Memories and Inspiration

I would like to say again how deeply grateful I am for the kind comments and messages, by email and otherwise, that I’ve received following my mother’s death. When I wrote about her, I wanted to put down in words something about how much she meant to me – perhaps it’s a natural reaction for a writer to write about such things - and doing so did help.

The people who have been in touch include old friends, and others whom I’ve never met, and some blog readers who haven’t commented previously. The generosity I’ve been shown is a reminder that so many people are very kind.

Of course, there was much I could have added to my blog post about Mum. I’ll just mention that her anecdotes (of which she had a seemingly limitless fund) directly inspired two short stories that I have published. ‘War Rations’ was inspired by her memories of war-time evacuation with a group of schoolchildren from the poorer parts of Leeds (though I was careful to ensure the female teacher in the story bore no resemblance to anyone I knew…) ‘The Basement’ took its story-line from her reminiscences of a real-life war-time tragedy which I found quite haunting. It was a case of accidental death which, because I am a mystery writer, I re-imagined as a murder. Both stories appear in my collection Where Do You Find Your Ideas? and in the preface to each I explained who gave me those particular ideas. She liked that!