Jane Davis answers “All stories need an angle. In writing...”

Jane Davis asked this question about At the Stroke of Nine O'Clock:

All stories need an angle. In writing about the aftermath of a fictional disaster, how did you choose to tell this story? (I’m thinking characters, point of view, etc.)

Jane Davis I think it would have been difficult to write about such recent history from Ruth Ellis’s perspective – added to which, what I wanted to write about w…moreI think it would have been difficult to write about such recent history from Ruth Ellis’s perspective – added to which, what I wanted to write about was people’s reaction to her conviction and sentencing.
The 1950s was a decade when dual standards were still very much at play. Women were punished for daring to step outside the restricted confines that society had decided they should remain within. Sex outside marriage, divorce, and children born outside wedlock were huge taboos, but there is no doubt that things were happening.
I chose to use three very different women to tell the story, all of whom would have their own personal reason to say, ‘There, but for the grace of God’.

The first character to make an appearance is Caroline Wilby. She’s seventeen years old, and like many seventeen-year-olds of the day, she’s expected to contribute to her family’s income. Pressure is ramped up by the fact that her father has left them – although Caroline’s mother has insisted that she keep this fact secret. For Caroline, this means leaving the family home in Felixstowe and moving to London. She soon discovers options for a young woman with little education are limited and, where work is available, the wages barely cover her own keep, let alone leave her with money over to send home. We quickly see her putting herself at risk, accepting invitations from men she barely knows, and following much the same route that Ruth Ellis followed – firstly working as a photographer’s model and then as a hostess at a private members’ club. The dangers of being alone in a strange city are amplified by the frenzy the press has created around John Haigh, the so-called Acid Bath Murderer, who invented plausible stories to explain the disappearance of his victims.

Then we have Ursula Delancy, an actress who has scandalised the world of filmdom by leaving her husband and daughter for Hollywood film director, Donald Flood. This is the era when studios ‘owned’ their signings, dictating how they should look and behave, even how much they should weigh. Up until 1934, Hollywood had been relatively liberal, but along came William Hays, a government-hired Presbyterian pastor, who laid out a strict moral code dictating how Hollywood – and America – would behave for generations to come. Ursula is one of those who made it onto Hays’s Doom Book of blacklisted actors – those considered ‘unsuitable’. Still, she firmly believes that when she marries her Hollywood director, the public will see that theirs wasn’t some sordid little affair. Unfortunately, that isn’t to be. She has returned to England for a season in the West End (where, again, she is playing the part of a saintly figure) and is already under siege by the British press when she discovers that she has been usurped, and the ‘other woman’ is not just anyone but Donald’s ex-wife, Lindsay. And in an added twist, Lindsay is also pregnant with Donald’s child.

My trio is completed by a duchess. Patrice Hawtree has already suffered her fair share of scandal, but is rather more practised at managing the press than Ursula. She and her husband Charles came close to ruin when Charles lent his name to a conman named Davenport who set up a fake investment scheme and absconded with the investors’ money. To save their social standing, the Hawtrees compensated those who lost their life savings, including some of their closest friends. Doing so cost them dearly, but they expected a line to be drawn under the matter. Instead they’ve been ostracised. Aware that Charles’s judgement cannot be trusted, Patrice believes that she’s kept him on a very tight rein, but I’m afraid she’s about to be disillusioned. And the extent of his deception is something not even she will be willing to believe.
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At the Stroke of Nine O'Clock

by Jane Davis (Goodreads Author)

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