Day seventeen of the ‘advent calendar’ focusing on some of the historical/genealogical sources that I used in the writing of Barefoot on the Cobbles.

When writing of real events in the more recent past, newspapers are invaluable. I used hundreds of local and national newspaper articles during my research. The court and inquest scenes were heavily reported in many papers. In the absence of actual court records, these were vital. The huge advantage of these was that they provided me with verbatim statements spoken by the accusers, the witnesses and the accused. As someone who was more used to writing non-fiction, I was concerned about my ability to write dialogue. By  the time I had used the words reported in the newspapers, I had a real feel for how many of my characters would have spoken. Newspapers were also useful when I was researching the historical background of my minor characters. For example, it was from the local newspaper that I learned that Dr Crew was about to lead a scout camp; yes, that tiny little throw-away line was based on fact!

Inevitably, then as now, newspaper evidence can be contradictory. There are two slightly different versions of the names of those who were in the lifeboat during the search for the Annie Salome. There are conflicting accounts of the incident with the suffragettes, perhaps reflecting the political stance of the respective editors. I went with what I believed to be plausible versions.

Most of the newspapers were available to me thanks to the British Newspaper Archive, which I choose to access via FindmyPast. One prominent local paper was not available in this way and for this I consulted original archive copies.

More information about Barefoot on the Cobbles can be found here. Copies are available at various events and at all my presentations. You can order from Blue Poppy Publishing or directly from me. Kindle editions are available for those in the UK, USA, Australasia and Canada.