Guest Post with Judith Barrow
Judith, welcome! Over to you.
Research is formalised curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose. Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960)
When Jan asked me to write about research, I started with one purpose, to research the subject of research, and then to explain how I use it. Two hours later, being easily led by that 'one other interesting... by the way did you know...' fact, and also being insatiably nosy, I was reading about the earliest wigs that were worn. See below * if you're interested!)
Eventually dragging myself back to reality, I thought about the research I carried out for my trilogy - the Haworth series and the prequel A Hundred Tiny Threads.
At the time of Patterns of Shadows (the first book), I made a list of the familiar and the unfamiliar things I needed to know to make my characters come alive, and to give a real sense of place to the world where they exist.
I now have files bulging with the information I found for each book: Patterns of Shadows, in 1944/45, the sequel, Changing Patterns in 1950/51. And, last in the series, Living in the Shadows. 1969/70
With characters, it's the hairstyles, the clothes, the shoes, the cosmetics and toiletries on the market that they use, the food and drink. There's the work they do, the newspapers and books they read (or don't), the hobbies, the pastimes. Then there are the types of houses they live in according to their social status, the furniture, kitchens, plumbing, gardens.
But here I'll let you into a secret. For the Northern town the Haworth family lives in, I traced an old 1940s map of the streets that surrounded the building that the trilogy is based on - the first German POW camo in the UK in WW2. This was an old disused cotton mill in Oldham, Lancashire. Simply put, it was chosen because it was far from the coast, was surrounded by two mill reservoirs, roads, and later a railway line. And had concrete floors and high fences. At the time all military installations were commandeered by the MOD for the army so other buildings had to be utilised. I traced the town, altered the direction of a few streets, added a park, allotments, ginnels, and alleyways - and renamed the lot. Ashford of the North of England existed.
For the village that some of the family moved to in Wales, I researched and adapted their lifestyles in that era.
After that, and something vital to any historical novel, I researched the outside world; what was happening as a background that affects the characters, in the same way that what is happening in our world affects us now. For this, I relied on websites, British and international newspapers, radio, and television recordings.
for the Wales Book of the Year Award 2021 - The Rhys DaviesTrust Fiction Award), was somewhat different. Here, research was more for the conditions of Alzheimer's, which, as a former carer, was more general, and for features of Downs Syndrome, I relied on the expertise of a friend who worked in that field.
