Its All In The Detail

A few weeks ago I did something I've been meaning to do for a long time - I visited Cheshire Records Office.  I've drafted a book set in Chester in WWII and now that I'm editing it, I need more details of what life was really like in the area.  I'm fortunate that I don't have to travel far to get my hands on all this lovely history, but still I never seemed to make the time.

It might sound a bit boring for some, but for me it was a thoroughly enjoyable day.  I phoned in advance to book a microfiche screen and when I was there I had to register and was given a free membership card for the next five years.  You are only allowed to take pen and paper into the main library so I was given a locker key where I had to stow my bag away.  (I felt like a proper historian!) and then I was shown how to work the machine and where to find the tapes for each newspaper in the timescale I wanted.

Obviously I've done a fair bit of research already but what I really wanted to know was how the run up to the war affected people and what was in the papers at the outbreak of war.  

It felt really strange to read a newspaper which is still a weekly publication today, but from all those years ago.

These days we don't currently have a cinema in Chester but then there were three.  The week before war broke out, one was Showing Stage Coach with Claire Trevor, John Wayne and John Carradine and the other The Perfect Specimen starring Errol Flynn.

I found out what the main shops were in the centre and adverts which were truly of the day.

Browns of Chester have men and materials available now to black out your home in accordance with the ARP.

Each year Cheshire holds a county show.  Now its in June, based near Knutsford, but then it was scheduled for 7 September at the Roodee which is Chester's racecourse.  The week before there was a big page spread showing who was going to be show and the next a tiny box saying that it had been cancelled.

At the outbreak of war everyone feared that Hitler would instantly bomb Britain so all the precautions were in place but the saddest one I found was this:

Send pets into the country.  It is better to have your pet destroyed than to leave it to wander about.

Poor things - I'm not sure that I could have done that.  Mind you, I'm not sure if I had lived a city, that I would have been able to let my children be evacuated either.  

It just makes you realise how lucky we all are now.

But on a happier note, it was a thoroughly productive day, hopefully the first of many I will spend immersed in the past.

Into the Groove

Well now, the suitcases are all unpacked and put away, clothes washed and ironed and I’ve spent the week trying to catch up on the things I should have been doing whilst I was lying in the sun.

Before I go away I always think that I’ve done everything I can to make my homecoming as smooth as possible but I always seem to be on the back foot playing catch up.  It doesn’t help that we have a lot of social / family commitments this month so I’m trying to get my head round what needs to be done.  Still, I’d rather be busy than bored.

And despite all this I’m still trying to hang onto the holiday vibe.

As usual we stayed at an all-inclusive hotel.  One of these days, when the boys are older, I dream of staying in a remote villa with complete peace and quiet, but I know if we tried that now the boys would be complaining within five minutes that there is nothing to do.

Here at least there are plenty of other children for them to play with and all sorts of facilities and activities to keep them occupied and entertained.  The complex was fairly small so now that the boys are older, we can give them some independence, but it was good to still be able to keep an eye on them.

I’m afraid we’re not very adventurous on holiday.  For a long time now my husband has been working seven days a week, most weeks and he just needed a break.  As long as the sun is there he’s happy to lie by the pool working hard on his tan, and I’m equally happy to read and write.

For this my Kindle is a godsend as I am not limited to the amount of books I can take with me and can pick and choose what I want to read whilst I am away.  Also, I send my own writing to my Kindle and this holiday I reviewed the first draft of a novel I have written and plotted out what needs to be changed or added.  I love seeing my writing on the Kindle, it feels as though it is “proper” writing, and I was pleased that there were a lot of things I really liked about the novel.

It is set in Chester both in the present day and during World War II.  To have written it to this stage I have already done quite a bit of research, both about the war in general and more specifically about life in Chester during the war.  Now it’s time to delve a bit deeper and so I’m looking forward to going to the Records Office to get down to the finer details.  In the meantime there is plenty I can edit in the sections which cover the present day. 

I have come back with renewed enthusiasm to start work on this and just hope I can maintain that enthusiasm now that I’m faced with the nitty-gritty of real life.