Freda Lightfoot's Blog, page 3

Inspiration for Polly's Pride

The idea came from the story of Great Aunt Hannah who, back in the thirties in order to survive through difficult times, sold off all the furniture save for an earthenware bread bin and their bed. The bread bin thereafter held their food, and acted as a table or stool. With the money, she and her husband bought second hand carpets from auctions and better class homes, which they cut up to sell on

Quarry Bank Mill

We enjoyed a fascinating visit to Quarry Bank Mill at Styal, in Cheshire south of Manchester. 

 

This house is where children from aged nine lived and worked. There were about 60 girls and 30 boys, each viewed as an apprentice and had to stay for at least 10 years, or then continued working as an adult. They could work on the land as well as in the mill, the latter involving long working

Our latest cruise

We’ve recently enjoyed a wonderful cruise to Iceland. Absolutely fascinating and the weather managed to stay fairly calm and not too cold. We started with a visit to Hamburg, then on to Alesund, Godafoss, Isafjordur, Reykjavik. Loved seeing thermal springs in Iceland.








And the wonderful waterfalls at Godafoss. Beautiful!




We particularly liked the Sunmore Museum in Alesund in Norway,

2018 RNA Conference

I enjoyed a most interesting conference with RNA this last weekend. The first thing I had to do was take part in a talk about sagas, together with Lizzie Lane, Jean Fullerton and Diane Allen. We all gave some interesting comments on this subject. A saga is generally a multi-generational story, about relationships, a sweeping tale of courage and bravery, pitted against evil. Families lived

A View of Characters

Creating characters, their names and making them believable in whatever book I’m writing, is always fascinating. Their appearance and behaviour comes into my head as I write, but I do try to work out in advance what kind of people they are. What is their main characteristic, and their major flaw? Often the two facets are linked. Independence can easily slip into stubborn obstinacy. Everyone has

Cecily worked for the Suffragettes

A section of this book is about the suffragette movement Cecily is involved in. originally focused in Manchester, that was where Emeline Pankhurst and her family had lived. The general election of 1905 brought it to the attention of the wider nation when Christabel Pankhurst and Annie Kenny interrupted Sir Edward’s speech with the cry: ‘Will the Liberal Government give votes to women?’ Many women

Soldiers in World War 1

Their physical and mental stress was so strong at times that it blocked out their minds, filling them with fear, grim reality, tension, strain and anxiety whenever they approached a battle zone. They would fall into silence, asking themselves if they could cope with the dangers they were about to face. They always dreaded snipers, shell shock, infections and injuries, or to be damaged with

Women Caught up World War One

More than 700,000 British men were killed during World War One, and women suffered badly from bereavement, grieving for their lost loved ones. More than a million women never found a man to marry, or the opportunity to bear children. They came to accept they never would have any, their lives having changed forever. They felt lonely with solitary lives and many lost their jobs, once the war was

Entertainers in World War One

Entertainment was a place where soldiers could escape the harsh realities of their dangerous life. They were always overjoyed to see these performances.



Concerts took place to liven up the troops. Two or three concerts a day were often available and most popular. Drama too presented a particular challenge: contemporary comedies and romances were played with canteen furniture, and the scenery

An excellent review of Girls of the Great War

https://bookishjottings.wordpress.com...

A heart-breaking, engrossing and riveting novel set during the First World War, Girls of the Great War is a captivating historical tale from one of the UK’s best-loved and most popular writers of sagas and historical novels: Freda Lightfoot!

Cecily Hanson yearns to live life on her own