My first big series was Mulberry Lane. I had intended a trilogy, which is what I did with a lot of my books when I was writing historical romances. Normally, they took the form of three books, three different lead characters with links to others or to a place like a big house. Mulberry Lane was my first try at writing a continuing story, which centred around the same leading characters all the time. It worked very well and I thoroughly enjoyed it, and, fortunately, my readers loved it too.
I think it was the warmth of the characters that made the books come alive the way they did. The early books were set at a time of terrible hardship and suffering for the British people as a whole and particularly for the Londoners. They had to endure so much during the Blitz and it brought people together in a way that is hard to understand these days. Peggy inviting all her customers down to her cellar when the bombs were falling; the way Alice entertained them with her naughty singing of cheeky music hall songs, and the sharing, were something that could only have happened then.
Reading their stories we became a part of their community in a way that is somehow lacking today. We have so many wonderful ways of communicating with each other these days and yet we are often alone in our own homes. In London’s wartime East End there was a closeness, a tight-knit community that brought everyone together. It was a spirit of defiance and of saying, ‘Be damned to you Hitler! You’re not going to break us!’
I brought Mulberry Lane up to the sixties, but it was drifting into modern times. I believe my characters belong to that time of need and of caring. They’ve moved on. Let’s smile and wish them well, and find a whole new world to explore in Dressmakers Alley😊