Gracie Fairshaw and the Missing Reel by Susan Brownrigg

We are so excited to welcome author Susan Brownrigg to the blog today giving us some lovely insight into her series, Gracie Fairshaw!

 

 

As a Lancashire lass I am often inspired by northern, especially working-class history and that is certainly the case with my Gracie Fairshaw detective series!

Set in 1930s Blackpool, over three books my main character has grown in confidence as she explores the resort while solving mysteries with her younger brother George and friends Violet, Tom and Phyllis.

In Gracie Fairshaw and the Mysterious Guest, Gracie has moved to Blackpool to help run a typical seaside boarding house with her Ma, but by book two she realises she has ambitions to be a reporter and joins the Blackpool Gazette.

The Gazette is a real newspaper – still published today – and it has been indispensable in my research. I have spent many happy hours scouring old copies on microfiche at Blackpool Central Library seeking facts and stumbling upon those quirky details that I hope make my stories vivid for the reader. The prompt for Mysterious Guest came from an article revealing that the 1935 Blackpool Illuminations were to be switched on for the second time by a VIP. Originally the town’s Mayor was due to have the honour, but when he met a 15-year-old Blackpool girl who had recently been crowned 10th Railway Queen of Great Britain he asked young Audrey Mosson if she would take his place. I knew I had the spark for my plot – and I was honoured this year when I was able to sponsor a blue plaque to honour Audrey’s memory and achievements at her childhood home with the help of her descendants and Blackpool Civic Trust.

I also enjoy visiting the resort as often as I can for fun and for research! For the second book in the series – Gracie Fairshaw and the Trouble at the Tower – I was inspired by the real-life Blackpool Tower Children’s Ballet as well as the tower’s many attractions including the famous ballroom and the former menagerie. It was a real pleasure to sit with a cuppa and a cream cake while listening to the Wurlitzer and moments like that really help with sensory writing as well as taking you back in time!

In my latest book, Gracie Fairshaw and the Missing Reel, a film production company are shooting on location in the town when a vital film reel goes missing. I studied film as part of my journalism degree, but only recently realised there were northern film firms too and plans for two film studios in Lancashire!

I was thrilled to be able to speak to a former usherette who had worked in the cinema I was using for the setting of the climax of my book.

She told me about her fabulous uniform and how she could remember the rather distinctive smell of cigarettes and damp fur coats as showed people to their seats. While the owner of the cinema itself allowed me to not only see the projection room but to spend some time there alone so I could soak up the atmosphere. Priceless!

My childhood and family history have also played a central role in the choices I make when creating characters. I grew up in Wigan, my dad was a milkman, and my mum did a host of jobs around looking after me and my sister including working in a fish and chip shop!

I have borrowed names from my grandparents and great aunts and uncles as they were the same generation as Gracie – and my great grandfather, Edward Hill, motivated me to write about a main character who has limb difference as he had to have his lower left arm amputated after getting shrapnel in it at the Battle of Arras in WW1. He had been a miner before signing up, and after the war he was a binman using a prosthesis to lift the lids off.

Whilst childhood memories of trips to Blackpool help me to remember the excitement of zooming about on the Big Dipper or scoffing chips on the prom. Though I am always happy to recreate those carefree moments too!

But perhaps the most pleasure I get as a writer is from visiting schools and being able to share how vital personal and local history is to my creative writing process and seeing children connect to the past and the lives of ordinary people, like them.

 

Gracie Fairshaw and the Missing Reel is published on Thursday 7th March, 2024 by Uclan Publishing.