Surrey village people

Welcome to my blog if you’ve found it for the first time, after spotting my piece in the April issue of SURREY LIFE. This is the first of a new series on people who put life into villages and bring a small community together. Editor, Caroline Harrap, came up with the series title ‘Notes from a Small Village’– apologies to Bill Bryson!

I may have met you at one of 40 or so book signings over the years in various Surrey Waterstones bookshops. If so, hello again! Either way, if you have time, feel free to browse through my 'ramblings' – going strong since 2009! Just click through titles listed lower down in right-hand column. And, please send me a comment below if you want to make contact now!

Those who follow me on Twitter will know of other characters I have ‘discovered’. Take a look here:

LoveaHappyEnding Lifestyle magazine Real people, real unsung heroes and heroines.

My novels are, of course, filled with fictitious people who also do unusual things, but real life does rub off on my fiction. For one thing, I live smack bang in the middle of my imaginary Appley Green world, although my dreamed up village has less traffic than most real Surrey villages! I think a busy road cutting through many a village mars what would otherwise be perfection. Would you agree? More about my Appley Green books on Amazon – just click on book covers.

In my next post here I will be looking at how life experience and real people have helped me in the writing of my four novels.  I do like to mix fact with fiction so that the reader can not only escape but also grab hold of some social realism. Love story there may be, but romance comes with a twist.

I must say how lovely it is to be a columnist for SURREY LIFE, a magazine that always cheers me up and reminds me of what a beautiful county Surrey is, with so many things to do and see.  Who knows where I may end up next? It could be a village near you!

And not forgetting – my books have all been reviewed in SURREY LIFE! Juliette Foster met me briefly at the first Surrey Heath Book Festival and contacted me to review my first two books and the rest, as they say, is history!

Here are the links to Book Corner in SURREY LIFE digital archive:

March 2014, Page 130  Gypsies Stop tHere and No Gypsies Served

November 2014, Page 70 Shades of Appley Green - a modern village novel

January 2016,  Page 72  Secrets in Appley Green - a 1960s village novel

Until next time! And look out in May SURREY LIFE for the next Surrey village and the next amazing person!

The Secret is out!

The list at the end of this post is constantly updated, offering links to other varied and interesting articles. 

Secrets in Appley Green – A 1960s village novel takes me back to my own teenage years but the writing of it also led me to reading around that decade, fiction, non-fiction books and magazines. Whilst it was hugely enjoyable to both research and write, getting the detail accurate and credible was challenging. 1960, for example, was very different from, say, 1965.  

I guess it may mean different things to various age-groups - you, your Mum, your Granny, your daughter!

Some of the icons of that revolutionary era, such as The Beatles, may not be mentioned, unless they crept in without me noticing. I did not want to ram endless clichés of the Sixties down the reader’s throat but rather to offer something fresh and yet quite everyday that evokes a time gone by. It is an emotional love story with a twist. 

Like Gypsies Stop tHere and No Gypsies Served, Secrets in Appley Green and Shades of Appley Green are connected but can equally well standalone. You do not need to read one before the other, but if you do read both you will recognise people at very different times in their lives and know more about them. One or two of the characters occur in all four books!

Without giving away spoilers for either book, there is a big question hovering over the end of Shades of Appley Green. One (lovely) Amazon reviewer said, ‘Miriam creates a perfect atmosphere in this book and keeps an electric suspense throughout. I never expected such a strong cliffhanger in the end – I am definitely left wanting more!’  Well, Heidi, this dangling hook is quite thoroughly answered by Secrets in Appley Green. Many of the same older characters appear as they were fifty years earlier – so yes, there is a link between the two novels. 

It has been a long time coming but anyone who has been following the plot will know that a few problems last year held things up somewhat. Cancer!

Three naïve, but very different, Appley Green schoolgirls pledge to stick together for ever, but when one of them gets pregnant, this pushes their promise to the edge.

A young girl in need of love is vulnerable to the charms of an older man with heart-breaking consequences.

This is Great Britain’s Sixties, an exciting era, gathering pace then in full swing as social change sweeps aside past attitudes, laws, fashion and culture. Youth is finding a voice as parents struggle to adjust.  Its characters span the full social spectrum and take us beyond Appley Green to Brighton, Margate, London, Vienna and Paris.

Miriam Wakerly’s  Appley Green village stories all standalone and can be read in any order, but they are connected. This one can serve as a prequel to all three, especially Shades of Appley Green.

Available on Kindle now and in paperback: 
All my books on Amazon.co.uk
and on Amazon.com 

I do hope you will enjoy reading it!  Look out for more articles and reviews :

New Book Launch on LoveaHappyEnding Lifestyle magazine

Talking about the nature of secrets on Bonnie Trachtenberg's blog:

Looking at the challenges of writing a novel with Anneli Purchase:

Reactions to a 1960s novel.  Linn B Halton's blog

An interview (brilliant questions!) with Zara Stoneley

Reinventing the plot with Sheryl Browne

An interview with Shaz Goodwin where I revealed a few things!

Kicking off a holiday reading list with funny books, courtesy of Anneli Purchase

Guest on Brook Cottage Books thanks to Debbie Johnston, aka @jontybabe, where I turn myself about face!

Review by Luke Marlowe  born in the eighties but transported to the sixties! 

Review by Adele @Kraftireader 'zipping through the chapters to find out what happened next.'

Interview with Bookgatherer  Thank you @Emalie2702

LLm Bookshop window - see a tempting extract! (Remember it's in paperback as well as KIndle)

Surrey Life Review January's Book Corner, full-page review by broadcaster and writer Juliette Foster  See page 72 !

Books and Authors  Guest author on Why I Wrote a Novel Set in the 1960s

World Book Night Comes to Appley Green!!

 

OK, so Appley Green is not real. I should know this!

 

World Book Night is real, however, and coming very close to Appley Green! Just to remind you, this is an initiative that involves authors, publishers, agents, booksellers, librarians and above all readers!  It is on Tuesday 23 April - wow! four days away, as I write this.

On their website they say, ‘World Book Night is a celebration of reading and books which sees tens of thousands of passionate volunteers gift specially chosen and printed WBN books in their communities to share their love of reading.’  I am one such volunteer, full of passion, needless to say; so on Tuesday I shall be giving away 20 brand new special editions of my first choice from the list of books offered by World Book Night. It was difficult to choose from a wonderful selection, but I was delighted to be allocated my top choice, a novel called The Road Home by Rose Tremain.

Of course, this book is just ‘up my street’ and please forgive the pun if you can find it in your heart; about an Eastern European immigrant’s struggle to make his way (yes it’s a ‘journey’) in London. It offers a new perspective of ourselves and I love this book. I really hope I transmit my enthusiasm to others and do it justice.

A snippet from the WBN website, declaring that reading can go beyond pleasure:

 ‘Reading changes lives, improves employability, social interaction, enfranchisement and can have an effect on mental health and happiness.’ 

I could not put it better myself, nor agree more!

Next week I will tell you about where I am going – or rather where I went!  With pictures! I wonder who I will meet? Aren't you excited? Of course you are!

Book givers are charged with the mission to approach people who perhaps do not read books regularly. I say ‘perhaps’ for how can you possibly tell before speaking to someone! (unless you catch them at it - reading, that is.) What does a non-reading person look like? What would be their identifying features? Tell me!

It's 'horses for courses' as they say and some could not live without Grand Prix races or playing Bridge; but I genuinely cannot imagine living without books. They are, and always have been, such an important part of my life; now in retirement, even more so. I do what used to be called ‘Books on Wheels’ rebranded as ‘Library Direct Home Service’ that I consistently fail to remember; the words just keep re-arranging themselves in a different order, but I guess I need to stare at the title a little longer to fix it. I belong to a book club. I have kept a list of books read over the past ten years or so, with a brief comment about each one. I recommend this to booklovers! As the years roll by it is quite enlightening to look back and see what you have read and whether you enjoyed it and, if so, why. Now, I sometimes pop a little review up on Goodreads, go to Book Festivals, and, of course,  try to find time to write books too, the greatest joy of all.

World Book Night, The Company

‘Each year we recruit 20,000 volunteers to hand out 20 copies of their favourite book from our list to members of their community who don’t regularly read. By enlisting thousands of passionate book lovers around the country World Book Night reaches out to the millions of people in the UK who have yet to fall in love with reading in the hope that we can start them on their reading journey. In addition World Book Night distributes half a million books directly to the hardest to reach potential readers in prisons, care homes, hospitals, sheltered, supported and social housing, the homeless and through partner charities working throughout the UK. World Book Night is about giving books and encouraging reading in those who don’t regularly do so. But it is also about more than that: it’s about people, communities and connections, about reaching out to others and touching lives in the simplest of ways, through the sharing of stories.’   http://www.worldbooknight.org/

Let me know of any good World Book Night (WBN) events down your way!

Added after the event - here in Deepcut Village Hall
See how they clutch their books!!

 

 

A Gentle Reminder

There has been much talk about Shades of Appley Green in recent months and perhaps some of you would like a simple reminder about my first two novels, also set in the village of Appley Green. They are connected but each one stands alone. You could read either one first.

Gypsies Stop tHere on Amazon as paperback and Kindle

Will uprooting herself from London to live in the English countryside help Kay escape guilt-ridden memories of her husband’s death? Far from finding a quiet life, she is caught up in an age-old village conflict where passionate opinions on Romany Gypsy Travellers divide the local people.

A young woman, Lena, enters her life, unwittingly putting Kay’s plans on hold. Kay struggles to not only come to terms with her emotional past but also to resolve Lena’s problems, those of the village and the Gypsies. And another relationship blossoms that she would never have dreamed of … 

No Gypsies Served on Amazon as paperback and Kindle

Two years have passed since Kay successfully campaigned for the Appley Green Gypsy Site, and four years since her husband was murdered. Life in the village was going so well, until the phone call and letter. Then comes the disastrous site opening. Worst of all, Dunstan, whom she realises is her best friend and ally, is giving her the cold shoulder for some unknown reason.

Dunstan is taking an emotional trip down memory lane, into childhood as a Gypsy on the road, and his eventual break from his people. Why is he so angry with Kay that he keeps away from her? Chances of a longed for reconciliation look slim …

The two books had many lovely reviews in addition to those on the Amazon web site. I will give you just a couple, for now.

I spoke on BBC Radio Oxford – it was a programme called The Write Lines hosted by broadcaster and writer, Sue Cook. She later read my two Gypsy books.

 “Few of us even try to understand gypsies and their way of life. Our knee-jerk reaction usually goes no further than ‘not in my backyard’, as I discovered first hand when a family of gypsies arrived in a village near where I live last year. The immediate reaction among the residents was a mixture of alarm and resentment.

In Miriam Wakerly’s Gypsies Stop tHere  and its sequel No Gypsies Served  it’s refreshing to see gypsies portrayed as individual people like the rest of us, making their way in life the best way they can. Reading this compelling story brings home the fact that it’s perfectly possible for gypsies to be accepted successfully into our communities.

Wakerly’s books do a wonderful job in helping to promote understanding where there is ignorance and tolerance where there is bigotry. I recommend them heartily.”

 Scarlett de Courcier found me in a Waterstones shop one day and hhere’s what followed:

(Click here!) Bohemiacademia

(Extract)

“Gypsies Stop tHere gripped me from the first page and carried me all the way through to the end on a wave of ‘I don’t want to put this down’. And then I picked up No Gypsies Served and had the same feeling all the way through that one.”

Scarlett even placed my two books as her 2^nd best choice for 2010 and, boy, has she read some books, and, oh yes, she can be very critical of books sometimes!

“Really, really important books. Really, really beautifully written. I think they should be on every school’s curriculum.”

Maybe you would like to give Gypsies Stop tHere and No Gypsies Served a try and, if you like them, add your own comment on Amazon. That would be amazing and I will look out for what you have to say!

English summer as it should be

This has nothing to do with books or Gypsies - or village life in Appley Green. I just wanted to share with you some photos I took at Nymans and Wakehurst Place, National Trust properties and gardens my husband and I visited on 28 June. It was a day when the sun did actually shine now and then and we dodged the showers.

Shades of Summer Green!

England is a 'green and pleasant land' and a lovely place to live.

Romany Day - I was away with the Gypsies!

On Saturday (30 June) I went with a supply of my three books to 'Romany Day', held at the Rural Life Centre in Tilford, a fascinating outdoors museum near Farnham, Surrey, well-worth a visit any time.

This was a day for building bridges between Romany Gypsies and non-Gypsies. The sun shone – and the wind blew. Those of us with anything light enough to fly away had a constant battle with sporadic gusts that would suddenly remove stands, papers, balloons and books; even a gazebo took to the air at one point. I see now why ‘flyers’ are called just that!

Everything keeping still at this moment!!

There was a relaxed and friendly atmosphere with a wide variety of things going on, from the Fire Service’s dramatic demonstrations of a fire within a van and its extinguishment, (fire being a major potential hazard on many Travellers' sites); to a group of weavers and spinners from Guildford – not Gypsies, but people with an active interest in traditional skills.

The younger generation of Romany Gypsies were making them-selves seen and heard through a mix of street-dance and country and western music in the barn opposite my post; lovely youngsters showing the talent, enthusiasm and hard work that result in a polished ('Diversity' style) performance. This was far removed from traditional shanties or step-dancing, but shows that time does not stand still and tastes move on.

It was quite a social occasion. I made some new friends and saw some old ones: Ann, who works tirelessly for her community, a matriarchal looking Gypsy I know in old-style dress; wagon builder and painter, Peter Ingram, whom I visited years ago when I began research for No Gypsies Served; Jake Bowers, the well-known Romani journalist now turned blacksmith. I overheard someone congratulating him and shaking him by the hand for speaking up on TV on behalf of Romany people against the Channel 4 Big Fat Gypsy Weddings. I saw John Hockley, Chair of the Surrey Gypsy Traveller Community Relations Forum and West Surrey Rural Communities Officer, who gave my speech for me at the launch of No Gypsies Served when I lost my voice. He said how much he enjoyed Shades of Appley Green. A loyal fan!! Elsewhere there was the tantalising smell of bacon pudding cooking (as referred to in Gypsies Stop tHere!).

I also met up with people from the Romany Family History Society; the ladies from the Rural Life Centre bookshop; and curators from Bourne Hall Museum and Surrey Heritage in Woking, who I think were the main organisers.

Thanks to Surrey Heritage Centre, the Musem in Woking,
 for allowing me to show you some
of their wonderful photographs on their stand.

 A lovely day!  Hope you can be there next time.