The photo of the bluebells above the rose garden in Ashton Gardens was taken on Laurel’s first full day after her ‘escape’ from London, 30th April 2019. So too was the background image to this site, looking landward across the wide sands at Lytham St Anne’s.
Both places are integral to the development of her story and to the decisions she makes along the way. Who wouldn’t want to trade a London bank office for this?
GENESIS
I’m still unsure why I began writing this narrative when I did. I started making notes on my journey from Malta to St Anne’s, especially when I reached Kirkham & Wesham and – like Laurel – found the toilets out of order. The sequence as described in the novel is pretty much as it occurred, with the necessary visit to the Stanley Arms. I bought food in Tesco and ate it gazing at the Ribble estuary, just as she does in the novel.
My first conversation with the amiable and cheery Doug (his real name, with permission) is recorded practically word-for-word. The walk out to the sea, on the following morning, was when I really began to record my feelings and my (Laurel’s) responses to the flood of memories and emotions that the scene engendered. I, too, cried in Ashton Gardens and then bought a dress.
I was preparing to launch another book, written under another name, and as yet my notes were just that. It was only on the Bank Holiday Monday, while visiting Preston, that the concept of the character and her situation began to develop. Like Laurel, I was ‘people-watching’ in Avenham Park. The people she notices in chapter 7 are the same folk that I observed that afternoon. Sadly, or otherwise, the resultant encounter with the blonde woman is pure fiction! But that was really the birth moment of the novel.
A storyline developed, into which I could weave many of the experiences of my life. Nostalgic, certainly; but I was able to offer a frank and honest account of some of my defining moments through a character. The revelation at the close of Part One – perhaps, Act One – has been described as a coup de theatre.