Guest Post with Georgia Hill
Georgia, welcome. I know that like me, setting plays an important part when writing so I'm looking forward to hearing about where your novels are set. Over to you!
Huge thanks for inviting me onto your blog, Jan. I started out with good intentions but got a bit side-tracked. As you will see if you read on …
I’m a small-town girl. I grew up in the small market
town of Stourbridge, once in Worcestershire, now in the West Midlands. I loved
that it had a border of countryside around it delineating it from elsewhere. It
gave the place a definite identity, I suppose.
(As I’ve been writing this on a Sunday afternoon with
Radio 2 playing in the background, someone raised in Stourbridge and of my
generation has just written into Johnny Walker’s Jukebox Slot. The woman was my
age, had my voice and requested one of my all-time favourite songs – Home
Thoughts From Abroad by Worcestershire singer-songwriter, Clifford T Ward. We definitely
shared memories! Owen Owen, the department store, and occasional sightings of rock
legend, Robert Plant who went to school in the town. I’ll never forget spotting
him, returning as the conquering hero in the 70s, emerging from a pink Cadillac
and flinging his long hair back!)
This triggered other memories. My little hometown once
proudly boasted a weekly market, three cinemas, Mark and Moody where I spent my
pocket money on vinyl, a vibrant high street and lots of excellent pubs. I
haven’t been back for ages but suspect things are a little different nowadays! For
ten headily exciting years I lived in London. I’ve also lived in Malvern Wells
a historic Victorian water cure town and in several tiny villages. Now, once again,
I live in a small town. This one, though, has a sea front as its southernmost
border. I love books set in small communities, I love to read them and I love
to write them. Moving from the city to the country or a tightly-knit community
is a recurring theme in my books. Can’t imagine why!
Back in the day, one lesson I taught was about how
settlements grow over time. Using squared paper, the children drew in the
natural geographical features, a river or hill say, and then added plastic
counting cubes (if you’re a teacher or parent you’ll know exactly what I mean).
We began with red cubes for a Roman town putting in the bathhouse and barracks,
yellow for medieval adding a market hall, blue for Victorian with factories and
mills, terraced houses and railways, orange for modern day development with its
out-of-town shopping malls and housing estates. You get the picture. I loved
building up the imaginary communities. Yes, it was simplistic, but it gave us
all a clear idea of how towns have a chronology and, if you look closely, you
can still see it. Always a good tip; look up above the modern-day shop fronts!
Of course, once you’ve created your settlement, you
then have to name it. I love maps and regional variations of names fascinate me.
Dorset is a county rich in fantastic place names. It’s been invaded by most and
the place names reflect its rich history. Who could resist Corfe Mullen,
Sturminster Marshall or Winterborne Zelston? It’s also a county which loves its
double-barrelled place names!
Berecombe, where I’ve based ten novels, is an entirely
fictional Devon seaside town and is based on Lyme Regis. Which is in Dorset.
But only just! The name came to me after a little research. Combe always says
Devon to me (it means a hollow in the hills) there’s the village of Beer, and
also a hamlet called Beercrocombe in Somerset. To me, Berecombe sounds
absolutely as if it’s a real place in Devon. Readers have often asked me where
it is. For a writer a seaside town has a wealth of plot opportunities. They
have a high transitory population, often a small closely knitted ‘born and
bred’ community and lots of scope for newcomers moving in to stir things ups a
bit.
When I had to invent a whole new town for a new series
of books, I decided to look further east for inspiration and set the books in
west Dorset. Originally the setting was to be a small market town in mid Dorset
but when the hero’s story emerged, I realised I needed, once again, to set it
by the seaside. Jago, my lovely grief-stricken hero, yearns to volunteer for
the RNLI but the aftermath of a family tragedy is holding him back. He’s also
an artist who’s lost his mojo. The glossy sands and wide seascapes of Lullbury
Bay set it alight again.
Lullbury Bay has a strong resemblance to Lyme but has bits of Beaminster, West Bay and arty Bridport mixed in. It’s bigger than Berecombe which gives me more scope for plots, has a harbour, a vibrant high street with galleries and independent traders, a bookshop with a community café, a florist’s, a grammar school, a soon to be awarded Michelin starred restaurant, an ancient church, public gardens and a bowling green, an art college and an extremely steep hill nicknamed God-Almighty Hill as that’s all you can gasp out once you’ve reached the top. It’s even still has a post office and bank - well, I am writing fiction! There’s a ruined castle too. It features hardly at all in the first two books in the series but it’s there should I need it. It’s just the sort of small town I’d love to live in. And, by writing my books, I sort of do!
I love creating my imaginary worlds. I don’t think
I’ve ever really outgrown that geography lesson with the squared paper and
counting cubes …
If you’re intrigued by Lullbury Bay and want to spend some time there, New Beginnings at Christmas Tree Cottage was published this September, with the second in the series coming out next February.
Here’s a little about it:
A contemporary Christmassy romance, full of cheesy
Christmas music and mince pies, it features my favourite hero!
The little town of Lullbury Bay goes all
out for Christmas and teacher Honor Martin loves it. After a bad break up she’s
settled into the simple pleasures of seaside life and Christmas is the high
point of her year. Glass artist Jago Pengethley, however, doesn’t share her
enthusiasm. A new arrival in town, he’s here with his mother and sister to
start anew after a devastating family tragedy. He doesn’t want to celebrate
Christmas ever again. But, to help his sister replace bad memories with good
ones, he accompanies her to all the various wild and wacky festivities Lullbury
Bay offers. They keep bumping into Honor and, as Jago gets to know her better,
might she be the one to teach him how to love Christmas again?
Thank you, Georgia. I love how you've created your fictional town based on real places and especially how you researched a suitable place name.
About the writer:
Georgia Hill writes warm-hearted and uplifting contemporary and dual narrative romances about love, the power and joy in being an eccentric oldie and finding yourself and your community. There's always a dog. It's usually a naughty spaniel of which, unfortunately, she has had much experience. She lives near the sea with her beloved dogs and her husband (also beloved) and loves the books of Jane Austen, collecting elephants and Strictly Come Dancing. She's also a complete museum geek and finds inspiration for her books in the folklore and history of the many places in which she's lived. She's worked in theatre, for a charity and as a teacher and educational consultant before finally acknowledging that making things up was what she really wanted to do, She's been happily creating heroines, intriguing men and page-turning stories ever since.
You can find more about Georgia here:
Twitter/X @georgiawrites
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/georgiahill
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/georgiahill5681
Website www.georgiahill.co.uk
Pinterest https://www.pinterest.co.uk/georgiawrites
Buying links for New Beginnings at Christmas Tree
Cottage:
Thank you for reading. As a writer, do you use real places as your setting or, like Georgia, do you have a fictional location based on real places? As a reader do you like to recognise places where the book is set? I'd love to read your comments. Thanks.
You may also follow me on:
Twitter/X - @JanBaynham
Facebook - Jan Baynham Writer
Instagram - janbaynham
For more about me and my writing, please visit:
My latest novel is The Secret Sister.
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