by Maureen Lee
‘I think it’s good to “better yourself”. It gives you confidence’
articles and short stories. I also started a saga which was eventually called Stepping Stones. Then Orion commissioned me to finish it, it was published – and you know the rest.’
What are your memories of your early years in Bootle?
Of being poor, but not poverty-stricken. Of women wearing shawls instead of coats. Of knowing everybody in the street. Of crowds gathering outside houses in the case of a funeral or a wedding, or if an ambulance came to collect a patient, who was carried out in a red blanket. I longed to be such a patient, but when I had diptheria and an ambulance came for me, I was too sick to be aware of the crowds. There were street parties, swings on lamp-posts, hardly any traffic, loads of children playing in the street, dogs without leads. Even though we didn’t have much money, Christmas as a child was fun. I’m sure we appreciated our few presents more than children do now.
What was it like being young in Liverpool in the 1950s?
The late fifties were a wonderful time for my friends and me. We had so many places to go: numerous dance halls, The Philharmonic Hall, The Cavern Club, theatres, including The Playhouse where you could buy tickets for ninepence. We were crushed together on benches at the very back. As a teenager I loved the theatre – I was in a dramatic society. I also used to make my own clothes, which meant I could have the latest fashions in just the right sizes, which I loved. Sometimes we’d go on boat trips across the water to New Brighton or on the train to Southport. We’d go for the day and visit the fairground and then go to the dance hall in the evening.
We clicked instantly and got engaged two weeks later
I met Richard at a dance when he asked my friend Margaret up. When she came back she said ‘Oh, he was nice.’ And then somebody else asked her to dance – she was very glamorous, with blonde hair – still is, as it happens. So Richard asked me to dance because she had gone! We clicked instantly and got engaged two weeks later. I’m not impulsive generally, but I just knew that he was the one.
Do you consider yourself independent and adventurous like Annemarie in The Leaving of Liverpool or Kitty in Kitty and her Sisters?
In some ways. In the late fifties, when I was 16, Margaret and I hitchhiked to the Continent. It was really, really exciting. We got a lift from London to Dover on the back of a lorry. We sat on top of stacks of beer crates – we didn’t half get cold! We ended up sleeping on the side of the road in Calais because we hadn’t found a hotel. We travelled on to Switzerland and got jobs in the United Nations in Geneva as secretaries. It was a great way to see the world. I’ve no idea what inspired us to go. I think we just wanted some adventure, like lots of my heroines.
Your books often look at the difficult side of family relationships. What experiences do you draw on when you write about that?
I didn’t always find it easy to get on with my mother because she held very rigid views. She was terribly ashamed when I went to Europe. She said ‘If you leave this house you’re not coming back!’ But when we got to Switzerland we got fantastic wages at the United Nations – about four times as much as we got at home. When I wrote and told her she suddenly forgave me and went around telling everybody, ‘Our Maureen’s working at the United Nations in Geneva.’
‘If you leave this house you’re not coming back!’
She was very much the kind of woman who worried what the neighbours would think. When we moved to Kirby, our neighbours were a bit posher than us and at first she even hung our curtains round the wrong way, so it was the neighbours who would see the pattern and we just had the inside to look at. It seems unbelievable now, but it wasn’t unusual then – my mother-in-law was even worse. When she bought a new three-piece she covered every bit of it with odd bits of curtaining so it wouldn’t wear out – it looked horrible.
My mother-in-law was a strange woman. She hated the world and everyone in it. We had a wary sort of relationship. She gave Richard’s brother an awful life – she was very controlling and he never left home. She died in the early nineties and for the next few years my kind, gentle brother-in-law had a relationship with a wonderful woman who ran an animal sanctuary. People tend to keep their family problems private but you don’t have to look further than your immediate neighbours to see how things really are and I try to reflect that in my books.
You don’t have to look further than your immediate neighbours to see how things really are
Is there anything you’d change about your life?
I don’t feel nostalgic for my youth, but I do feel nostalgic for the years when I was a young mum. I didn’t anticipate how I’d feel when the boys left home. I just couldn’t believe they’d gone and I still miss them being around although I’m very happy that they’re happy.
Are friendships important to you?
Vastly important. I always stay with Margaret when I visit Liverpool and we email each other two or three times a week. Old friends are the best sort as you have shared with them the ups and downs of your life. I have other friends in Liverpool that I have known all my adult life. I have also made many new ones who send me things that they think will be useful when I write my books.
Have you ever shared an experience with one of your characters?
Richard’s son from his first marriage recently got in touch with us. It was quite a shock as he’s been in Australia for most of his life and we’ve never known him. He turned out to be a charming person with a lovely family. I’ve written about long-lost family members returning in Kitty and Her Sisters and The Leaving of Liverpool so it was strange for me to find my life reflecting the plot of one of my books.
Describe an average writing day for you.
Wake up, Richard brings me tea in bed and I watch breakfast television for a bit. Go downstairs at around 8 a.m. with the intention of doing housework. Sit and argue with Richard about politics until it’s midday and time to go to my shed and start writing. Come in from time to time to make drinks and do the crossword. If I’m stuck, we might drive to Sainsbury’s for a coffee and read all the newspapers we refuse to have in the house. Back in my shed, I stay till about half seven and return to the house in time to see EastEnders.
BY THE SAME AUTHOR
The Pearl Street Series:
Lights Out Liverpool
Put Out the Fires
Through the Storm
Stepping Stones
Liverpool Annie
Dancing in the Dark
Copyright
AN ORION EBOOK
First published in Great Britain in 2000 by Orion.
First published in ebook in 2011 by Orion Books.
Copyright © Maureen Lee 2000
The moral right of Maureen Lee to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
All the characters in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: 978 1 4091 3880 8
Orion Books
The Orion Publishing Group Ltd
Orion House
5 Upper St Martin’s Lane
London WC2H 9EA
An Hachette UK Company
www.orionbooks.co.uk
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