Reaching Into The Past For Writing Inspiration

As the author of eight historical novels, it’s a strange thing to me now that I didn’t enjoy history at school. I found the lists of dates and acts of parliament very dull and I never made the fascinating connection as to the effect these had on the man, or woman, in the street.

What I did enjoy, even as a young child, were visits to stately homes where I drifted around in a daydream, making up stories about the lives of the inhabitants. Afterwards, I’d visit the library to discover more information about how people lived in times gone by. It never occurred to me then that this enjoyable pastime was a brilliant way to learn about history. 

When I was ten, my maternal grandmother came to live with my family. I loved to look at her photograph albums and hear her family stories and anecdotes, which vividly brought to life her parents, grandparents, eight siblings, cousins and ‘the Aunts’. In those days, every family seemed to have an unmarried aunt or three who would be passed around to care for elderly relatives or to help out in times of sickness. 

When Granny Dorothy was nine, her forty-two-year-old father died of pneumonia. I’ve never forgotten her telling me how the church was decorated with armfuls of lilies for the funeral and she was never again able to bear their perfume. My great-grandmother Charlotte was left with nine children to bring up on a restricted income and, when her childless brother-in-law and his wife asked to adopt young Dorothy, she refused but did accept their offer to bring her up. 

Dorothy’s new home was an imposing manor house and farm in the Cotswolds. She was given a pony to ride the nine miles to school and she and her cousin Frank, who had also been taken in by Uncle Bertie and Aunt Ester, used to help with the haymaking. Dorothy often went home to visit her mother and siblings during the holidays and she had plenty of tales to tell me about their mischievous exploits. 

Dorothy went on to train as a teacher and, during WWI, she volunteered to help at tea parties for convalescent soldiers. It was at one of these parties that she met my grandfather and they married while he was on leave. After the war he returned from the Western Front and they went up to his home town the industrial north to begin married life in a terraced house near the docks. It was very different from what she was used to but she never complained. She received a wonderfully warm welcome from her husband’s family, who declared her to be a ‘proper lady’! 

At this time, several of Dorothy’s siblings were encouraged to emigrate to Canada by her strong-willed and eccentric sister, Nancy. They lived a pioneer existence until sheer hard work changed their fortunes. While I was growing up, I heard stories of their adventures and met some of the second and third generation of Canadian cousins. Nancy was widowed and returned to England and, when I was a child, I used to stay with her in her Dorset cottage. It had a spotlessly clean chemical WC in the garden, water was drawn from a well and Nancy grew her own vegetables. 

I’ve recently inherited the family albums of fading sepia photographs together with scrapbooks my grandmother’s father made for his children, full of beautiful little pen and ink sketches. Dorothy always enjoyed drawing and her daughter, my mother, became an excellent artist. In turn, I took up a career in design.

Dorothy was born in 1892 and it’s only now I appreciate that many of the relatives in the stories she told me were Victorians. The Victorian and Edwardian eras may seem a long time ago to my grandchildren but I feel as if I could almost reach back and touch it.

I’ve written seven novels set between the C17th and the Regency period but I’ve long wanted to write about the Edwardian era. For me, those times are filled with the echoes of my ancestors. So now I’m writing the Spindrift trilogy, which is set at the turn of the twentieth century in an artists’ community in Port Isaac, Cornwall. All the characters are products of my imagination but the great inner strength of the female characters is drawn from the examples of grit and determination demonstrated by generations of women in my family. 

Throughout my life, Dorothy’s stories of quietly strong women inspired and encouraged me to be bold and brave at those times we all have when everything feels as if it’s falling apart. Manners and morals may have been different in the Victorian and Edwardian eras but so many aspects of my characters’ lives will resonate with the modern reader; a failing marriage, a lost child, falling in love, financial worries or the threat of losing a home.

The Light Within Us, the first of the Spindrift trilogy, is dedicated to my mother, who passed away at the age of ninety, while I was writing the book. A wonderful painter, her creativity in everything she did inspired me from my earliest moments. She remained interested and supportive of my writing right to the end and I miss her gentle presence more than I can say.

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Bio

Charlotte Betts is a multi-award-winning author of romantic historical novels and draws inspiration from the stories of strong women at turning points in history. Her careful historical research enriches her writing with an evocative sense of time and place. Charlotte lives on the Hampshire/Berkshire borders in a C17th cottage in the woods. A daydreamer and a bookworm, she has enjoyed careers in fashion, interior design and property. 

Website www.charlottebetts.com

Twitter @CharlotteBetts1

FaceBook https://www.facebook.com/CharlotteBettsAuthor

The Light Within Us is the first of the Spindrift series. 

1891 Talented artist Edith Fairchild is poised to begin a life of newlywed bliss with her charismatic husband Benedict, who recently inherited Spindrift House near Port Isaac. Edith is inspired to paint by the glorious Cornish light and the wonderful setting overlooking the sea. But then her happiness turns to heartbreak. In great distress, Edith turns to an artist friend for comfort. After a bitterly-regretted moment of madness she finds herself pregnant with his child.

  Too ashamed to reveal her secret, Edith devotes herself to her art. Joined at Spindrift House by her friends – Clarissa, Dora and Pascal – together they turn the house into a budding artists’ community. But despite their dreams of an idyllic way of life creating artistic beauty by the sea, it becomes clear that all is not perfect within their tight-knit community, and that the weight of their secrets could threaten to tear apart their paradise forever . . .

The Light Within Us is now available for Kindle at mybook.to/LightWithin. The paperback will be published on July 2nd 2020.

 

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Category: On Writing