Last night I watched this great programme called sea ports about Liverpool: PART 60

After a busy day swimming, shopping, writing and reading, my son Iain brought up on iPlayer the above programme which I had missed on Thursday on BBC 2 because I had gone to Crosby Writers Club where Roger Philips of Radio Merseyside was judging our Article Competition, he also told us something about how he because a presenter on Radio Merseyside which proved very interesting. Roger was a Mancunian and for those who haven't heard that term it means he's from Manchester but he is now a honorary Liverpudlian. Anyway the above programme was mentioned as was Liverpool's new cruise ship terminal.

But the programme was about more than the new cruise ship terminal and all that the team there are doing to make tourists welcome and to get the best out of their visit to Liverpool. We had an insight into the working day of a family of tug boat sailors who tugged large ships along the Manchester Ship canal. Then we were taken to the beautiful island of Anglesey where a couple of pilots awaited a Greek tanker to guide it through the Mersey estuary and along the river to a oil refinery on the Wirral side of the Mersey. I knew already there were wrecks in the river as well as sandbanks.
 When I was a girl I was often taken on the ferry across the Mersey to Seacombe or New Brighton and Dad would point out the buoys that marked wrecks of ships sunk during the war. As for the sandbanks, my grandfather was a stoker on a dredger that helped stop the river from silting up. There were lovely views of both coastlines of the Mersey and of course the iconic Liver birds atop the Liver Building always brings a lump to my throat. Apparently Liverpool is one of the few ports were when passengers land they are immediately in the city and there is so much to see of interest in the immediate vicinity.

There were interviews with some of the tourists from a cruise ship which I think was called Sea Princess; a number of them had come primarily to see the Cavern and Penny Lane because of their links with the Beetles. We also were invited to empathise with some hardy souls who swam across the Mersey for various good causes in terrible weather conditions. We also saw some amateur boat builders on the Wirral, renovating an old sailing boat - smallish - and watched as with the wind in its sails it braved the waves.
The programme finished with shots of the visit of the three queens, Victoria, Mary II and Elizabeth in celebration of Cunard's 100 anniversary - a never  to be forgotten sight.


P.S. At 6-8pm Friday, 8th April, I will be at Frodsham Community Centre at a Meet the Author session as part of the Weaver Words, Frodsham Literary Festival, Wed.6th April to Sunday 10th April. There is a short story competition and various speakers.
for more information visit their website; Weaverwords, Frodsham Literary Festival.


My website is www.junefrancis.com

I WROTE THIS A MONTH AGO AND THEN WAS UNABLE TO GET ONTO BLOGGER: PART 59

It’s ages since I’ve been in Liverpool after dark but having bought tickets for the Liverpool Echo Carol Concert at the Anglican Cathedral, son, Tim, who goes into the city most days, decided he would drive us there, avoiding the city centre. It was the last Friday before Christmas and a lot of the shops would be open for late night shopping, so it was going to be chaotic. When we said we’d walk down to Central Station and get the train home, he said, ‘Definitely not as the trains would be packed. He would come and pick us up.’

I’m glad he did.

The cathedral was magical with a beautifully lit up Christmas tree and it was packed with people.

Joe Riley who writes for the Echo was the Compere and there were several special guests, including Pauline Daniels who has played Shirley Valentine on the stage, a 14 year old girl, Angelina Dorin-Barlow sang three solos and had the voice of an angel, John Hayden, an expert on bell-ringing, spoke about how the clappers on bells are muffled when they ring out the dying of the old year, but the leather mufflers are removed to ring in the new year with a joyous sound. The cathedral bells have a claim to fame which Joe told us about but which I can’t remember now but the cathedral has a very good website if you want to know more. The really special guests were the Appleton Family whose son has been undergoing treatment at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital for the last five years. The concert was in aid of the hospital which is known worldwide. There were also several guest ensembles: Liverpool Cathedral Youth Choir, Choirs of St Mary, West Derby, and Holy Trinity, Southport. All the singing was glorious and I pitied those exhausting themselves doing their Christmas shopping.

For me, the occasion brought memories flooding back because when I attended Liverpool Girls College, our school and St Edmund’s used to celebrate Ascension Day in a service at the cathedral in the fifties, there was no shop or restaurant then. I was also confirmed there.  As for Alder Hey Hospital, Tim and I were to visit there over a period of six weeks after Tim fell out of a conker tree and broke both wrists, cracked a kneecap and broke his nose. It was to be eight years before his nose was to be fixed as his bones were still growing. At twenty-one, a slither of bone was taken from his hip and a new bridge made for his nose, but this was done at Whiston Hospital’s special plastic surgery unit.

We were also reminded of this when I fell from some steps outside a shop recently and landed on my nose. Fortunately I suffered no broken bones but my face was a mess with cuts and a swollen nose and two black eyes. Still, I’ve had a lot of sympathy from folk and encouragement from Tim and my husband thinks I’m brave and uncomplaining.

But setting this aside, I must tell you about the view from outside the cathedral which stands on St James Mount, we could see the lit up ferris wheel down by the waterfront and it was down to the waterfront  that Tim took us as he had returned home earlier via the dock road, after going past the Albert Dock where there were trees decorated with lights but also a couple of sailing ships. The way one ship was lit up was in the outline of a Christmas tree.

Whilst considering the amount of electricity being used, I was also thinking of my ancestors’ day when they didn’t have electricity so never had the pleasure that Christmas lights  provide us with in the darkest times of the year.

Last time I blogged was in September after I suffered a stroke and I told you I would be taking a break from writing. Well, now I am writing the next book. "Walking Back to Happiness" and I'm into the era of the sixties. My latest saga  “Many A Tear Has To Fall” will be published in March in hardback. Check out your nearest library. For those with a Kindle two of my historical romances which I wrote years ago are out in Ebook format for the first time on Amazon.

My next paperback will be Lily's War published 21st April

P.S. My son Tim Francis also has an E-book up on Amazon called  “It’s Still Out There”. A children’s book that he has written and illustrated.

Kindle medieval: Love's Intrigue and My Lady Deceiver.

OUT AND ABOUT

As a local writer I have been invited to appear at the Frodsham Literary Festival at the Community Centre on Friday, 8th April 2016 between 6-8pm to promote my work and sign books.

You Never Know the Minute. PART 58

I don’t know how many times I’ve heard the above words spoken when something unexpected has happened but I heard it more often recently because at the beginning of September I had a stroke. The charity The Stroke Association have Four letters  to help people if they suspect someone is having a stroke FAST which not only means fast action is necessary but F for facial weakness, A  for arm weakness, S for speech problems and T for time to call 999 or to get the victim to hospital right away. I was fortunate in that I was at home  with my husband and two grown up sons and I had some signs- the lower right side of my face was dragged down and my husband said I was talking gobble de kook. I just thought I was talking slowly. So he and Son no 2 wasted no time driving me to Fazakerley hospital straightaway. I saw a doctor immediately and then a stroke specialist, I had a brain scan, as well as a deep scan on my neck, as well as a chest x-ray and a heart monitor thingy, this after various tests to check the strength in my arms  and legs. During my time in the hospital I had my pressure, temperature monitored regularly and had blood tests.  I was fortunate in that I only had a slight weakness in my right arm and I was able to talk almost normal by then but the stroke had affected my swallow muscles. I was admitted and in a short while was taken up to Ward 33. I had a room to myself off the main ward which surprised me, with a toilet and shower off it, as well as a television in a straight line with the bed. Maybe this was because the main ward was full up.

     Anyway, I can’t fault the care and attention I received including the meals I was served, This despite I could only eat food that could be mashed with a fork or served in gravy, sauces or custard or yoghurt.  Much is written and said about the National Health  and of course, no organisation is without its faults but I consider we are so blessed in our country having such a health service.

During my life as a writer I have not only had to research certain illnesses but needed to know the names and situations of hospitals in Liverpool and various other places. I also had to be certain that they existed during the period the book was set. Fortunately I remember a little about life before the Health Service although I was only a small child at the time. I also have used stories my mother and mother-in-law told me. E.g. my eldest brother, Ron, caught scarlet fever when he was only a toddler and was taken to the fever hospital. My mother had to step in a bowl of disinfectant before she could approach him but was not allowed to get really close to him to give him a hug but could only talk to him from behind a curtain soaked in disinfectant. My brother lost his hearing in one ear as a result of the scarlet fever.

Interestingly my son’s best friend since primary school lost his hearing in one ear recently and was sent for a brain scan. IAvailat was discovered that he had suffered a mini stroke and it was that which had caused the deafness. 

I was in hospital for five days and since being home I have had visits from the speech therapist and an occupational therapist, as well as a volunteer from the Stroke Association. I have kept up with facial exercises for my swallow muscles and my son who has done acting but now has his heart set on being a film director/ writer put links to voice training exercises on my computer. My swallow muscles are now strong enough for me to eat a normal diet but having discussing my writing with the occupational therapist, we came to the conclusion that it would be sensible for me to take a break and not begin work on the next novel for a couple of months. Fortunately I had finished the novel I had been working on before my stroke. The thing is that my brain is going to be busy repairing itself for a while and needs all the help it can get from me, so I need also to rest and relax.

One of the ways I relax is by going to a couple of meetings the Stroke Association organise in Crosby and Orrell. One is a music meeting where we sing a mixture of songs which include a fair number from the fifties and sixties, good for strengthening the voice and face muscles. The other meeting we have quizzes, the kind where you have to recognise and name faces of famous people and also tunes, good for the memory. Both meetings are fun and one is meeting other  members of what I call the SS, STROKE SURVIVORS.  A writer’s working life is a solitary one, so it has proved good for me to get out and meet people I wouldn’t meet normally and I’m finding it interesting as a novelist because I’m spotting characteristics that I can use in my writing, not that I put real people in my books, too risky, bit the odd interesting characteristic can colour my writing.

Well, I think that’s all for now as I can’t type as quick as I used to be able to.

Please check my new website: www.junefrancis.com for news of my books being issued next year .

Available now: A  DAUGHER’S CHOICE   pb  EBURY PRESS

 LOVE LETTERS IN THE SAND  hb  SEVERN HOUSE’

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CITY OF MUSIC: PART 57

Liverpool has been in the news a lot lately due to one of her most famous daughters returning home to her final resting place. We saw a lot of Cilla Black on the telly in her early days when she was famous for her singing, rather than her appearances on “Blind Date” or “Surprise, Surprise. She really could belt a song out and my all time favourite is “Anyone Who Has a Heart”. Cilla never lost her Scouse accent and yet I’ve never caught a hint of it when she sang. This despite there are those who have been heard to say she laid the accent on a bit with a trowel. If she did then that was most likely because her being a Liverpudlian was so very much part of her persona. Last time I saw her in the flesh was on at the Empire theatre in Lime Street a few years ago when she played the fairy godmother in “Cinderella”. Despite touching seventy as one might expect of a fairy, she flew down onto the stage (on wires, of course), looking extremely glam in a white and sparkly gown. She had come a long way from the young girl who wanted to sing and worked at the Cavern.
     Now I’m not going to go on about Cilla because you’ll have read and seen enough about her life since her unexpected accidental death in Spain. Rather I want to say that it seemed odd to me that Cilla should be so in the news, just as I’d emailed the manuscript of my latest book, (Many A Tear Has to Fall), to my publisher. One of my characters, Monica, sings with a group and appears at the Cavern and is hoping to sign a recording contract with an agent. The year is 1960 and I remember it well. I never set foot in the Cavern myself but my husband went there as a teenager, so he was able to describe it to me. I also have a cousin who later was to work at the Iron Door, a place that never became as famous as the Cavern.
      The Cavern started out as a jazz club and Maggie, the heroine of my story, goes there with a jazz enthusiast who is not all that he seems, but that’s all I’ll say about him at this stage. Music was very much part of my life as a teenager growing up Liverpool, even though I was never at the centre of the music scene. But me and the boyfriend would visit the music stores, Cranes, Hanover Street, Rushworth and Draper’s, Whitechapel, and Nems also on Whitechapel, to buy records or sheet music. At the time I had no idea that Nems was owned by the family of Brian Epstein, who was to become the Beetles’ manager, as well as that of other famous musicians and singers on the Liverpool scene. I was also aware of where the smaller store, Hessy’s was situated near Dale Street, where would be pop stars, bought their instruments. I never passed through its hallowed doorway but only gazed through the window at the guitars, saxophones and other instruments on show. Although both of us had sung in choirs, neither of us ever played an instrument, although John’s mother had a piano in the parlour as did many a household in those days.
    It wasn’t until we were married and much older that John bought his first guitar and taught himself chords and the like, purely just for fun. At one time he even purchased a mandolin. Our two elder sons never showed any real music bent, although Iain was in the school choir and later the church choir. We had to wait until Daniel, son no 3, requested a keyboard for a prezzie one Christmas before discovering that there was some real musical talent in the family. He taught himself, not only to play keyboard but to read and write music. He was eventually to play the organ at St Mark’s Methodist church in Netherton, as well as our local C of E, St Paul’s, Litherland. He even had a go at playing various organs around Merseyside, including the magnificent one at the Liverpool Anglican Cathedral whilst doing an organ course. As well as that he has written the music for several short films written and directed by son No 2, Tim. http://www.timjfrancis.com/slate.html

So where does this love and talent for music come from? I remember whilst doing research for one of my earlier books FRIENDS AND LOVERS reading that it could be due to the number of Welsh and Irish who settled here, as well as Liverpool being a port and so it being a haven for sailors who always enjoy a good tune. If that’s true, then it’s certainly in my family’s blood. Although, I don’t like to discount the part played by the English, Manx, Scots and Norwegian in my ancestry and a whole host of other Liverpudlians who enjoy a good singsong.

P.S.  I noticed this morning that my book MEMORIES ARE MADE OF THIS is selling at the reduced price of £1.78 in ebook format on Amazon.

   

      

   

 

 

Big News! Big News! : Part 56

When I wrote the above title I couldn’t help hearing Cliff Richard singing the song from “Summer Holiday” which came out in 1963 in my head. The film filled me with a desire to go abroad, so fortunately due to my father-in-law having a win of several hundred pounds on the pools that year, John and I were able to spend a fortnight in Majorca for our honeymoon the following year. There was a popular song around then called “Majorca, the Isle of Love.”
But I digress. My big news is that my new website is up at www.junefrancis.com. Alleluia!
   My son Tim has worked like a Trojan getting it done in just over a week. I played my part in typing up all the blurbs from my books, as well as various other items that I hope readers will find interesting. Also I had the task of choosing photographs for the background of the various pages.

   We decided not to go for the obvious when it came to photos by having beautiful shots of the Liver building and the waterfront. Instead we chose other lovely places in Liverpool’s fair city. Such as Newsham Park lake with the Seamen’s Orphanage hidden amongst the trees. The orphanage gets a mention in Flowers on the Mersey, Tilly’s Story and Sunshine and Showers and the park features in several of my books.

    There are also shots of Abercrombie Square gardens as background on the saga pages. A couple of scenes from The Pawnbroker’s Niece took place in the gardens and one of my main characters buys a house in the area. It is now part of Liverpool University and during the Thirties when the book is set there is a scene where students are collecting money for Rag Week. An event which I remember as a teenager during the Fifties. If I remember aright the money went to support local hospitals. 
   There were several members of the Abercrombie family that achieved some fame,  including Sir Ralph Abercrombie who fought in the Napoleonic Wars. 
   On the About June page there is a background photo of a row of merchants houses built during a time when trade made Liverpool affluent for some and resulted in workers from here, there and everywhere flooding into Liverpool seeking their fortune that many sadly did not find, including several of my ancestors. There are also several photographs of me taken at various stages of my life, including one that appeared in the Liverpool Echo in 1949.  
    For my historical novels we decided on a photograph of part of the ruined Ludlow Castle in Shropshire which my husband and I visited when researching The Man Behind the Façade which was set in Tudor times.

Having finished my latest ms Many a Tear has to Fall which is with my agent, I’m hoping to get back to the ms I started writing last year about my family, ancestry and Liverpool history, as well as hopefully have some time away from my desk and enjoy the summer, weather permitting. I’m also hoping to catch up on some reading and have taken up the latest craze of colouring books for adults! 

WE ALL MAKE MISTAKES WHEN WE HURRY: PART 55

I was in the ladies changing rooms at Total Fitness this morning getting ready for my swim and one of the women said, ‘So how are you?’

‘Fine,’ I said, ‘Finished my manuscript and sent it off to my agent.’

‘How many is this now?’ she asked.

I had to think. Was it 35 or 36 books I’d had published? So this one must be number thirty-seven. I found it hard to believe that I could have written at least a million words over the years.

‘So what will you be doing today?’ She wanted to know.

‘I must do my blog and then I’ve got to start getting stuff ready for the new website my middle son Tim is going to design for me. The one I have now hasn’t been brought up to date for over a year as my youngest son Daniel who designed and looked after it for me is still on his travels somewhere and as we haven’t heard from him we can’t get into it.

Big Mistake was not asking him for a password!

Anyway, back to the changing rooms. I was telling the women how the draft I had sent off was my fourth and one commented on the spelling mistake she had found in a book.

I said, ‘Some mistakes slip through. In my case this happens despite reading back every day what I’ve written the day previously before continuing with the story. Then it gets read right through again. Then my agent will go through the ms more than once, then I’ll go through it once more, taking note of her comments, then my editor at the publisher’s will read it and I will go through her comments, then it will be printed and we’ll both go through every page checking for mistakes, note any printer’s errors and then go through the final copy as it will appear in book form. By then one would think any errors would have been spotted but as we all know that aint necessarily so.

Take my last blog for instance. I was reading it through this morning to remind myself of what I had written and there at the very bottom I had made a glaring error. I can only apologise to Bob Stone and Holly Bushnell of WRITE BLEND, book and coffee shop on South Rd, Waterloo, for typing WRITE BREND. I have to confess I was in a hurry to get the blog out there and as an old song goes We All Make Mistakes When We Hurry. Or should that be Worry?

Can scarcely believe it’s just over a month since I wrote that blog and so have been wracking my brains to come up with what to entertain readers of my blog this time.

The first idea that struck me was not the above (which I’m now wondering might have been a mistake) but something my husband read out of the Liverpool Echo to me. Apparently the River Mersey is now so clean that you can eat the edible fish you catch in its waters.

This reminded me of the times I’ve described the Mersey as being khaki coloured. I’m sure I’m not the only one who remembers when it was a dirty oily greeny shade of blue. Although having said that many a crab survived in the rock pools washed by the tide at New Brighton and the same could be said of the jellyfish that could be seen on both sides of the river.

I confess to missing the sight of the old liners, tugs, cargo ships, dredgers and the New Brighton ferries that used to crowd the Mersey. Container ships and these huge cruise ships just don’t have the same magic in my eyes. Although, no doubt, my mariner ancestors probably had mixed feelings about the passing of the old sailing ships and the arrival of the steamer. Life before the Mast in Victorian times was no fun.

But at least every now and again there is a week when the modern tall ships arrive and there is something beautiful about a ship in full sail.

I can recall when the Liver building was blackened with the smoke from thousands of chimneys. When in winter the smog was so bad, you really couldn’t see your hand in front of your face. In a way it was thanks to the deadly Great Smog in London in the fifties which killed hundreds, that the Clean Air Act was passed.

Over the years some buildings which should have had just a face lift were demolished in Liverpool. ‘Whatta mistaka to maka’ as the Italian captain used to say in “Hello, Hello!”. But there were other buildings, such as St George’s Hall and the India, Liver and Cunard buildings that were given a good scrub and power wash to emerge from beneath the scaffolding and plastic covers to look as good as the day they were built and now give pleasure to thousands, if not millions, of visitors.

I am reminded of these things because of the manuscript I have just sent off called MANY A TEAR HAS TO FALL which was a hit for Cliff Richard in the sixties and before then it was a hit for Tommy Edwards, known as the silky-voiced crooner, in 1958. My story features characters, who like all of us, make mistakes but come through in the end.
        P.S. Must add that this Friday at 7.30pm I'll be going with John and Iain to Write Blend to A Midnight Nightmare to listen to the horror writer, Ramsey Campbell. Already I can feel a shiver down my spine.



　

THE HAPPIEST DAYS OF YOUR LIFE: PART 54

Early this morning I was getting myself geared up to write something for my blog about A DAUGHTER’S CHOICE which hit the shelves in paperback format a couple of days ago (it’s also available as an e-book). It’s the sequel to A MOTHER’S CHOICE but the action is set seventeen years later at the end of the fifties. But then I discovered there was a classic B&W film on BBC 2 called THE HAPPIEST DAYS OF YOUR LIFE. Made in 1950 it starred those stalwarts of the British film industry of the times Alastair Sims, Margaret Rutherford and Joyce Grenfell, as well as other familiar faces to those of us who remember when a trip to the flicks several times a week was one of our prime entertainments.
    I plonked myself down on the sofa, glad that I’d only missed the first ten minutes and remained there until the credits at the end. The action takes place in a boys boarding school and, due to a mix-up at the Ministry of Education, on the first day of term the girls from St Swithin’s turn up, having been sent to the boys’ college due to their school having been damaged during the blitz. You can use your imagination to what happens next. It’s very much a film of its time so don’t be thinking St Trinian’s.
    Children’s books set in boarding schools were popular in the fifties. Despite a lot of the readers were ordinary working class kids like myself. For boys there were the Billy Bunter series by Frank Richards and the Jennings books by Anthony Buckeridge. As well as Enid Blyton’s Famous Five adventures stories, I read her boarding school tales set at St Mallory’s and St Clare’s, although some of the latter were written in the forties. Boarding school stories also appeared in comics such as the Hotspur and Wizard for boys and Girls’ Crystal and School Friend for the likes of me. Obvious the writers also believed that schooldays were the happiest of your life.
    When I was at Liverpool Girls’ College during the fifties, there were grownups who told us the same thing. Maybe they were remembering the long summer holidays when they were young. Once they started work at fourteen or fifteen, there were few holidays and no doubt they missed that freedom of wandering where they willed, playing in the street or losing themselves in a book or in films at the kids matinee.
When I was trying to learn Latin verbs in class I can’t say I felt happy and don't get me started on Mathematics. English and History I loved and the summer holidays. 
     But I have to admit and have probably said it before that I remember the latter half of the fifties with fondness and that is why I enjoy writing about that era. The scars of the blitz were beginning to disappear and rationing was over. When I left school in 1958 and got myself a job, rock’n’roll was all the rage as were net underskirts beneath flared skirts, waspie belts and pony tails. Dad bought our first telly even though the reception wasn’t always brilliant and I bought my first bike from my own wages.
     In 1959 Liverpool’s first mass X-Ray campaign took place and within a few years time the scourges of TB and polio would be almost eradicated from our country. Also in 1959 Bill Shankly became manager of Liverpool football club and Alun Owen’s NO TRAMS TO LIME STREET was shown on telly much to the shock horror of some of Liverpool’s citizens who complained to the Liverpool Echo that it had given the wrong image of our fair city to the viewers.
    Not that all these snippets get a mention in A DAUGHTER’S CHOICE, although just like myself, heroine Katy was at that age where clothes and music played a big part in her life and a night out at the Grafton dance hall was not to be missed. She also found a boyfriend. But Katy has problems that played no part in my life, one of them finding out that the couple she believed to be her parents weren’t and naturally this discovery was to change her life. I really enjoyed writing this book.

On Saturday 27^th June at 1pm I will be giving a short talk and be available for signing copies of A DAUGHTER’S CHOICE at Write Blend, a new book and coffee shop on South Road in Crosby. You can find it a few shops down near the Liverpool Road end, on the left hand side