Month: January 2014

Jeremy Paxman\’s programme about WW1 uses this photo in the introduction. I hope my research holds up to his scrutiny. I have tried to portray how this devastating conflict impacted on the lives of ordinary, working class people but also how it broke down the barriers between class and gender and changed our world forever. I hope the fact that the BBC has also chosen this image means I got it right. For me, it spoke of the often unknown role of women in that war, who worked as hard as the men they loved and who found strength, companionship and new freedoms, as well as tragedy.

I added Daffodils, instead of poppies, to symbolise the different role that women played to men during the war, but also to indicate that some positive things came out of the sorrow, including new beginnings for society in Britain, especially its women.

Ocean liners had refined crossing the Atlantic by 1919, having learnt from the disaster of the Titanic what NOT to do and installing a lot more lifeboats, but many of the biggest ones were in dry dock that year, having been used as troopships during World War One. This made research rather tricky! but here\’s some files I found interesting. The interiors of these ships were lavish but severely segregated by class.

And a promotion will shortly follow!
Feedback on the new look is very welcome from those who have read it and for those who would like to!

I recently re-edited the entire book, added a scene I\’d deleted from the first draft, and hopefully cleaned up any typos. So it deserved a new look!

Join Roxanne in her sunkissed vineyards as she unravels a mystery and falls in love. All she was trying to do was escape for a while….