Here's wishing you good health!

Last week I visited Fazakerley hospital's Stroke outpatient's clinic where I was signed off. The specialist being very satisfied with my recovery from my stroke eleven months ago. These days we regard hospitals very much as places where we can be cured of disease and sent home to get on with our lives.


This week I have been working on my faction book which is a mixture of fact and fiction and is about my ancestors of whom I know certain facts but naturally not all so I have been filling in the gaps in my knowledge by researching with the help of my researcher son Iain the times in which they lived. I am planning on writing three books but this first one begins in 1832 when cholera broke out in Liverpool. At that time the medical profession did not have a definite idea of what caused cholera but from their experience of dealing with this terrifying disease they considered it could be caused by three things and could only guess at how it spread. Something called Miasma from the Greek for pollution was popular and some thought it was spread by touch. They were keen to get sufferers into the cholera hospital as soon as possible so they could be nursed properly under suitable surroundings and had met with some encouraging results.


The drawback to this was the families of the suffering poor had it fixed in their heads that the medical profession had ulterior motives for wanting to take the sick members of their families into hospital. This was only about four years after the scandal of  body-snatchers and murderers, Burke and Hare, had been detected selling the bodies to doctors in Edinburgh and had shocked the nation. So poor people had little or no faith in hospitals as a place of healing and instead believed that their sick would never come out of hospital cured. In fact there were riots and protests outside the hospital against doctors who were nicknamed Burkers.


The newspapers of the day and those who genuinely wanted to help the underprivileged and poor set about doing what they could to improve the situation.
If nothing else the shocking conditions under which the poor lived was brought to the attention of more people of influence. The Church and other well-meaning people were already aware of the overcrowding and filthy conditions the poor lived in and so began the struggle to alter things. It was to take a long time because over the next few years more people flooded into Liverpool, mainly Irish escaping the potato famine in their own country. Most had little or no money and has there was not enough housing, they ended up crowding into unhealthy court and cellar dwelling which meant that when the cholera visited Liverpool again in the hot summer of 1846 the number of victims was high and so was the mortality rate in these areas. Some of the Irish victims had been suffering from typhoid when they fled Ireland which meant those that survived were already in a weakened condition so not able to fight cholera.  We know now that cholera is a water-borne disease but it was only guessed at during the time of the outbreak and at a time when people were thirsty due to the heat, so some were not fussy about where their drinking water came from.
       Two names stand out during those terrible times Dr William Duncan, Liverpool's first Medical Officer of Health. Of Scottish descent, he was born in Seel Street, Liverpool, but gained his medical degree at Edinburgh University but returned to the city of his birth. It is known that he had two practices. one in Rodney Street, the Harley street of Liverpool, and another in the North Dispensary in Vauxhall Road, one of the worse slum areas in the city.
       He was 19 years younger than Kitty Wilson, who was famed for her actions being the instigator behind the Corporation's introduction of public washhouses a few years later. During the epidemic she had one of the few boilers in her area and washed the bedding and clothing of those families struck down. Dr Duncan was outspoken in his condemnation of the Corporation's apathy towards hygiene and housing. He campaigned with his colleague, Dr David Baird, for slum clearance, re-housing and a radical approach to hygiene. This did not make him popular with the hierarchy but eventually conditions for the poor began to improve with the help of Liverpool's first Borough Engineer James Newland.


It is to these people and their successors that Liverpool owes its improved health services, its hospitals, medical centres and university research departments. Thank God for them, I say.

Crabs, flowers and music;

The other day my son, Tim, arrived home sunburnt and happy, having spend hours on New Brighton beach which was something he had never done before, unlike myself for whom that destination was a regular place to go as a child with my parents and siblings but it is a place that my husband and I did not take our boys as children. Most likely that is due to them growing up here in Litherland on the northern skirts of Liverpool which meant visiting Crosby beach or Formby generally. Whereas I grew up in the city itself so like thousands of other Scousers it was a trip on the ferry across the Mersey to New Brighton where not only did I paddle in the sea and dug in the sand, I also went crabbing because there were plenty of rocks and rock pools to explore, something which Formby lacks and there's not many worth mentioning in Crosby. When I said to Tim that I was sorry he'd missed out on crabbing. Immediately he waxed lyrically about caravan holidays in Anglesey where there were lots of rock pools with eels, sea anemones and kewins.


It was Tim who again reminded me of the old days when he mentioned the orange flowers that had just appeared in our back garden. We had planted nasturtiums seeds, something we hadn't done for years but having seen some seed packets in Lidl I was reminded of my mum planting them in the window boxes in the back yard of our terraced house in Liverpool and how colourful they had been. She used to plant Virginia stock and night scented stock in our very small front garden and I remember her having a single peony in the centre of that garden and when at the beginning of the Seventies when the corporation in its foolishness decided to demolish more of Liverpool than was sensible and erect flats which have since in their turn been demolished, she dug up the peony and transplanted it to my garden.


Today Tim is going with a friend to a music festival in Sefton Park. When I was courting, my future husband and I used to visit Newsham Park and listen to a band play there some weekends or even the odd evening in summer. A love of music is international. Liverpool has gained world fame as a city of music and not only because of the Beetles.
     Yesterday evening I was in the small ballroom of the Liverpool town hall with my husband and no 1 son, Iain, listening to a concert given by the Ten Strings Duo, Davide Sciacca on guitar and Marianatella Ruscica on violin. Sicillian, they played Italian classical musical as well as a touch of French and Brazilian before paying homage to the Beatles with their rendering of Yesterday and Let it Be. It was a magical evening and I almost had to pinch myself to see if it was real as I gazed up at one of the fabulous chandelier as I let the music wash over me. The light danced on the crystal droplets so that different colours twinkled from them. Thanks go to Tony Higginson, erstwhile proprietor of Formby Books and who afterwards was party to the move to the WriteBlend Bookshop and Coffee shop on South Road, Crosby for arranging the event.
     We were all invited to have a drink with the deputy Lord  Mayor, Malcolm  Kennedy, and one of the staff offered to run off a brief history of the town hall when I mentioned being a writer and how at Crosby Writers Club, one of our members mentioned his Irish grandfather had been a Fenian. I had remembered a Fenian plot to destroy the town hall but could not remember the date. Hence her kind gesture and I can give you the date now. It was 1881 and the attempt failed. The first town hall was build in 1515 and presented by the Rev John Crosse but by 1673 it was decided it needed replacing but that building did not last long due to inadequate foundations  and so in 1748 John Wood, a famous architect from Bath, designed a new Town Hall which was opened I'm 1754.
     In 1795 fire broke out and destroyed much of the building but almost immediately plans were set in motion for restoration and a London architect, James Wyatt supervised the rebuilding and expansion on Wood's design. The result is basically the town hall as it is today.
   Edward V11 compared the Town Hall's magnificent suite of rooms with the Czar's Winter Palace in St Petersburg as  being 'the best proportioned in all Europe'.

A Royal Visit to Liverpool

Liverpool had a visit from our queen and the Duke of Edinburgh this week and although I wasn't in the city to see them, there was a great special edition in the Liverpool ECHO and the visit was shown on NW television. I mightn't have been there but there were thousands of others present to get a glimpse of them as they visited the Town Hall and Alder Hey's children's hospital.http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/all about the queen
Despite being situated in the North West of England, so a good few miles from London. Liverpool has done well when it comes to visits from royalty. I remember my sister and I being taken by Mam and Dad into the hub of Liverpool after WW2. My sister and I took turns of being hoisted onto Dad's shoulders and we were fortunate enough to see King George V1 and Queen Elizabeth and the king's mother, Queen Mary of Teck drive by in an open top shiny black car.


Our present queen has attended the Grand National several times as has the late Queen Mother. One never to be forgotten occasional was when the queen's horse Devon Loch, ridden by Dick Francis, collapsed a short distance from the finish. Who'd have thought he would have gone on to become a best selling crime author when he retired from racing? The queen's grandfather, George V was in Liverpool to open the first Mersey tunnel, the Queensway in the Thirties. Our queen was to open the second tunnel in the Seventies, known by most as the Wallasey tunnel, although it's proper name is the Kingsway.




I remember when I worked in town coming out of Lewis's just as Princess Margaret was passing. I was unaware that she was in Liverpool so it was quite a surprise. My husband has never forgotten the Duke of Edinburgh arriving by helicopter at the Borrowdale Fell Race, Lake District, in which John was participating and His Royal Highness saying they were all mad as he awarded the prizes. I am in utter agreement with HRH as are many people. John was made up that HRH had made the journey because fell racing doesn't get much press, although in the last few years some fell runners have brought the sport to the notice of more people. Fell runners such as Joss Naylor and the like. The Three Peaks and the Munroes are gaining fame as mountains to be run and conquered.


But getting back to royalty I was doing some research for one of my books a while back when I came across a mention of a visit from Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. The queen opened St George's Hall in 1854 and Prince Albert opened the Albert Dock, which is now one of the most popular tourists sites in the country. In 2007 Prince Charles reopened St George's Hall after a major renovation. My father has a connection with the hall, he was a plasterer and after WW2, he was employed in repairing some of the internal plaster work at the top of some of the pillars that had suffered damage during the Blitz.





http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/all-about/the-queen

more about last post and other things:66

This week the news came that writer Carla Lane had died. How could I have forgotten her?
Creator of The Liver Birds and Bread which provided me with a lorra lorra laughs.


One of my nephews' wife who hails from Windsor, reminded me that I had also forgotten to pay tribute to Liverpool City of Culture 2008 and the Echo reminded me of Phil Redmond and all he had done to promote our fair city.


I am preparing to get out the bubbly because I have finished the book I have been writing - the first since my stroke. Fittingly it is called Walking Back to Happiness and is set at the beginning of the Sixties. The title is that of the Helen Shapiro song which was a hit towards the end of 1961. I am just waiting for my agent's comments and then hopefully the publisher's.


In July I do have a paperback and Ebook out called A SISTER'S DUTY by Ebury, which is a reprint of my FOR THE SAKE OF THE CHILDREN.  LILY'S WAR is out in paperback and has just been released as a Ebook and audiobook as well.


I am now planning to write a series of faction sagas centred on my ancestry  starting in the 1830s up to modern times. It is a big challenge and entails a lot of research and the first book will be titled AND THEY CAME TO LIVERPOOL.  So wish me luck, please?

What's been going on and what's coming up;

It's all happening at the moment in Liverpool and around about. A week ago I was at Croxteth Park preparing to do a sponsored walk for the charity Stroke Association. Fortunately it was a beautiful day and the whole occasion was enjoyable and well supported. The starting ribbon was cut by the Lord Mayor of Liverpool and we were led off by the children from two nearby schools who also sang beautifully to encourage us. I'm pleased to say that I've raised just over £140, more than I expected and I'm grateful to all those who supported me. If you want to know more about the Stroke Association, go to their website. As I know by experience Stroke comes out of the blue and it's good to know what to do when it happens.


Last Wednesday, 11th May, I went to St MargaretMary's in Knotty Ash, to give a talk to the Catholic Mothers' group which was very enjoyable, then on the Thursday, I attended a lunch at the Royal Hotel, Crosby to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the forming of Crosby Writers' club. I have been a member for 34years, a good time was had by all and we had a very interesting talk from Amanda Brooke, author who lives Halewood way, which is the south side of Liverpool.


On Thursday, 19th May, I will be talking and signing books at Crosby Library at 2pm and on Saturday, 28th May, I will be talking and signing copies of my latest books at the WriteBlend bookshop on South Road, Crosby at 2pm. All welcome.


In July, 'A Sister's Duty' will be released by publishers, Ebury Press in paperback and as an ebook. It was previously published under the title 'For the Sake of the Children' in hardback and paperback.


I remember way back in my late teens and twenties it was said that Liverpool was dying, people were leaving for the south and emigrating to different parts of the Commonwealth and not only people but companies, including shipping companies, which meant less jobs in my fair city.  Then things started to change and it proved that Liverpool was still alive and kicking and it was still a city that had a strong position on the map of Great Britain. Our two fabulous football teams were famous in places far beyond these shores. I never forget going to Austria a few years ago and meeting a man from Latvia and when my husband and I said we were from Liverpool, immediately he recognized the name. Then, of course, there were the Beatles and other music groups who played their part in making Liverpool famous worldwide. And the Grand National horse race has brought crowds flocking in to the city for years and still does.


Liverpudlian actors and theatres have also played their part - as have writers, and I don't just mean playwrights, such as Willie Russell and Jimmy McGovern, but saga writers, like myself, and Lyn Andrews, Ann Baker, Joan Jonker, Elizabeth Murphy, and the woman who could be said to have started it all, Helen Forrester, I mustn't forget Katie Flynn and Annie Groves/ Sheila Riley. Not all these are Liverpudlians but they have made the city their own.  On the crime side I must remember Martin Edwards and Ron Ellis. Then there are also writers, Beryl Bainbridge,Carla Lane, and Lynda La Plante who made their mark on television and the literary scene.


Now Liverpool is buzzing and it is one of the most popular tourist places in the country. The ships are back in the shape of enormous cruise vessels and it's just great.
Last night son Tim took his camera into the city centre because there was some Light festival or scene going on - also the Beacon was open for visitors to go up to the top where the view would be fantastic. One can also get a brilliant view from the top of the Anglican Cathedral. For information about more events coming up go to the Liverpool website or that of the ECHO.

AROUND AND ABOUT NEAR THE MERSEY AND THE DEE:PART 64

Friday evening between 6-8 I was at the Frodsham Literary Festival at a Meet the Authors event before there was to be a talk by poet Roger McGough at 9pm. There were 25of us authors with their books on display. Besides my friend Mills & Boon author, Annie Burrows, who lives near Warrington and myself, I knew only about five of the other authors, such as Margaret Murray who writes crime and I think lives in Manchester, but there were children's writers, poets, saga and thriller writers, the author at the next table had come all the way from Ulverston, birthplace of comedian and actor, Stan Laurel, in the Lake District, I wish I could remember her name but it's gone. Next to her was a woman who was a volunteer for VSO who had written of her experiences working in Africa. I found this interesting because I'm a supporter of VSO.


Actually getting to the event was a chore because although my husband and I had both visited the Frodsham area as children, we had not been there since and I had it fixed in my head that it was on the Wirral but it is in Cheshire and lies close to Runcorn, the other side of a narrow stretch of the Mersey from Widnes, and as a lot of you will know they are joined by the Runcorn Bridge. Fortunately, we discovered that there were road works going on in the area because a new bridge is being built presumably to ease the congestion there, so we decided to have a day out a few days before the festival and take a different route to the town of Frodsham which involved travelling through the Liverpool-Wallasey tunnel and the M53, crossing onto the M56 just before Chester which would take us to Junction 12 Frodsham and Runcorn.


Our memories of Frodsham were of - in my case, picking blackberries with my mam, sister and brother on the hill, for John, he remembered doing a run up the hill. The town is easy to get around and parking was no trouble. It has some ancient buildings with thatched roofs and a number of shops of the kind you see in small market towns, but there was a Morrison's and a W.H.Smith's. We went into the latter because John wanted to buy a copy of the Highway Code and I was delighted to find some 1000 piece jigsaws priced 2 for £20 with the kind of pictures I liked as doing jigsaws is something I enjoy doing when not writing, swimming or walking or reading. Then we found a fish and chip shop and bought some chips.


We did not remain in the area to eat them as John had suggested going to Thurstason on the Wirral before we'd left Liverpool as it was ages since we had been there. As children we had been wont to visit there via the ferry to Birkenhead and then bus.
So off we set with the chips wrapped up tightly to keep them warm. We never did reach Thurstason because the journey across to the Wirral took longer than we reckoned on as Thurstason was not mentioned on the motorway boards, so we came off at Heswall and headed in the direction of West Kirkby and Hoylake. We decided to stop in West Kirby and parked on the front where there was a marina with several windsails  skimming along the water, so we sat on a bench eating our chips and tuna sandwiches, watching them and looking beyond to the land on the other side of what John told me was the river Dee. We could also see right across the sands to Hilbre island at some point when we walking along the front. A place to which John and I had walked while the tide was out when much younger.
An experience I put in one of my M&B historical novels, REBEL LADY, CONVENIENT WIFE, a story which is set partly in France.


Maybe it was because I could see Hilbre island that I was half-convinced that the water was not the Dee but the Irish Sea  but the next day when I checked out the map, I realised that West Kirkby is just round the coast at the mouth of the river Dee and that's why we could see both Wales across the Dee and the Irish Sea as well. As for Thurstason that was further inland along a minor road and we must have passed it just after Heswall.


Heswall hospital was the place I was moved to from Myrtle street hospital in Liverpool after fracturing my skull and spine after falling ten feet from a wall at school when I was fourteen. I can't remember a thing about falling or how I came to climb the wall but I do remember being taken through the Mersey tunnel in an ambulance to the orthopaediac ward at Heswall hospital where I had to lie on my back for six weeks. An experience I've used in a saga.


While sitting at the front in West Kirkby, I thought how we could have saved ourselves a long journey if that was all we were going to do, by heading homewards and  travelling just a couple of miles to the marina at Waterloo and then to the front near the coastguard station at Hall Road on our side of the Mersey and the Irish sea. From the latter can be seen the Wirral coast and the Welsh mountains and we can sometimes also see Blackpool tower in the distant northwards.














 

Easter remembered; Part 62

When I was a girl living in postwar Liverpool, that is the latter half of the forties and the early fifties, Easter was one of the few occasions when my sister and I were bought a new frock; the other times were Whit and Christmas. We didn't have much say in the style or colour as it was Mam who did the choosing and price was all as she couldn't really afford to buy us frocks and she was no dressmaker or knitter come to that. So it was a case of her getting a cheque from Sturla's on Breck Road and paying the money back over a period of time, either that or visiting a van that used to come round and park on waste ground. We'd go up steps at the back and inside there would be clothes on hangers hung on racks that could be bought on tick. I don't know if Dad knew about these goings-on but I remember Mam running up a bill at Begle's, which was a tiny shop that you reached by going up a back entry and into a yard and thence into a room with a counter and behind that on shelves were groceries. Dad was furious when he discovered Mam was in debt and the bill was paid in double quick time.


Mam and Dad didn't go to church but us kids were sent to Sunday School at a mission hall, connected to St Chrysostom's church in Everton, so we had to have new frocks for Easter Sunday so Mam thought. Interestingly despite their lack of churchgoing, we not only always had fish on Good Friday but Mam would never hang washing out on the line that day. On Easter Sunday Dad would boil onion skins and place hen's eggs in the water. The eggshells would get a pattern on and turn a different colour. Despite a shortage of money we always were given a chocolate egg as well. A real treat.


Come Easter Monday, Mum and Dad would take my sister and I out, For some reason our older brothers never came on these outings. Maybe they considered themselves too big to go out with their little sisters and had other plans to do with their mates. Occasionally we would go farther afield to places such as New Brighton by bus and ferry or even to Chester. More often than not it would be to Newsham Park or Sefton Park, the latter meant taking a bus. We would feed the ducks and play ball on the grass.
We would have never thought of these occasions as Quality Time as a lot of working parents and their children regard them now.


Mam did not go out to work until my younger sister was at secondary school, so for years we had plenty of time to spend with her, unless we were playing out in the street with our friends; games such as skipping, rounders, tick, giant strides, top and whip, two balls, hopscotch, etc.  There were numerous games which kept us fit and prevented us from getting overweight. We also walked most places.
This is turning into a real nostalgia indulgence so I'll finish by wishing you all a happy Eastertide.