Remembering Rosemary Goodacre and her new novel, Until We Can Forgive

It’s three weeks now since we were saddened to hear of the death of our friend and fellow author, Rosemary Goodacre

Rosemary had been ill but was recovering and looking forward to the release of the third novel in her Derwent Chronicles series, Until We Can Forgive. She was busy getting started on her blog tour questions, when she was sadly taken from us. Here we recall times we’ve spent with Rosemary, and take a look at her latest novel.

 

 

 

 

Francesca: I first met Rosemary in an Adult Education class for creative writing, run by Elaine Everest, back in 2006. We’d been in various classes together since that time, as well as both attending Writers’ Holiday weeks and many Romantic Novelist Association events. Often she wrote things that were a little different, like a novel she was working on several years ago that involved chemistry classes and poisonings!

She was a well informed and cultured woman, with knowledge of foreign languages, yet never blew her own trumpet. She was great fun at social events. I recall the last RNA conference we were at, one evening, sitting around our flat’s kitchen table, playing a game which involved singing various songs, and Rosemary joining in as enthusiastically as the rest of us (I dare say a little alcohol was involved!). She will be sorely missed by me, and there’ll be a Rosemary-shaped hole in our group of friends for evermore.

Elaine: I first met Rosemary at The Write Place in 2012. I will always remember Rosemary as a well read and intelligent person. Her interests were quite diverse, as indeed was her reading. I know she loved playing bridge, going to the theatre and having some more unusual holidays. However, she also had a scatty side to her unassuming nature. She was a lovely lady that would never want to offend anyone and was also someone you couldn’t get cross with.

When we were travelling to Romantic Novelist’s Association events together, like the conferences, she was often waiting for everyone in the wrong place. We all worried about losing her when we were going anywhere as a group. I remember arranging to meet her just inside the doorway of a summer party we were both attending and I waited for sometime before I was told she was already upstairs. She was very apologetic when she realised but it was just another moment where you just thought ‘that’s Rosemary’, she didn’t have a malicious bone in her whole body.

I will miss her more than words can say, as I’m sure everyone who knew her will.

Until We Can Forgive

Spring 1919: WW1 is over and a fragile peace has descended over the country. Now living in Cambridge with husband Edmond, Amy Derwent is settling into her new life as wife and mother to little Beth. But the shadow of the Great War looms large, particularly as the injuries Edmond sustained at Ypres still take their toll on him today.

Edmond’s cousin, Vicky, has now grown into a fine young woman, eager to help her
country. Throwing off her privileged background to train as a nurse, she spends her days tending to the many soldiers still suffering the after-effects of their time on the battlefield.

Meeting Maxim Duclos, a young Frenchman who has arrived in Larchbury, fills her heart with joy – but when it is discovered that Maxim may be hiding the truth about his past, Vicky is faced with an impossible choice. Follow her heart’s desire and risk her family’s disapproval or keep her family – but deny herself the chance of true love?

The war may be over, but Edmond, Amy and Vicky must all face a new battle, finding their own peace in a country wounded by loss.

Available on Kindle and paperback at:

Amazon

Kobo

The first two books of the Derwent Chronicles:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Available here:

Until We Meet Again

Until the War is Over

Follow the rest of Rosemary’s tour:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Guest Author Rosemary Goodacre On Her Saga, Until We Meet Again

We welcome back writer Rosemary Goodacre, whose World War 1 saga is out today

Hello Rosemary and thank you for visiting the Write Minds blog with your new book Until We Meet Again.

Hello, Francesca and Elaine, thank you for welcoming me to the Write Minds Blog.

What led you to writing about World War 1 as opposed to another period in time?                               

I suppose it was all the media interest as the centenary came up. My grandparents could remember the Great War, yet in many ways it seems like another world.

With the novel being set over a hundred years ago, what kind of research did you have to undertake?                                                                                                                                                   

I read memoirs from the time. There was also a wonderful film called They Shall Not Age, which was reprocessed documentary WWI film with colour added. There was even dialogue, which they had constructed from the original speech, with the help of lipreaders. You could get a vivid impression of the hardship the men actually encountered in the trenches.

How do you come up with characters and are they ever inspired by real people

Sometimes real people give me an idea for a character, though they may need adapting to have the outlook people would have had at the time: for example, at least at the beginning of the war, women had much less freedom. Sometimes a fictional character who was inspired by a real person suddenly takes over and insists on setting off in a different direction!

Which character from the book have you most enjoyed writing?                                       

The hero and heroine, Edmond and Amy, became brave, inspiring people when their world suddenly became so dangerous and challenging. I kept thinking of the men who somehow managed to joke and sing, even in the trenches.

How did you get started in writing?                                                                                                         

I’ve written stories for many years, and sometimes become immersed in entire novels. I started going to classes and gradually became more serious about getting published. The occasional early success with a short story boosted my morale. I like to think I’ve become more professional as the years have passed.

How do you organise your writing day?                                                                                                        I allocate some dedicated writing time so I don’t get bogged down in domestic distractions or too involved in leisure pursuits. I’ll have put together an outline of the story to start with, and done some preliminary research, so I’ll charge ahead with the whole story and then go back to see what needs correcting or improving.

What can your readers look forward to next?                                                                                   

I’m working on a sequel to Until We Meet Again, so I’m hoping Amy and Edmond will be back before long!

We’re so glad you could drop by to talk to us. All the best with Until We Meet Again.

It’s been lovely visiting your site, thank you so much for having me as your guest.

 

Until We Meet Again

The Great War drove them apart – but love kept them together

Summer 1914: Shy young woman, Amy Fletcher, lives a quiet life in Sussex. An office worker, she lives at home, along with her parents and spirited younger brother, Bertie. But her life is transformed when she meets handsome young man, Edmond Derwent, son of one of the wealthiest families in the small town of Larchbury, and student at Cambridge University.

The couple are falling deeply in love when war breaks out and, eager to do his duty for England, Edmond signs up as an officer. The couple plan to be wed, eager to start a new life together – but their happiness is short-lived when Edmond is sent to Flanders to lead his men into battle. Amy trains as a VAD nurse and is soon sent to France, where she sees the true horror of war inflicted on the brave young men sent to fight.

Separated by war, Edmond and Amy share their feelings through emotional letters sent from the front line. But when Edmond is critically wounded at Ypres, their love faces the biggest test of all – can their love stay strong while the world around them is crumbling?

A romantic, emotional saga set in WW1 – readers of Rosie Goodwin, Katie Flynn and Val Wood will be captivated by this story of love.

Until We Meet Again can be purchased on:                                                                                              Amazon                                                                                                                                                                    Apple                                                                                                                                                                                    Kobo

About Rosemary Goodacre                                                                                               

Rosemary Goodacre has previously worked in computing and teaching. She has had short stories published and a novella, A Fortnight is not Enough.

Her father’s family came from continental Europe and she loves travelling.
She enjoys country walking, bridge and classical music. She lives with her husband in Kent, England.

You can find Rosemary on Facebook and Twitter

 

Read more about  Until We Meet Again by following the tour:

This Was Real Girl Power!

Elaine Roberts and Francesca Capaldi Burgess talk about how the First World War affected women on the home front.

Elaine: My World War One (WW1) saga, The Foyles Bookshop Girls, is based in London’s West End. When I started writing, it I must admit to being a little ignorant of how life was back in 1914. History wasn’t my strong point at school; I only remember learning about dates and royalty. However, I knew about the suffragette movement and the trench warfare of WW1, but I had to do considerable research about women at the home front, at this time. To be honest, I knew more about World War Two, so I don’t really know why I didn’t choose to write about that.

While the First World War wasn’t the only catalyst for change for women, it did bring women to the forefront of society. Prior to the war, many employers refused to take on married women, so it was mainly single women or widows that were employed outside of the home. Once the men had enlisted to fight for King and Country, women were actively encouraged to leave domestic service and take on more difficult and strenuous work. It’s no coincidence that it was after WW1 that some women got the right to vote and a few were allowed to stand as members of parliament, although that did take a few years to happen. On a practical level, hems got shorter and, in some cases, fashion took on a more military theme. With the men away, they also became the main wage earner; in some cases, the only wage earner. They took on managing the home, the family and elderly relatives, as well as managing the money. Earning a wage, albeit less than men doing the same work, also brought about the feeling of independence for the first time.

 

One of my great grandmothers, 1970s, in the ‘kitchen’ of her house, still reminiscent of the one she had in the mining village in the 1910s.

Francesca: The novel I’m currently working on, set in a Welsh mining village in the First World War, had its origins in my own family. Both my maternal great grandmothers were bringing up small children in 1914, two miles away from each other in the Rhymney Valley. I first got interested specifically in social history in the late Seventies, during my history degree. The story of the woman on the street, field, or in the case of my novel, the mine, is so much more fascinating than that of politicians and monarchs.

The experience of women in coal mining towns would have been a little different to that of other women in Britain, since most still had their men at home, precluded by the 1916 Military Service Act from enlisting. Life on the monetary front was a little easier than it had been before the war, because of pay increases due to the urgent necessity of steam coal for the navy. But a little more money in your pocket is of no consequence when food becomes short, as it did quite quickly. Women tended to feed their husbands and children first. This often meant they went without. Their health suffered as a consequence.  Many women in these working class environments died of diseases they couldn’t resist, or in childbirth.

Women were considered feeble not only physically but often intellectually. Most working women were in domestic service or did shop and clerical work. Others, mainly middle class women, went into nursing or teaching, but had to leave once they married. Many women, including those in mining villages, took work in at home, like laundry, sewing and knitting.

My Italian paternal grandmother, c1914. She was a war widow and bought her own business in England in the 1930s.

Women’s position in the work place changed during the war, as more men signed up and were eventually conscripted. Women took on factory jobs, then farming jobs when the Women’s Land Service Corp got going in May 1915 (Becoming the Women’s Land Army in 1917). In mining villages, women had long done the job of screening coal. As the labourers who emptied trucks at the top of the pit were sent to war, women were employed to take these back breaking jobs on too.

Some men refused to work with women, afraid that if they could handle the work, it would be undervalued. They were right to be worried. After initial scepticism about women’s ability to cope in the factories, a report in November 1915 found that women were, in fact, more efficient!

Despite coping and getting on with the challenges, women were still seen as poor, weak creatures, in need of ‘Guardians’ to look out for misconduct. The police were also encouraged to keep an eye on them. Women got an allowance while their husbands were away fighting, but the newspapers created the idea that women were frittering it away on items like alcohol. Regardless of this, for many women who’d been bullied by their husbands, it was a time of freedom.

By the end of the war, there were many widows, or women who would never get the chance to marry. They found themselves in a position where they had to work, or keep on working, in order to live. Many women who campaigned to retain their jobs after the war, and fought for equal pay, were considered ‘hussies’. They weren’t discouraged, but kept on fighting to improve their working lives.

We have a lot to thank them for.

 

Twitter: @FCapaldiBurgess         @RobertsElaine11

Elaine’s Facebook Author Page

Amazon: The Foyles Bookshop Girls

Francesca’s Competition Monthly on the RNA Blog