Saga Books | Author, Jane Lark's stories

As I said in my previous posts, three of the things that lead me to ideas for books are people, places and pictures. Previously, I have told you about some of the people and four of the places, so let me carry on and share some of the photographs that inspired The Great Western Railway Girls.

Note, I have used Google and Chat GPT to find these photographs and they have come from the STEAM museums picture library, flickr Local Studies Swindon Library & Information Service, and Swindon Web and some I have paid to use to be able to share on my blog, and some I have been given permission to use, so please check the copyright before you save and share any images.

The images did not start my inspirations for the GWR girls, but once I had the idea, the first thing I did was search for World War II images and stories from women who worked in GWR in Swindon. I have actually found it better to go into the STEAM museum archive to read the GWR Magazines to get the way of life stories of the workers, but images…

The images help me to see, and therefore describe, what the work environment might be like. It shows me what they wore and what the workstations were like. Also, from the perspective of writing a saga series which is a heavily character storyline lead genre, it shows how the women might be able to talk to one another at work, or not. Of course I add into this the sounds and descriptions I have discovered in the STEAM museum – and so story settings come together.

Then I can tally the dates of images with some of the information I know from the GWR magazine and other sources to be able to build accurate timelines of what the women did and when. The women were invited to start working at GWR much earlier in the war, it was not until December 1941 two years into the war that the British government conscripted all unmarried women aged between 20-30 to undertake war work. The GWR Magazine published the increasing numbers of female workers long before that. But I know when the women first started they were making new lanterns that could be used by workers on the train lines during blackout, GWR had to lower the floors in the machine shop before they could start making the bomb cases that my girls progress to making.

Some specific images, though, have actually directed aspects of the plot, these two young evacuees for one…

The images below also inspired story aspects, those of groups of women working around machines, and the image of the women working in the laundry which lead to this being where Maggie, her sisters and her friend Violet work in the beginning…

The pictures I have found that have inspired the story for book two, that follows the period of the summer of 1940, have also been fascinating, but I shan’t share those yet.

Three of the things that lead me to ideas for books are people, places and pictures. Today, I thought I would tell you about some of the people that inspired the GWR Girls series.

Most of my books contain elements of a story that someone, somewhere, has lived. That story will be fictionalised, exaggerated and twisted, frequently to a point it barely resembles the real-life story. But the idea is sparked from a true story I have heard or read. Often, more than one story moulds a book, as snippets of people’s life stories merge into a collage that becomes a good plot idea. So, here are three of the life stories in my inspirational collage for this series. But as I say, please remember my characters are not at all representative of these real people, other than the idea was stimulated because of something they said, or something that was written about them.

Firstly, let me introduce you to, Peggy Thompson, a lady who began working for Swindon’s Great Western Railway factory in 1940. In the late 1980s she recorded her story for Swindon Borough Council to use in the newly created ‘STEAM’ – the Museum of the Great Western Railway. She even met Prince, later King, Charles, when he opened the museum. The Evening Advertiser article on the event is here, which quotes Peggy’s words. I have visited STEAM many times over the years. However, it was only when I began thinking about writing a saga series, that I stopped and listened to Peggy’s story that played in one of the museum’s video stands. Peggy talks about working in the Bomb Gang, as she called it, making 25-pounder bombshells during World War II. There we go, right there. What a great premise for a story about women in WWII. She also shared a cheeky little story about meeting up with her boyfriend for a kiss while they were working and rushing back so they didn’t get into trouble! Such a character incentive.

Next, there’s a young Jewish teenager in The Great Western Railway Girls. It is important to me to include diverse characters in my stories, to represent more of the breadth of our society. In this series, I particularly wanted to include a Jewish family. I looked up lots of information about the Jewish community in Swindon and discovered that there was no recognisable Jewish community in Swindon until the refugees arrived during in WWII. Then I came across a story about a German, Jewish, teenager who came to England in the Kindertransport. He was one of about one thousand of the older children who were separated out and interned in an ‘Enemy Alien’ camp, either on the Isle Wight or in Cumbria. This was done just in case the teenagers supported the Nazi cause.

A Swindon family fought with the authorities to free him, and of course, right there is another great back story for characters, for the family who took him in as much as for a teenage character.

Last of all, I’ll tell you about my grandma. Catherine May Howell, nee Smith. Yes, my character Catherine is named for her. I have the letters that she received from my grandfather during the war years. He was a pilot. She didn’t live in Swindon in the war years but she had lived in Lagos Street in Swindon in the mid 1930s. So, when I moved into Swindon in the 1990s, she shared lots of stories of the town. Including telling me about a butcher that used to serve the nicest faggots. That butcher shop was still there then. I think it was in Market St, or Havelock St. It’s not there now. It’s the family stories that are passed down from her and my other grandparents, that have helped to add the day-to-day picture of life for my girls.

So, that is just a taster, a quick view, of some of the stories of people who helped me come up with the ideas for my characters, because, lots more people have created the collage that makes up my railway girls. Of course, there are a lot more stories to come through in later books in the series.

The pictures at the top of the post are of a letter my grandmother wrote to my grandfather in 1942…

Preorder the first book in The Great Western Railway Girls series here… https://amzn.to/3WoM3ig