Stanley Thomas is a Very Bad Man

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...

Ever since I first had the dream that inspired my book, the characters have been living in my head.   To start with they were just the prison warden and the prisoner and then when I decided it was time to start writing, they needed names.   I think Stanley Thomas was always going to be called Stanley Thomas, and there’s a very personal reason for that. Maybe at some point I’ll talk about, or maybe it will remain my little secret, but for the record none of the stuff Stanley does in my book was ever done by the real one, although he did some pretty horrible things! Henry Mason started out life as Albert Mason, but it didn’t feel right, so I changed it. He’s named after two people. One who I have been fascinated with since I was a child and the other who is my favourite actor, who is weirdly how I imagine Stanley in my head. One thing you should probably know about me is that I’m a Tudor Geek! I blooming love them!  Ever since my Mum would tel...

One of my favourite places in the world is Whitby … I know, a bold statement to make, but I genuinely love it there.   I’ve spent a lot of time there, it’s a place I always find a sense of calm, no matter what is going on in my life, the moment I see Whitby Abbey looming in the distance a feeling of peace floods my body.    So, a couple of weeks ago, me and Lucy (my sister) took ourselves off to the North Yorkshire coast for a weekend of sea air, walks on the beach and food in our favourite restaurants. Me (left) & Lucy (right) in Whitby    It turns out we had a stow away on our trip, in fact this stow away seems to be with me a lot. It’s Stanley Thomas, although as we know he’s a very bad man, so he probably doesn’t care that he’s gatecrashed our trip. As we sat in our favourite cafe on the West Cliff having a whimsical cup of tea and looking at the sea, our conversation turned to Stanley and just why he was a very bad man. ...

I first met Stanley in a dream a few years ago…. I say dream, it was more of a nightmare. The dream was all about a prison guard who kept seeing the face of people he’d executed, everywhere he turned, there they were.  I’ve decided my flashback suffering prison guard is called Henry Mason, Stanley is one of the men he'd executed. He’d faced the gallows for being a very bad man. I’ve spent a lot of this week messing around with dates (not the romantic type) but dates of my story. It occurred to me, there might be a massive flaw in my story before I’d even decided why Stanley Thomas was a very bad man.  The flaw was this…. Hanging was abolished in the UK in 1965 (the last hangings took place in 1964 fact fans) so if Henry was at the very youngest 18 years old at the time of Stanley’s hanging, in 2019 he’d be well in his 70’s. So, this is my dilemma, do I set my story in present day or I do I pick another decade? Moving everything back in time means that I can...