Writing inspiration from family history

My dad was a great storyteller. It was listening to his tales about growing up in a Norfolk village during the Second World War that sparked my interest in this period, and eventually inspired me to write historical fiction.

My latest book, Secrets and Promises, has a good dose of family history in it, including some details direct from my dad. The bicycle which Bessie rides, a trade bike, like the ones shops used to use for their deliveries, was inspired by my dad’s own bicycle. Just after my parents were married, he bought a trade bike from a scrapyard for 10 shillings and gave it an overhaul and new tyres. He rode that bicycle to work every day for many years, and rather than having a wicker basket in the front, he had a large cardboard box which he replaced for another one when it became too battered.

When I was little, I rode in the box at the front until I was able to ride a bicycle of my own. I can remember sitting cross legged in the box, loving bowling along the road with my dad pedalling behind.

My Dad’s bicycle – sadly no longer used as he died five years ago.

During the Second World War, many things were in short supply in England, and so people improvised with what they could find. My dad and his brothers used to gather window (the thin strips of foil dropped from planes to confuse the radar) which they found hanging in the hedgerows around the village. The shiny strips made perfect decorations for their Christmas tree, and this inspired me to use the same in Secrets and Promises.

Window – as seen at the Norfolk and Suffolk Aviation Museum.

“The house was looking beautiful too, Bessie thought. They’d trimmed the living room up with holly and ivy, draping sprigs over the mantelpiece and around picture frames. The pine-scented Christmas tree, which Harry had cut down, was laden with decorations. Old ones which had been in their family for years, and some new ones made by Peter and Marigold. They had collected dropped silver foil window, from bomber planes, which gathered in hedges and turned it into decorations that glittered and twinkled prettily against the green tree.”