The Great Depression – I Walk Alone

Research rabbit hole ~ population control 1931

Daisy Woodman, the inspiration for my third book, Seventh Daughter, was the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter. She was one of nine children, and her mother, Florence Weaver, was one of eleven. Large families were nothing out of the ordinary in the early 1900s, but family sizes decreased dramatically in the first half of the twentieth century. Today, a seventh daughter would be a very rare thing indeed, and this is, in part, due to a book, Married Love, written by Marie Stopes in 1918. Marie Stopes’ book didn’t contain any new or revolutionary information about contraception, it simply made it available to the masses.

Research rabbit hole ~ 1931, the oldest profession

Being a writer means stepping out of your comfort zone and trying to understand other people’s lives and motivations. Nancy, one of the main characters in Seventh Daughter, was a prostitute, and my research into her backstory uncovered many interesting facts and tales. For instance, East Street was the home of Southampton’s brothels in medieval times. They were known as ‘the stews’ because they had hot air or vapour baths, and the authorities tolerated them because the fines levied against the women and their customers were an excellent source of income. On December 19th, 1544, they were closed after a series of incidents and disturbances. This didn’t stop prostitution in the town. Instead, it moved it to other locations.

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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