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Chris Simon
Writing
When it comes to historical fiction I go to some lengths to try and get it right. I don't want to tell the reader about a time and place, I want to take them there. Here I outline some of the sources that help me.
No. 18 - A Helping Hand
1930's issues of Health and Strength magazine. Physical Culture In Until the Real Thing Comes Along , Malcolm Trevelyan, a young man...
bluecity86
May 12, 20255 min read
No.17 - Prince Monolulu - In Town Tonight.
Cigarette Cards In the 1930's they had their ‘celebrities’ just as we have today, but to a modern eye, most of their household names seem...
bluecity86
Apr 30, 20255 min read
No. 16 - 'Imperial' - Reaching for the Sky
Between the wars, aviation became a national obsession. Besides the thrill of it, its potential for drawing the rest of the empire closer...
bluecity86
Apr 11, 20255 min read
No. 13 - Minding My Language
When I read a book or watch a film set in the past, I want to be taken there. I want to live it - to feel the good and the bad of that...
bluecity86
Mar 11, 20255 min read
No. 12 - Making Jago
The everyday experience of ordinary people in any era has little to do with the words and deeds of monarchs and politicians, and...
bluecity86
Feb 27, 20255 min read
No. 11 - The Case for the Explicit
Some of the many books I bought from Gay's The Word over the years. Growing up in a Saucy Postcard World The occasional sex scenes in my...
bluecity86
Feb 18, 20255 min read
No. 7 - Addressing a Land of Promise
It is fortunate for me, that the era I choose to write about is well-covered by some wonderful documentary films, as the genre was really...
bluecity86
Jan 21, 20254 min read
No. 6 - It's just a silent film after all.
To write about people in the 1920s and 1930s I attempt to immerse myself in the period as completely as I can. I listen to the music. I...
bluecity86
Jan 14, 20253 min read
No. 5 - Fools Rush In...
When young people buy gifts of music for older people they often assume that if it’s from their era, then they’ll like it. My brother...
bluecity86
Jan 7, 20254 min read
No. 3 - Destination Cubitt Town
A few readers have been kind enough to comment that the London I have tried to recreate in the first two novels seems real - in the case...
bluecity86
Dec 5, 20243 min read
No. 2 - People at the Edge of the Night
My second novel When Summer is Gone is published tomorrow, being the second part of The Likes of Us series covering the experiences of...
bluecity86
Nov 25, 20243 min read
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