As part of the blog tour for her latest book, Living in the Shadows, Judith Barrow has popped over to my blog today to let us know the importance of researching her novels. Over to you, Judith.
I
don’t think it occurred to me not to research for any of my novels. For them to
come alive for my readers I needed the world that my characters lived in to be
believable; to be real. How could I write Pattern
of Shadows, a story set during the war, if I didn’t know what it was like
to live with the hardship, the fear, even the attitude of the great British
“stiff upper lip” and the determination to live life to the full against the
background of a World War? Or portray realistic characters unless they were
shown to exist in an authentic, convincing world of rationing and “make do” that
was Britain in the nineteen fifties; the background of the sequel, Changing Patterns.
So,
when I set out to write this last book of the trilogy, Living in the Shadows, I started with a whole raft of research under
my belt that had taken me months to collect and study.
Set
in 1969, the background for Living in the
Shadows, had a particular fascination for me. I grew up in a small village
in the Pennines; well away from the excitement and razzmatazz that the sixties
brought; the music of the Beatles, the fashions and lifestyles of Twiggy, Mary
Quant, Jean Shrimpton, Mods and Rockers, and the concept of the culture of
“free love”, brought about by the emergence of Hippies. It was a world I viewed
from a distance. In a household where newspapers were banned and televisions
came and went back to Radio Rentals at the drop of a hat and on my father’s
whim, I only read about these things in covertly bought magazines. It was some
years before it all became a reality for me. 1969 to be exact!
Consequently
researching for Living in the Shadows was
as time consuming and absorbing as it was for the first two books.
To
imagine the places that my characters move between, I made maps of both
Ashford, the Lancashire town, and Llamroth, the Pembrokeshire village. Each
location is complete with street names, pubs, churches and parks. Ashford also
has the railways, the canal and the Granville; the Prisoner of War camp that
is, in one way or another, the backdrop of all three novels. By pinning the maps on the notice board in my
study, I can see each scene in my mind.
I also
have files for all three novels, sub divided into various topics such as: World
News, Politics, Laws, Current Culture, Money, Fashions (for men and women), Hairstyles,
Houses (in this I include household equipment/ styles/ furniture etc.), Food, Education,
Shops, Entertainment (cinema films, dances
etc.), Transport, Children, Toys, Names.
I
think names are so important; think of characters called Bertha or Hilda and
then one of Kylie – conjures up a whole new image doesn’t it?
And
talking of images, I’ve collected photographs from every era I’ve written
about. Having a picture of a street, a house, or a fashion, makes it simpler to
describe every time. A detail here, a feature there, all add to the realism of
a setting, of an event.
It’s
beguiling stuff, this research. And that’s the danger; sometimes, before I
realise it, I’ve spent hours, drifting from one enthralling area of study to
another.
My
books are family sagas. I like to think of them as life stories; they cross
other genres: crime fiction, romance, historical fiction. Whatever they are,
they’ve needed research. Taken as stand-alone books or as the trilogy, I always
know when I've done enough research to bring my characters to life in their
setting. And it’s only then that I start to write.
BUY
LINKS: AMAZON UK & Honno
https://twitter.com/barrow_judith
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