Research rabbit hole ~ The Great Depression

The years of the Great Depression were hard for the working classes of Southampton. They had no control over what was happening, and most had little understanding of the causes. The Roaring Twenties had bypassed them. Men working in low-paid, insecure jobs, had no money for frivolity or playing the stock market. They lived from hand to mouth at the best of times. Sadly, the depression, when it came, did not bypass them. Lives that had always been hard became harder. There was little for it but to carry on as best they could. This is the world the characters in Seventh Daughter inhabited, and researching the political and economic climate in 1931 led me down some interesting rabbit holes.

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Who was Tommy Lewis?

Thomas Lewis

Seventh Daughter, the third book in my historic fiction series, is currently being prepared for publication and should be available shortly. The story is set in the summer of 1931 when helping a neighbour unleashes a chain of events that threatens to tear the close-knit but impoverished Northam Street community apart. A few of the characters will be familiar to anyone who has read Plagued and Land Fit For Heroes. One new character is mentioned several times, although he doesn’t make an appearance. Most residents of Southampton will recognise his name, Thomas Lewis, but how many know his story? I think it is about time I got round to telling it.

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Memories of the early 70’s – a dismal kind of year

1970

When 1970 dawned, it marked the beginning of the second decade of my life. If the 1960’s had seemed filled with possibilities, music, flowers and love, this new decade seemed filled with sadness, at least in our house. My lovely Dad was dead and life would never be the same for us. Money, which had never been of any concern to me, suddenly became a big issue, mostly because we didn’t have enough of it. Mother got something called a Widow’s Pension, but it wasn’t enough to pay the mortgage and feed and clothe us. She still had to go to work and, when I wasn’t at school, I was left in the care of Pappy, who was desolate at the loss of his eldest son.  Continue reading Memories of the early 70’s – a dismal kind of year