Christine
asked
B.K. Duncan:
Hello, I was wondering what, or who, were you influenced by when you wrote Foul Trade? Was May based on someone from real life? I was also wondering, who else could I be reading that writes about the 20s in a historically accurate (rather than Hollywood) way?
B.K. Duncan
Hi, Christine.
I suppose I was influenced by all sorts of things in a hundred subconscious ways that I’ll never be aware of – my mood at the time; a snatch of dialogue from a story I was reading; an image on television; the authors I've loved over the decades . . . But writing isn't all alchemy and I positively sought out things I wanted to give Foul Trade a distinctive tone and voice. I read a lot of the literature around at the time – the journalistic accounts of George R Sims, the stories (and pseudo-reportage) of Thomas Burke and his contemporaries, and the novels of the day. From these I soaked-up atmosphere and texture to help ground the setting and characters. For example I gave May a moth-eaten green felt hat after reading The Green Hat by Michael Arlen; the Japanese tattoo parlour and the Scandinavian fish shop came from Limehouse Tales; the sound, smell and feel of the docks I borrowed from the impressions of those who wrote about walking unfamiliar East End streets.
As to May . . . she, too, developed as a character as I went along. It was crucial I didn't have her engaged in anything another young woman of her time and social position wouldn't have done so I turned to oral histories, memoires, and diaries to steer me in the right direction. But much more difficult was trying to get into her head to give her the attitudes, awareness, and knowledge of the day. It took me a lot of time and research and I hope I got it right. As to her character, she has to be based (as all characters in fiction are) largely of the sensibilities of the author. How I imagine I might have felt and reacted in her circumstances and situations.
For reading suggestions I've stretched your time period to include the immediate aftermath of the Great War as it’s impossible to understand the 1920s without getting a feel of what went before. So . . .
Sarah Waters, Jacqueline Winspear, Rennie Airth, Charles Todd, Nicola Upson, Gillian Linscott.
You can also get a good take on the 1920s from authors who were looking back to write about their immediate past: F. Tennyson Jesse, Josephine Tey, J.B. Priestly, George Orwell, Edith Wharton, Winifred Holtby, Frederick Manning, Robert Graves.
I hope you find this answer useful. Do come back if you’d like to know more. I could talk on topics like this all day!
I suppose I was influenced by all sorts of things in a hundred subconscious ways that I’ll never be aware of – my mood at the time; a snatch of dialogue from a story I was reading; an image on television; the authors I've loved over the decades . . . But writing isn't all alchemy and I positively sought out things I wanted to give Foul Trade a distinctive tone and voice. I read a lot of the literature around at the time – the journalistic accounts of George R Sims, the stories (and pseudo-reportage) of Thomas Burke and his contemporaries, and the novels of the day. From these I soaked-up atmosphere and texture to help ground the setting and characters. For example I gave May a moth-eaten green felt hat after reading The Green Hat by Michael Arlen; the Japanese tattoo parlour and the Scandinavian fish shop came from Limehouse Tales; the sound, smell and feel of the docks I borrowed from the impressions of those who wrote about walking unfamiliar East End streets.
As to May . . . she, too, developed as a character as I went along. It was crucial I didn't have her engaged in anything another young woman of her time and social position wouldn't have done so I turned to oral histories, memoires, and diaries to steer me in the right direction. But much more difficult was trying to get into her head to give her the attitudes, awareness, and knowledge of the day. It took me a lot of time and research and I hope I got it right. As to her character, she has to be based (as all characters in fiction are) largely of the sensibilities of the author. How I imagine I might have felt and reacted in her circumstances and situations.
For reading suggestions I've stretched your time period to include the immediate aftermath of the Great War as it’s impossible to understand the 1920s without getting a feel of what went before. So . . .
Sarah Waters, Jacqueline Winspear, Rennie Airth, Charles Todd, Nicola Upson, Gillian Linscott.
You can also get a good take on the 1920s from authors who were looking back to write about their immediate past: F. Tennyson Jesse, Josephine Tey, J.B. Priestly, George Orwell, Edith Wharton, Winifred Holtby, Frederick Manning, Robert Graves.
I hope you find this answer useful. Do come back if you’d like to know more. I could talk on topics like this all day!
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