Debbie Robson's Blog - Posts Tagged "the-1920s"
A New Start
Just began a new novel yesterday and it is so exciting to be back. I'm hoping that it will be short, almost a novella and quick to read. That is actually very important with the type of novel I'm writing. It's set in 1921 and I am now beginning to dive into that decade and totally immerse myself. Now where did I put my time machine?
Right now David Lambert has it and he has travelled ahead to 2500 to a tropical but decimated London (A Scientific Romance). I'll see if I can borrow it later.
Right now David Lambert has it and he has travelled ahead to 2500 to a tropical but decimated London (A Scientific Romance). I'll see if I can borrow it later.
Beginning the long journey of writing a new novel
Yes, I know, I've just finished my manuscript The Grey Silk Purse and have made my first submission but I'm nervous. As a diversionary tactic I'm researching a new novel. I even have a title - Paris Next Week.
I'm at the absolute beginning which is always exciting. I have a vague idea about the plot and I have the two main locations - Sydney and Paris in the 1920s. I've just picked up my first book to read. It is Women, the Arts, and the 1920s in Paris and New York edited by Kenneth W. Wheeler and Virginia Lee Lussier and even after a quick glance it looks like the perfect ticket. The ship hasn't docked yet but I already have a list of books to take on the voyage and some of these books may even help determine aspects of characterisation and plot.
That's the fun of researching. You read to learn about something new. It may be Serbia in 1917, Port Stephens in 1942, England in the middle ages and as you find out more information you often stumble across an amazing fact that alters your writing completely.
Originally at the very start of The Grey Silk Purse I had a vague idea that my main character would be a nurse in Salonika, although something nagged at me that this profession wouldn’t suit my Miss Summerville. I began reading about the Australian nurses working there during WWI and discovered that other Australian nurses were working in Serbia, of all places! When the Australian troops were sent to France a lot of our girls were sent to the little known Macedonian Front. I began to read about Serbia in earnest and very quickly stumbled upon the wonderful Olive Kelso King who drove an ambulance. That was more like it. This is what my girl would have been doing!
Through reading I discovered not only the beautiful and very important location Lake Ostrovo for my novel but what my character did during the last year of the war. I read six memoirs of women involved in the Scottish Women’s Hospital and I drew from their knowledge to set the scenes for the most crucial chapters in the book - the why and wherefore of life in a field hospital. I can’t imagine the completed manuscript without all these facts now common knowledge to me. I don’t reveal them all of course but they are crucial to a lot of decisions I made (or my character makes) during the course of her war work.
I now have an even greater admiration for the women who were involved in this terrible conflict. We often talk about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. We can now see that returned soldiers from all major offensives were victims but how did the women cope? We know the men either ended up in asylums or drank excessively after both world wars but what happened to the VADs, the ambulance drivers and the nurses when they returned to civilisation? That question is the driving force of the novel and it’s one I really couldn’t have asked without at least the basic facts behind me. So happy research reading. You’ll never know what you may stumble upon!
I'm at the absolute beginning which is always exciting. I have a vague idea about the plot and I have the two main locations - Sydney and Paris in the 1920s. I've just picked up my first book to read. It is Women, the Arts, and the 1920s in Paris and New York edited by Kenneth W. Wheeler and Virginia Lee Lussier and even after a quick glance it looks like the perfect ticket. The ship hasn't docked yet but I already have a list of books to take on the voyage and some of these books may even help determine aspects of characterisation and plot.
That's the fun of researching. You read to learn about something new. It may be Serbia in 1917, Port Stephens in 1942, England in the middle ages and as you find out more information you often stumble across an amazing fact that alters your writing completely.
Originally at the very start of The Grey Silk Purse I had a vague idea that my main character would be a nurse in Salonika, although something nagged at me that this profession wouldn’t suit my Miss Summerville. I began reading about the Australian nurses working there during WWI and discovered that other Australian nurses were working in Serbia, of all places! When the Australian troops were sent to France a lot of our girls were sent to the little known Macedonian Front. I began to read about Serbia in earnest and very quickly stumbled upon the wonderful Olive Kelso King who drove an ambulance. That was more like it. This is what my girl would have been doing!
Through reading I discovered not only the beautiful and very important location Lake Ostrovo for my novel but what my character did during the last year of the war. I read six memoirs of women involved in the Scottish Women’s Hospital and I drew from their knowledge to set the scenes for the most crucial chapters in the book - the why and wherefore of life in a field hospital. I can’t imagine the completed manuscript without all these facts now common knowledge to me. I don’t reveal them all of course but they are crucial to a lot of decisions I made (or my character makes) during the course of her war work.
I now have an even greater admiration for the women who were involved in this terrible conflict. We often talk about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. We can now see that returned soldiers from all major offensives were victims but how did the women cope? We know the men either ended up in asylums or drank excessively after both world wars but what happened to the VADs, the ambulance drivers and the nurses when they returned to civilisation? That question is the driving force of the novel and it’s one I really couldn’t have asked without at least the basic facts behind me. So happy research reading. You’ll never know what you may stumble upon!
Sydney's Lost Cafes
This post was uploaded last month on wordpress.
There are quite a few that are hiding from me. Images I'm talking about. After a few weeks of dogged research I have finally unearthed the photo above courtesy of Mike Sutcliffe's article from This Australia 1986. I know the writing is small but according to the ad "Delightful hot supper from 10 o'clock...dancing until 1am...Order drinks before 6pm."
Now that last is a vital piece of information - the ridiculous six o'clock closing which, of course, bred the sly grog shops and the illegal sale of liquor at many locations, including The Ambassadors. I have just this week finished writing about a raid on the cafe and have now turned my attention to other cafes in the area.
Jack Lindsay, Norman Lindsay's son, writes of Mockbells: "I sat over my eked-out coffee and dozed amid the pseuod-moorish decorations almost obliterated by smoke, age, damp and their own insignificance." I know from my research that there were a few over the years. One in Castlereagh Street (possibly Jack's). Another in the Imperial Arcade in 1902. In 1897 a Mockbells cafe had a general meeting of the Society of Artists. That's the earliest mention I have found. The latest is 1948 in an article: "Mockbell's, Ltd., has agreed to sell six of the company's seven city restaurants to a new company to be called Mockbell's Pty. Ltd." And after that they disappear. As for pictures? I haven't found one! If anyone has any I would love to see them.
I have also been unable to find several other cafe/restaurants of Sydney in 1921-1926 that Jack writes about. There is the Cambridge, the Hungarian cafe, the Moana, the Roma and Burt's Milk Bar. I have also not been able to unearth a picture of Amendola's wine bar in Wilmott Street which later became Cafe La Boheme. Or Pelligrini's. I'm still hopeful about these last two. And will post again if I find any of the cafes mentioned.
If however you are looking for a Sydney cafe frequented twenty odd years later by bohemians - journalists, writers and artists - well you are in luck! Below is one of many wonderful photos of the Lincoln Coffee House 1948-1951.
If you know of any photos of the above cafes and restaurants of Sydney in the Twenties, I would love to hear from you. Here's hoping!
There are quite a few that are hiding from me. Images I'm talking about. After a few weeks of dogged research I have finally unearthed the photo above courtesy of Mike Sutcliffe's article from This Australia 1986. I know the writing is small but according to the ad "Delightful hot supper from 10 o'clock...dancing until 1am...Order drinks before 6pm."
Now that last is a vital piece of information - the ridiculous six o'clock closing which, of course, bred the sly grog shops and the illegal sale of liquor at many locations, including The Ambassadors. I have just this week finished writing about a raid on the cafe and have now turned my attention to other cafes in the area.
Jack Lindsay, Norman Lindsay's son, writes of Mockbells: "I sat over my eked-out coffee and dozed amid the pseuod-moorish decorations almost obliterated by smoke, age, damp and their own insignificance." I know from my research that there were a few over the years. One in Castlereagh Street (possibly Jack's). Another in the Imperial Arcade in 1902. In 1897 a Mockbells cafe had a general meeting of the Society of Artists. That's the earliest mention I have found. The latest is 1948 in an article: "Mockbell's, Ltd., has agreed to sell six of the company's seven city restaurants to a new company to be called Mockbell's Pty. Ltd." And after that they disappear. As for pictures? I haven't found one! If anyone has any I would love to see them.
I have also been unable to find several other cafe/restaurants of Sydney in 1921-1926 that Jack writes about. There is the Cambridge, the Hungarian cafe, the Moana, the Roma and Burt's Milk Bar. I have also not been able to unearth a picture of Amendola's wine bar in Wilmott Street which later became Cafe La Boheme. Or Pelligrini's. I'm still hopeful about these last two. And will post again if I find any of the cafes mentioned.
If however you are looking for a Sydney cafe frequented twenty odd years later by bohemians - journalists, writers and artists - well you are in luck! Below is one of many wonderful photos of the Lincoln Coffee House 1948-1951.
If you know of any photos of the above cafes and restaurants of Sydney in the Twenties, I would love to hear from you. Here's hoping!
