My interest in ancestry began several years ago, when my son gave me a subscription to the Ancestry website as a present. A whole new world opened and I became hooked! Sometimes I would rise at night and head to the computer, believing I may have worked out a solution to a ‘brick wall’ or delve a little deeper into a question about an ancestor that had been buzzing in my head.
After I had created a fairly substantial (and, hopefully, accurate) tree, the question of what life really was like for my ancestors took hold. Luckily, there were many great books on the history of Reading and Berkshire, as well as the Museum of English Rural Life to help me on my quest. Discovering five-times great-grand uncle John Treacher had built Sonning Bridge and great uncle William Beasly featured on a heritage clip of Huntley and Palmers, in which he showed off his soldering skills, filled me with a new kind of excitement.
But although a tremendous amount can be gleaned from the wonderful resources we have, I often wondered what my ancestors were really like as people. Did William come home from work in a bad mood and head off to the River Kennet to fish?
I’d liked creating fictional characters since school, and had always dreamed of writing my own novel. Imaginary characters began popping into my head. They lived in West Wiltshire, where my late father and family hailed from before they came to Reading. My characters lived during the Second World War, a time period that holds much fascination for me. Scenes and ideas popped into my head and I began jotting them down. Before long I had a plot. During lockdown I typed it up.
But what was I to do with my manuscript? I knew getting a traditional publishing deal would be extremely difficult and I was reluctant to go down the self-publishing route. I scrolled the internet with the idea I might enter it into a competition and stumbled upon a publishing company based in America, that as well having a competition gave editorial reviews. I paid for an editorial review with the mindset that after all the time and energy I’d put into writing my story, I owed it to myself to find out if it was any good. The review of my manuscript was very positive and received a high rating. After paying a fee to have it professionally edited, I secured a traditional deal to have my novella published as an Ebook. It was published in January 2025 by the Historium Press – The Finding.
Combining my ‘creative soul’ with my passion for research has taken me on a very unexpected journey. I currently have a fascination with Victorian Reading and already have some characters forming in my head and a plot unfolding. But I suspect there are a multitude of incredible untold stories out there, fuelled by an intense curiosity to find out what life was really like for our ancestors. Perhaps it will be yours that is next!
