In this Victorian dual timeline novel, Amelia Wise feels a jolt when she finds a blue perfume bottle in the overgrown garden of the house she has inherited.
Several events in her life mirrors those from the past and, with the help of her newfound cousin, Olivia, the bottle's secret is uncovered.
Welcome to the Blog Tour for The Peacock Bottle by Angela Rigley. Thanks to Rachel from Rachel's Random Resources who invited me to take part on the tour.
I'm delighted to welcome the author here to Random Things today, she's talking about the books that are special to her in My Life in Books
My Life in Books - Angela Rigley
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett about a young girl,
Mary Lennox, who finds an old key, was the inspiration for my latest novel, The Peacock Bottle, a dual timeline set
in Victorian Cumberland. Amelia finds a large locked gate in the overgrown
garden of the abandoned house she has inherited, and is intrigued to see what
is behind it. Little does she know about the tragedy that caused it to be so
neglected.
Being an avid reader, my writing
urge began at school. Never having heard of the term anthropomorphism, I loved
writing stories about animals who could speak, but was put off when my English
teacher, a formidable lady called Mrs Piggott, wrote in the margin of one of my
essays, ‘No imagination’. I suppose that was true at the time. Brought up in small
farming communities, with no social life, and having moved six times by the age
of twelve, I had not had a lot of interaction with people. Being a shy,
introverted child did not help.
Enid Blyton’s Famous Five and
Secret Seven series were some of my favourite reads, and also the MaloryTowers books. As I went to a boarding school at the age of ten, I could
identify with the girls in the school.
In the school library I found Mazode La Roche’s series about Adeline and Philip Whiteoak who travel from London
to Canada to build a new life in Jalna. There was a particular paragraph in one
of them that to my innocent eyes was very risqué, and I would often pop into
the library just to find that passage and read it while nobody was looking, for
I felt I would be in trouble if the nuns found out. I was sure they would not
have known it was there.
Once I left school and started
having a social life, writing never entered my head and, with four children
under the age of five by the time I was twenty seven, and another one ten years
later, I did not have time to even consider such a hobby.
However, once the children were
older, I discovered Mills and Boon books and, much to my husband’s irritation,
would read one in an evening, my favourite author being Charlotte Lamb. My
writing urges surfaced again and I had aspirations of being a famous Mills and
Boon author. My first attempt had only reached a few chapters when I saw a
writing course advertised, so I paid the fee I could not really afford and
began to write short stories. I learnt a lot from the course even though I did
not finish it.
I had seen the film Goodnight Mister Tom, based on the book by Michelle Magorian, about a boy taken in by a man who, against his will, grew
to love him, and this gave me the inspiration for my first novel, Looking for Jamie. Using an old exercise
book belonging to one of my children, the story slowly emerged of an
eight-year-old boy, found lost and bedraggled, who is taken in by the household
of The Grange. The master does not want him at first but soon changes his mind.
After I retired I joined a local
writers’ group where I met another author who went on to form his own
publishing company, and he and his partner agreed to publish my book before I
had even finished writing it. They enjoyed the story so much they asked me to
write a sequel, so A Dilemma for Jamie
was born, and then another, and another, so now there are five Jamie books.
The urge to write a Mills and
Boon-type romance returned and Florence and the Highwayman developed. I sent it with great hopes to Mills and Boon
but, of course, it was rejected, so I self-published it.
Ken Follett’s Pillars of the Earth and the subsequent
sequels, set in the twelfth century around the cathedral of Kingsbridge; The Forest by Edward Rutherford, set in
the New Forest, weaving the story from generation to generation; and The Clan of the Cavebear by Jean M Auel,
set in the Ice Age, have all been inspirations for my writing. I wrote my first
children’s book, Cal the Caveboy,
after reading the latter.
Nowadays I buy books written by
fellow authors on Facebook, Kath McGurl’s love of genealogy and dual timeline
books being especially enjoyable.
Angela Rigley - April 2019
Married to Don, I have 5 children and
9 grandchildren,
I live in Derbyshire, England, and enjoy researching my family
tree (having found ancestors as far back as 1465), reading, gardening, playing
Scrabble, meals out and family gatherings.
I am the treasurer of my writing
club, Eastwood Writers’ Group, and I also write and record Thoughts for the Day
for Radio Nottingham. At church I sing in the choir and am an Extraordinary
Minister of Holy Communion, a reader, a flower arranger and a member of the
fundraising team for Cafod, my favourite charity. I have written hymns,
although I cannot read music.
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