Taking inspiration from the history of cinema – by Susan Brownrigg

Where do you get your ideas? For me the things I want to write about are the same things I was passionate about as a child.

I loved daytrips to Blackpool with my family when I was growing up, visiting Blackpool Tower, the Illuminations and its many other attractions. So, it felt right to set my 1930s Gracie Fairshaw mystery series there.

For the third book in the series, Gracie Fairshaw and the Missing Reel (published on World Book Day, March 7^th) I decided to set the story around the filming of a movie in the resort.

I knew that another Gracie, Gracie Fields – the Rochdale born superstar singer and actress had made a film in Blackpool in 1934. In fact, I had watched and studied Sing as We Go as part of my degree in journalism, film & broadcasting as well as writing my dissertation on the actress!

Gracie Fields in a special issue of Picturegoer Magazine about Sing as We Go

(author's photograph)

I loved that the film was shot on location, with key scenes recorded at the Pleasurebeach funfair, the open-air baths, sideshows and the Blackpool Tower circus.

Basil Dean directing Sing as we Go at the open-air baths, Blackpool.

In my book, the cast and crew are recording a fictional thriller called Room for a Traitor, when my heroine, young newspaper reporter, Gracie Fairshaw, learns that an important reel of film has gone missing.

To add authenticity to the film-making scenes, I visited Blackpool Central Library and looked at old copies of the Gazette newspaper on microfiche (as I had with the previous two Gracie books.)

I was able to see the cameras that were used and was intrigued by the fact that Gracie had had a body double/stuntwoman. I went on to learn that Lilian Tollis had been a stage actress herself as well as a dancer, sometimes using the name Zetta Morenta.

Body double/Stunt woman Zetta Morenta had a close resemblance
 to actress Gracie Fields (photo Jackie Settle)

I knew I wanted to include a similar character in my story – but I didn’t know much about stunt work. So, I did more research, reading a number of books on the subject.

I learned that in the early days of moviemaking, the stars often performed their own stunts.

In the silent film era, directors, script writers and performers were often women.

Half of all American films made before 1925 were written by women!

Dramatic serials like the Perils of Pauline were very popular with their cliffhangers, and gutsy heroines.

The female stars often performed their own stunts, with many hired because they were strong swimmers, good at driving motorcars, or were skilled acrobats.

Sometimes stuntwomen were hired, and then became leads themselves, but as the work became better paid, men started to take over – wearing wigs and dresses to look like the stars.

It was said that most stunt workers only lasted five years. Lots were killed or badly injured. For example, in 1929, sixteen men were killed, including three stunt pilots making the film Hell’s Angels!

(Sadly, stunt work is still very dangerous. Actor Rory Kinnear, whose father died in a stunt accident, continues to campaign for better training and awareness of the dangers involved.)

With the introduction of sound, cinema attendance grew and the film making became big business – women were pushed aside, and only certain poorer paid roles were generally deemed suitable for them.

Although Hollywood is often the place we associate with film making, Britain had its own studios, most were in London, but there was a northern company - Mancunian Films based in Manchester who also shot a movie in Blackpool - Holidays with Pay.

In 1927 the Cinematograph Films Act was introduced which insisted that a specific percentage of British produced movies that had to be shown domestically. Unfortunately while some brilliant movies were produced, this led to a lot of poorer quality ones too, dubbed 'Quota Quickies.'

The former Odeon cinema, Blackpool.
It opened in 1939 and had 3,088 seats!

(author's photograph)

Unemployment in the 1930s saw people visiting the cinema as an escape from their worries. Many new cinemas were built, some in exotic architectural styles.

By 1938 there were 4,907 cinemas in the UK and around that same time Blackpool alone had 17! 

Inspiration for two more characters in my book came from a real-life director Alfred Hitchcock and editor/screenwriter Alma Reville. They were married and often worked together on exciting thrillers including the first British made ‘talkie’ Blackmail.

I also enjoyed setting scenes in Blackpool’s stunning Winter Gardens. This Victorian era entertainment complex went through a transformation in the 1930s. New rooms were created that looked like a Spanish village, a pirate ship and a baronial hall! These new designs were created by Andrew Mazzei, who also worked as an art director on British films!

The Spanish Hall, Winter Gardens (photograph Susan Brownrigg)

The climax of Gracie Fairshaw and the Missing Reel takes place on the roof of the Regent Cinema in Blackpool – which still exists today, as well as showing popular classic movies, it also houses an antiques centre. I was lucky to be allowed into the projection room - a real treat for a movie lover like me!

Susan Brownrigg in the projection room, The Regent Cinema,

 Blackpool ( author's photograph)

Lights, camera, action!

A new movie being filmed in Blackpool is a real scoop for trainee reporter Gracie Fairshaw.

When she's invited to interview the star, Sally Sunshine, Gracie uncovers a plot as exciting as the one being filmed. Someone has stolen a vital film reel - and then a vicious attack is attempted on Sally!

In a world of body-doubles, stunts, costumes and makeup, not everything is what it seems.
Gracie must go behind the scenes and work out, which of the cast and crew can;t be trusted before the shoot comes to a thrilling climax at the town's cinema.

Gracie Fairshaw and the Missing Reel is published on Thursday 7th March. You can preorder a signed copy HERE

Susan Brownrigg is the author of the Gracie Fairshaw mystery series and Kintana and the Captain's Curse, a treasure hunt adventure featuring pirates and lemurs!
(UCLan Publishing)

Find out more at susanbrownrigg.com

Exploring the Past like a History Detective by Kimberlie Hamilton

My favourite books and films have always been the ones based true stories, which is probably why I became an author of nonfiction books. One of the things I love most about writing nonfiction is doing all the research, although I rarely call it research. “Detective work” is a much more accurate description for what I actually do.

The word “research” sounds a bit dry and boring and history is anything but that. For anyone with a curious mind, like me (and you, I suspect!), history is like going on a scavenger hunt through time, searching for clues and carefully piecing them together, like a jigsaw puzzle of real-life people and events.

Some people say they rarely read books about history because they prefer stories that engage their imagination. These folks clearly have no clue whatsoever how much imagination is required to study, write and read about history! Anyone who thinks of history as a (yawn) dull and lifeless record of wars and battles, kings and queens, dates and facts, would be dead wrong.

 The stories of our past are not neat and tidy. They are not black and white, or set in stone. They are actually more like a messy patchwork quilt. A madly coloured quilt with often clashing and wonky accounts of what happened, all stitched together by whoever was in power at the time.

And who has been in power for centuries on end? Humans, that’s who. And only certain humans, for that matter.

It was the educated people who wrote about history, people who lived in rich and powerful countries, people who looked a lot like this guy:

Needless to say, much of what we’ve been taught is only a teeny tiny sliver of the historical pie.

What I never knew when I was at school is that there are many gaps in history, periods when the page is totally blank and we have absolutely no idea what happened.

Other times, there are so many conflicing accounts of what happened that it’s hard to say what is true and what is fiction. This is where those detective powers come into play.

If you’ve ever watched a detective show on the telly or read a mystery novel, you’ll know that one’s powers of imagination can just as important as reason and logic.

We have to use creative thinking skills even with historical events that are extremely well documented. Why? Because most of the time, we weren’t there.

Reading about something in a book is not nearly the same as actually experiencing it. We have to take the facts and then do our best to imagine what it must have been like.

It’s not always easy to put ourselves in the shoes of someone else, especially someone who lived long ago…like a soldier dodging bullets as he runs through enemy gunfire, or a young Jewish girl, scribbling away in a diary while hiding from the Nazis.

Can you picture it in your mind, like this scene from a stage play about Anne Frank? We do this every time we read a book, whether it’s a book for pleasure or a history book at school or a nonfiction book like the ones I write.

By doing some research, you’ll find all sorts of little details that will make imagining long ago events and people much easier. I really had to put my detective skills and my imagination to work while writing my latest book, which is all about the history of the world from a cat’s perspective.

The idea for this book came when I realized that humans tell history from a very limited, human point of view, which is not necessarily what actually happened. But cats have prowled the planet for thousands of years and have become keen observers of the human race, silently watching (and judging) us with their clear, unblinking eyes.

There’s a special relationship between cats and humans that stretches back for many, many centuries. Longer than humans and dogs, believe it or not. Who better to give an account of the history of the world?

I’ve discovered that telling a story from an unexpected perspective – like a cat – often reveals stuff that I might not have paid much attention to before.

So, your Writing Challenge is to try this for yourself. Choose one item in your home or school and write a short paragraph about it from the perspective of an animal. Any object, any animal. There’s no right or wrong way to do it, so give it a bash and see what you come up with!

Kimberlie Hamilton used to live in sunny California and now lives in misty Scotland with her family and three cats. She has written all sorts of things but especially loves writing nonfiction books for young people with curious minds.

Kimberlie has a Master’s in Screenwriting from UCLA and studied Creative Writing at the University of Cambridge. She is the author of Rebel Cats, Rebel Dogs, Scotland’s Animal Superstars, Generation Hope, Rebel Animals at Risk and A History of the World (According to Cats!), and her books have been translated into 22 languages.

She is passionate about travel, books and animals and aspires to have her own sanctuary someday for cats that need a loving forever home. kimberliehamilton.co.uk

A History of the World (According to Cats!) by Kimberlie Hamilton (author) Jocelyn Kao (illustrator) Scholastic UK | 2023

The History of Valentine's Day

Familiar flowers fill the shop windows wherever you look at this time of year. Of course – it’s February and the run-up to St Valentine’s Day. But where do these traditions actually come from? I was interested and decided to do a little bit of time tunnelling!

There are at least three contenders for who the original Valentine may have been (you may not guess, but Valentine was a very common name in the past – there were loads of them!).

My favourite legend refers to a priest called Valentine. When the Roman Emperor Claudius II outlawed marriage for soldiers as he felt single men made better soldiers, this Valentine defied the order and performed secret marriage ceremonies for young lovers anyway. 

For this, he was executed around 270 AD. The February timing of our Saint Valentine’s celebration may refer back to the saint’s execution, but there is every chance that it has its root in a pagan ritual called Lupercalia which the Romans celebrated.

It was dedicated to Faunus, a god of agriculture and fertility, and to Romulus and Remus, the legendary founders of Rome. 

Part of the festival was a ritual where young women put their names into an urn, and the bachelors of the community picked a name out. For the coming year, these pairs became couples, and many of these random combinations actually resulted in marriage.

During the early centuries of Christianity, these practices were (understandably) outlawed, but in the Middle Ages, a new idea took hold: it was thought that birds began looking for a mate around Saint Valentine’s Day. 

The poet Geoffrey Chaucer 14th-century poem is the earlier record of this idea with his poem “The Parliament of Fowls,” in which “Seynt Valentynes day” is the day “whan every foul cometh ther to chese his make” . 

The idea caught on. The earliest Valentine’s note to be sent goes back to the aftermath of the Battle of Agincourt when Charles, Duke of Orleans, wrote to his wife from captivity in 1415. His poem refers to her as ‘my very gentle Valentine’. Tragically, he never saw her again.

William Shakespeare and John Donne both cemented Saint Valentine’s reputation as the patron of romantic love. But it was the Victorians who really turbo-charged the tradition – they went into romantic overdrive with ever more elaborate Valentine’s cards and greetings. 

These could be shop bought, commissioned or best of all, home-made and were commonly decorated with love birds, hearts and Cupid – pretty much the Valentine’s Day that we know today.

Writing Challenge: I thought it would be fun to create a Valentine’s poem to an inanimate object that you love: a toy, a book, a favourite item of clothing. Include descriptions and imagery of what the item means for you, and perhaps the reaction it prompts for you – do you tremble whenever you go near? 

Is it the light and the life of every hour? The more exaggerated and over the top, the more entertaining it will be! We at the Time Tunnellers would love to see your work if you are willing to share it. Find us on social media @TimeTunnellers.