Research rabbit hole ~ Portswood 1935

Portswood Road – The Palladium is on the right

I lived in Portswood for a couple of years in the early 1980s, in a flat on Belmont Road, so when I wrote A Dish Best Served Cold, and my characters took me there, I already had a feel for the area. Things were different in Portswood in 1935, but modern-day Portswood still has remnants of its past glory, if you look closely. These, along with old photographs and searches through Kelly’s Directories, formed the bones of my story’s world. As usual, my research led me down some interesting rabbit holes and uncovered lots of snippets of information, many of which never made it onto the page. Rather than waste them, I’ll share them with you now.

Continue reading Research rabbit hole ~ Portswood 1935

The conclusion of the camp fire tales

17 January 2017

Every Saturday morning we drive up The Avenue to the Common for parkrun and, for several weeks now, we’ve commented on the broken drinking fountain on Asylum Green, the grassy verge in the centre of the two carriageways.  Now, while we were deciding which route the Frontiersmen and their Remount horses would have taken to Portswood, I took the opportunity to take a photo of it.  Continue reading The conclusion of the camp fire tales