The Stories Behind Objects

My mother died recently so my sister and I had the sad task of sorting through her belongings. Neither of us had any idea that she had kept so much of our family’s past. We found diaries and letters, clothes from our childhood and hers. Funny little things that had been saved because they must have had some emotional significance, some of which we understood and some of which we didn’t. I found two dried out old champagne corks with labels attached. One was from my parents’ wedding day. The other marked the day of my birth.

They both conjured up images of my parents as I never knew them: at the very beginning of their married life on two occasions that they wanted to mark. I remember how they’d day you should score a line in a special champagne cork and push a coin into it. Whenever the coin fell out would be a lucky day. History doesn’t tell us when or if they fell out of these.

Another thing I found was a small roughed up leather jewellery box. When I pressed the catch to open it and saw what was inside, I couldn’t believe my eyes: a thin gold chain holding a gold bean studded with a ruby and crushed by a bite mark. It took me right back to my childhood when I went to a party and my mother lent me the necklace.

I was so nervous that I was fiddling with the chain and sank my teeth into the bean. When I got home that night and showed my mum, I got a real roasting from both of my parents. I can’t remember why it was so important to them, perhaps I never knew. That she kept it until the end of her life must mean something.

I’m fascinated by these seemingly insignificant objects and the stories that must lie behind them. They made me, as a writer, think about how important the most apparently insignificant detail can be. Whole stories can be conjured from them. In these instances, I had an inkling of what was behind them, but there is plenty more that my imagination has to provide.

In the case of my new novel An Italian Summer (Orion), the whole story hangs on a single letter addressed to an unknown woman in Naples. This short letter marks the start of one woman’s journey to discover her mother’s past and her own future. From little seeds, large plants can grow.

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Fanny Blake was a publisher for many years, editing both fiction and non-fiction before becoming a freelance journalist and writer. She has written various non-fiction titles, acted as ghost writer for a number of celebrities, and is also Books Editor of Woman & Home magazine. She has written seven novels, including House of Dreams and Our Summer Together.

Fanny Blake’s An Italian Summer (Orion) is out on 26th July.

Find out more about Fanny on her website http://www.fannyblake.co.uk/

Follow her on Twitter https://twitter.com/FannyBlake1

About AN ITALIAN SUMMER

A glorious jaunt around Italy with characters I didn’t want to leave’ CLARE MACKINTOSH

A compelling novel about friendship, family secrets and second chances, set against the backdrop of southern Italy.

Sandy is in her fifties, and at a crossroads in her life: she’s a teacher and respected by her pupils, but she feels she is being sidelined in favour of younger colleagues. So when her mother dies, leaving her a sealed envelope addressed to an unknown woman living in Naples, Sandy decides to head to Italy to resolve the mystery by delivering the letter herself.

She books herself on to a small sightseeing trip from Rome to Naples and the Amalfi Coast, hoping to meet some like-minded people along the way. Who is the mysterious woman she is searching for? And will Sandy find friendship, or even love, along the way…?

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Category: Contemporary Women Writers, On Writing