Stanley Thomas is a Very Bad Man

I’ve not written anything for a couple of weeks, work and a holiday have meant I’ve not had time, so what better way of spending a rainy Sunday afternoon than in the company of Stanley Thomas and Henry Mason?     I’ve spent some time re-reading what I’ve written and trying to decide if my writing is Nottinghamshire enough.    In 1991, when most of the world was swooning over Kevin Costner in a pair of green tights and applauding Alan Rickman for his performance as the Sheriff of Nottingham, whilst humming “Everything I Do”, my Mum was in the midst of a one-woman campaign to avoid the film, she categorically refused to see it! Being incredibly proud of her Nottinghamshire roots, she was incensed that none of the publicity for the film took place in Nottingham, and she was equally outraged that Kevin Costner didn’t even attempt a Nottinghamshire accent, she said and I quote; “I’m not going to sit and listen to a bloody American say he’s gaaaing to...

Ever since I was little I’ve been obsessed with reading, I devoured all kinds of books, from those that contained stories about children who were detectives solving crimes that were beyond the police, aided by a picnic and lashings of ginger beer.  Roald Dahl, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Judy Blume. (Hands up if you read “Forever” as a teenager?) The Adrian Mole books still make me laugh out loud and even now, if ever I’m feeling down or a bit jaded by life reading “The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole” will always put a smile on my face. My other favourites include Charles Dicken’s “Great Expectations”, I just think it’s a masterclass in creating characters. Miss Havisham roaming Satis House in her decaying wedding dress with one shoe on and one shoe off because that was her state of dress when she found out she’d been jilted. Wemmick and Aged P, I love how they live in a replica of a small castle with a moat and a drawbridge. It’s not pivotal to the plot, yet it adds so much...

I’ve spent the last week writing a section of the book which is based in 1988, which has weirdly proved more difficult that the bits set in the 1950’s. How I imagine my desk would have looked if I were writing my book in 1988.   Since I started writing, I’ve always been conscious that writing something set in a decade that I wasn’t alive in would be challenging, but I’ve been fortunate, and I’ve had a lot of help from people. There’s been e-mails, phone calls, Facebook groups that have all helped me create a fairly accurate picture of life in Mansfield and Nottinghamshire in the 1950’s, albeit I’ve added a certain Stanley Thomas twist. My lovely sister even went out and bought me this book, which really helped bring some places to life. Writing about 1988 had always bothered me less, I mean I was alive then, I was 12 years old, I was hopelessly in love with Matt Goss (some things never change) I cried when Charlene and Scott got married (the opening bars ...

Music has always been an incredibly important part of my life. My Mum always had the radio on, she preferred it to the TV, so growing up, Radio 2 would be blaring out of our kitchen ( Radio Nottingham on match days when Nottingham Forest were playing) Later when I started working in radio she switched her allegiance to Mansfield 103.2 or whatever station I happened to be working on. I went to my first concert at the age of 8, my parents took me to the Royal Concert hall in Nottingham to see Bucks Fizz . I remember getting my first cassette player and getting a copy of Bucks Fizz greatest hits.  Pretty soon my walls were full of posters of Bros, and my parents drove me and my friend to Wembley Stadium so we could watch “Bros in 2 Summer”. I had a huge poster of Matt on my bedroom wall and my Mum would kiss it good night. Bros posters became New Kids on the Block ones and then finally it was Bon Jovi who graced my walls, although I don’t remember my Mum snogging Jo...

I just wanted to say a massive thank you to everyone who responded to last week’s blog and for those who got in touch via the radio show I host on Mansfield 103.2 .   Having decided that my book would be set in Mansfield and Nottinghamshire in general and being set between 1951 and 1988, I needed to make sure that the places I was writing about existed then or had been popular haunts back in the day. I can’t thank people enough for helping me date the Ladybrook estate in Mansfield, between us we managed to narrow it down to be being around from the late 1930’s. One of my listeners even got the deeds to his house out to check exactly when his house was built, because he knew that it was one of the first on the estate.   It’s safe to say that Stanley Thomas will at some point in my book be terrorising the residents of Ladybrook, because as we know he’s a very bad man!   Other places that will feature will be Mansfield General Hospital , w...

When I first started writing about Stanley Thomas, the book had the working title “The Whitechapel Boys” because I thought it would be set in the East End of London, but then I thought that was stupid! I decided it was stupid for 2 reasons; I’ve only ever been to the East End of London once and I’m not really sure it was the proper East End.   I wasn’t sure watching “Eastenders” counted as research! So, I’ve decided that the majority of my book will be set in Nottinghamshire, mainly Mansfield. They say write about what you know and whilst I don’t know a huge amount about bad men called Stanley Thomas who were hung in the 1950’s, I have pretty much lived my whole life in Nottinghamshire. I have a few ideas of definite locations I want to include in the book, which has elements set from 1951 to 1989, but I’ve had to make sure that these were around in those decades. The first absolute no brainer is that Henry Mason is a Mansfield Town fan, the club has pl...