Followers

Tuesday 21 July 2020

ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK - the first teenagers.

ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK
the first teenagers

                         Elvis Presley                                                       John Lennon 1958

As my crime novels are set in the 1950s I try to include as much detail as possible, to authenticate the period. I'm currently writing book 5, Blood in the Garden. There are two types of writers, plotters and pantsters. The former are meticulous in planning the characters and settings and know exactly where the book is going and how it is going to end. The latter start with a germ of an idea and write like a reader, constantly finding out where the plot is going and discovering new characters along the way. I'm a pantster. But I'm in good company. Ann Cleeves, who writes the hugely successful books that the TV series of Vera and Shetland are based on is one too.


My current story involves the discovery of a body in the back of a Morris Traveller. The pathologist in my books, John Crooks, tells DI Sonny Russell that he thinks it's the work of Teddy Boys.


My novels are set in a sleepy corner of East Sussex where Teds are unlikely to be seen, in any number anyway, so Sonny Russell goes up to London to see an old army pal who is now a DCI in the Met. 


Now, although I was around in the 50's, and have a vague memory of Teddy Boys, I don't remember much except the way they dressed. So, it's been quite an education to find out about them. You'll have to wait until the book is published to see if I've got it right!








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