Using real historical events in my fiction has become
my focus more than ever since I started writing the Pennington’s Department
Store series. Before this series, I concentrated more on the romance than
actual events, but these days I want to write books with a stronger saga feel.
Emotions are felt the same today as they would have
been in the any given time period. We are humans, after all. Sadness, joy,
love, hate, disappointment…people feel these things in the same way, whether
it’s 1710, 1910 or 2010.
Writing emotion and romantic relationships are what I
love first and foremost but, with the Pennington’s series, I wanted to explore
women’s societal and political, too. In order to do that, I decided to focus on
a particular issue for each book.
For the first book, The Mistress of Pennington’s, I chose the issue of women trying to
succeed in business. The natural place for this desire, at least for me, was the
department stores of the 1800s. A place that was fostering a stronger and
stronger female presence as women came out of service and turned to shop work. I
researched how they were founded, who worked there, the position of female
workers, the unusual positions of
women in the workplace and, most of all, the roles of shop girls and their
opportunities.
For book 2, A
Rebel At Pennington’s, I wanted to focus on women’s suffrage – I cannot
stress enough how much I enjoyed delving deeper into a subject that has
fascinated and inspired me since I was a teenager. Most of us have heard of the
famous names in the fight for the vote. Names like Emmeline Pankhurst, Emily
Wilding Davison and Millicent Fawcett, but it wasn’t these women that inspired
my heroine, Esther Stanbury.
It was lesser known suffragists (peaceful) rather than
suffragettes (militant) and their contributions to the Cause that ensure Esther’s
character was as authentic and relatable as possible. Women like Catherine
Marshall who led peaceful campaigning by submitting articles to the press,
setting up stalls and handing out awareness literature. Women like Nina Boyle
who was one of the pioneers in the women’s police service. These women were
phenomenal in their achievements, yet completely unknown to me.
So how many more women played an integral part in a
fight that lasted decades?
I was honoured to research and learn about their
struggles. In the book, Esther is torn between remaining a suffragist or
joining the suffragettes, a dilemma I’m sure a lot of women faced. There were,
most certainly, women who ‘jumped sides’, whether due to frustration and
resorting to militancy, or women who came to abhor the violence and turned to
peaceful campaigning.
The other big event I used as a backdrop in A Rebel At Pennington’s is the
coronation of King-Emperor George V. This iconic event meant I could bring some
real British pomp and ceremony to the book and add a splash of colour to a
story that covers a tough issue…not to mention the struggle to find everlasting
love!
History is all around us and it’s something that we
should all take time and pleasure in learning. I can’t see that I will give up
writing historical fiction any time soon and look forward to discovering more
about the amazing women who went before us…
Happy Reading,
Rachel x
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