – attempting to steal her home and livelihood…

After a horrendous ordeal, Molly applies for a job as a Butlin’s Aunty. When she receives news that she has got the job, she immediately leaves her small hometown – in search of a new life in Skegness.

Molly finds true friendship in Freda, Bunty and Plum. But the biggest shock is discovering that star of the silver screen, Johnny Johnson, is working at Butlin’s as head of the entertainment team. Johnny takes an instant liking to Molly and she begins to shed the shackles of her recent traumas. Will Johnny be just the distraction Molly needs – or is he too good to be to be true?

Published by Pan Macmillan on May 4th and available from Amazon