‘Reader, I married them!’
This is where I say goodbye to Connie, Lizzie and Pamela – and it hasn’t been easy.
Looking back over the time since I first breathed life into these three characters, I find that we’ve been through a lot together.
It all began with a blank screen and Connie, whose lively decisiveness appealed to me from the start. Nothing gets her down for long and even though she sometimes rushes into things without thinking, she rarely feels sorry for herself and always takes responsibility for what she’s done. Then there was Lizzie; quieter than Connie but with the same self-reliant, can-do spirit. These girls have a tough energy and dogged determination to die for.
Pamela felt different. At first she acts as a naive, shy foil for the two more confident Harrison girls. She grows in stature as I present her with various challenges. Should she join the ARP and risk her life to save others, and will she break out of the shell of her overprotected childhood to fall in love?
Though I’ve set the Air Raid Girls books in the 1940s, we’re not talking about passive romantic heroines here – my girls are brave and independent and they represent the unbelievable strength and courage of that special generation. Imagine patrolling dark streets with little more than a tin helmet, a whistle and a gas mask for protection. I’m not sure I could have been that brave.
As a writer I do partly live the lives I describe. When I create scenes involving high levels of danger – air raids and violent assaults – it takes it out of me both physically and emotionally. By way of contrast, more gentle, loving episodes bring a feeling of quiet contentment. Big decisions – should a certain character live or die? – are not readily made. In other words, I’m closely involved in every detail from first to last and therefore it’s hard to let these people go.
So it’s a sad goodbye to Bert Harrison, typical Yorkshireman of those days – taciturn, watchful, wise – and goodbye to lovely Tom Rose, Connie’s no-fuss, understated love interest. Farewell to bold, carefree Bill Evans with his passion for the sea and for Lizzie, his bride, and to Fred Miller who survived terrible loss in pre-war Germany and discovers love and happiness and a new life abroad with Pamela.
As well as making a major investment in my characters, I couldn’t write these books without a vivid setting to support the action. Yorkshire plays a massive role in the creation of atmosphere and a solid sense of reality. It’s my home county and part of my DNA. Kelthorpe doesn’t exist except in my imagination, but any reader who’s visited Hull, Whitby or Robin Hood’s Bay will be able to visualize many of my locations, from timber yard and gas works down to pubs, bread shops and fish markets. And oh, that rugged East Yorkshire coastline!
Now, for my new book – The Ballroom Girls – I’m conjuring up new heroines and I’m moving counties! Enter Sylvia Ellis, Pearl Scott and Joy Hebden. I plan to make these girls dance their way through fierce rivalries and wartime difficulties. The place is Blackpool – yes, Lancashire! Think ‘Strictly’ and the Tower Ballroom in the 1940s. Think pastures new!
Until next time,
Jenny Holmes