Motivation to Publication – and beyond

Tag: England

  • Family History isn’t always about Family

    Family History isn’t always about Family

    I’m an avid reader – well, what a surprise. And although I enjoy crime novels, memoirs and mysteries I also like other books. So when The Bookbinder of Jericho appeared on my radar, being born in Oxford and knowing the place reasonably well, I wanted to read it. Well, what a lovely book. The author (or editor) helpfully put a map at the front so I could navigate my way round the streets of Oxford while enjoying the story.

    Set in the time of WW1, Peggy and her sister Maude, work at OUP (Oxford University Press), in the bindery. Peggy, however, has ambitions, she wants to go to Oxford University. Does she succeed? Well, I’ll leave you to read the book. This delightful story takes you back to that period in history and to the challenges that people faced then. Oxford and the First World War became real to me, more than just the pages of a book.

    So when I reached the end, and discovered an image of signatures from the actual bindery in 1915, I wanted to know more about the actual people who worked there. So I picked one – and here she is: Emily E. Steventon (did I choose her because her name was like mine? Perhaps).

    At the time of the 1911 census (just 4 years before her signature appears in the list of bindery staff), Emily was 31 (so around 35 in 1915). She was born in 1879 or 1890 and had a sister 11 years younger: Thirza Ellen Hedges. Note the different last names. The girls’ mum was also called Thirza and in 1911 she was a widow. In 1911, both girls worked for the University Printing Office, Emily as a book folder and Thirza as a book gatherer. They lived in Wellington Street.

    Emily’s dad was called Walter and, at the time of the 1881 census, was a fishmonger. It’s possible, however, that he died in 1887, and Thirza remarried very quickly (within months) – to a Joseph Hedges, with whom she had Thirza jnr. She also had two other children (with Walter): Emma and Caroline, although it’s possible that at some point Emma, sadly, died.

    By 1901, the family have moved down the road to another house in Wellington Street – the one they live at in 1911. But by 1901 Caroline (Emily’s older sister) has moved out (she marries in 1903). By 1911, Joseph too has died (he may have died in 1906) and there are only the three women: Thirza, Emily and Thirza jnr in the house.

    In 1915, the year of Emily’s signature in the book, her mum dies, aged around 59. In this same year, Thirza jnr gets married, to Harold George, but their marriage is short, because Harold dies in May 1921, at the same address in Wellington Street. Thirza and Harold had one child, a son, Ronald. Thirza lived much longer than her husband – until 1957, when she would have been around 65.

    Emily probably never married. In the 1921 census, she was 42 and living with her nephew Ronald (Thirza’s son) and his wife, Ellen. She died in the first quarter of 1929, aged just 50, so younger than her mother and sister were when they died. But Emily’s signature lives on in the records, and in Pip Williams’ book. And her life, and those of the people around her in Jericho won’t be forgotten. Family history isn’t always just about family.

    Join me for a family history workshop, looking specifically at memorabilia, photos, letters and other treasures this Friday (9 May). Tickets available from the Stratford Literary Festival website.

  • Edwardian England – what inspires me

    Edwardian England – what inspires me

    Somerset Monument, near Hawkesbury UptonJust a few weeks ago I was lucky enough to be at the Hawkesbury Upton Literature Festival, a brilliant event in its second year. I took part in readings and a panel, and on the panel (which was for historical novelists) we had to defend our own period – which in my case is the Edwardian (and Victorian) Era.

    The title of our presentation was:

    My era’s better than yours because…

    So here, for your amusement, is a slightly revised version of my presentation. Enjoy!

    The Edwardian Era: My Era’s Better than Yours – because in my era women got on their bikes

    The Edwardian period was the forerunner of the modern age. It was the age of dreams, the age of indulgence, it was also an age of great poverty. But most of all, it was an age of great opportunity, especially for women.

    Great Exhibition of 1851The Victorian period, which came before and lasted more than 60+ years (1837-1901)  was the age of invention, the age of creation: think huge glass domes of the Great Exhibition, the development of the railways, fantastic clothes using volumes of fabric and yes, the bicycle. But it was still an age of restriction for women.

    In 1881, The Rational Dress Society was formed, drawing attention to how women were restricted by the clothes they wore, including corsets and underwear.Victorian Woman

    The society believed that no woman should have to wear more than seven pounds of underwear. This may seem like a lot to you, but underwear then was made from gathered cotton or wool flannel which was both heavy and cumbersome. Seven pounds actually halved what was worn by most women in  the 1850s, when ladies would often wear up to 14 pounds of underclothes.  Imagine that! That’s 13 times this bag of sugar (below).

    Bag of Sugar - 500gEvery layer restricted their movements even more.

    It’s hard to feel free when you can’t stride, let alone run, when you can’t go anywhere on your own, without a chaperone, and when you’re bound up in rules and restrictions.

    Then came the bicycle.

    Bikes in one form or another had been around for some time, but the invention in the 1880s of the chain-driven safety bicycle with its smaller wheels was a great step forward. At the end of the century, the chain was enclosed making bikes much safer, especially for women whose skirts might otherwise easily catch. But did women get on their bikes in Victorian England? Mostly, they didn’t.

    At first, cycling was just for the rich, and then the women who did ride bikes, especially those who wore bloomers, or divided skirts, were ridiculed, fined or treated like prostitutes. This went on until the 1890s.

    Then things changed.

    With the death of Victoria, and the reign of the new king, Edward VII, who was generally known as ‘a bit of a one’, the rules of society relaxed somewhat. Women at last had more freedom. Yes, to ride bikes, because on a bike you were more independent, it was harder to be followed if you were on wheels, but also because of what they wore – clothing became freer and less restrictive.Edwardian fashion

    And in 1903, Emmeline Pankhurst formed the WSPU (Women’s Social and Political Union) which adopted the slogan of ‘Votes For Women’. They chose green, white, and purple as their official colours, symbolizing, hope, purity, and dignity. The world was finally opening up – for women – and for men.

    The Edwardian era was described by J. B. Priestley as ‘the lost golden age…… all the more radiant because it is on the other side of the huge black pit of war.’ It was a period when people believed anything was possible and although technically it ended in 1910 when Edward died, historians agree it can be extended, and the short years that followed before the First World War (1911-1914), were years of advancement, excitement and dreams. Take the Titanic.

    The Titanic was the world’s largest passenger ship when it entered service in 1912, and was all about luxury rather than speed; its owners knew they couldn’t compete with the speedier Cunard.

    Titanic’s interior was loosely inspired by London’s Ritz Hotel, and fittings and fixtures were still being finalised hours before Titanic sailed. No-one believed the ship would sink, and on its maiden voyage at that. Fifteen hundred people died. The catastrophe was shocking, not just because so many died, but because many were wealthy or well known, and it showed that man was not invincible, even if he had wealth and power.

    The ‘golden age’ that Priestley’s speaks of, only relates to Edwardian High Society, many people like Tom in my novel,  Shadows of the Lost Child, knew more about poverty, struggle and challenge but what the Edwardian England gave them, was the idea of choice: a sense of possibility for those who were brave, worked hard or were lucky. They might, if they tried, control their destiny.

    It might have been the First World War with its shifts in perception and the chance women had to show the world what they could do, that made key changes happen, but the excitement, the dreams and the vision that inspires change, all originated from the Edwardian age.