The simplest
question often receives the most unexpected of answers. Usually, if I ask an
author what inspired them, they reply, ‘Oh, a sentence in a novel,’ or ‘an
unexplored subplot in a film I saw,’ or ‘a character I noticed at a train
station.’ All of these things are drawn
from the writer’s life experience, a small trigger giving birth to something
more. So, when I asked Helen Spring what inspired her to write The
Chainmakers, her answer was all the more unexpected.
‘My
Grandad,’ she said, ‘I have always been a little in love with him, which is
surprising because he died fifteen years before I was born.’
I put down my pen and leaned
forward in my chair. ‘Tell me about him,’ I said. And so, she did.
‘Grandad was a blacksmith, and Mother
recalled running from school to watch him working at the forge. She would stand
there, a little afraid of the noisy clamour of hammer on red hot metal, as
showers of fiery sparks surrounded him and fell onto his bare arms. She was
sure he would be burned but he never was.
Mother described her father as tall, strong and
sinewy, with very dark good looks, and curly black hair. His eyes too, she
remembered, were ‘Irish eyes, deep blue
with long dark lashes.’
It is perhaps then not
surprising I find myself a little in love, but I think it was the stories of
his kindness that really sealed it for me. Mother was the youngest of seven
children, she had three brothers and three sisters and so was doted on, not
only by her parents but all her older siblings too. Mother recalled vividly being with her father when he finished
work, and they called at the local shop where he bought a punnet of
strawberries . What a treat! He hoisted
her on to his shoulders and strode home, with his youngest astride his neck,
stuffing herself with strawberries.
This was the essence
of the man, strawberries were a luxury they couldn’t afford but he had the
kindest of impulses and would always make life fun, whereas of course his poor
wife had the difficult job of bringing up all the children on very little. I
can’t help feeling for her.
When the First World
War began, Grandad was just too old to be called up, although the two eldest
boys went right away. However, the skills of a blacksmith were in great demand,
and very quickly grandad was directed by the War Office, to the Belfast
shipyards to help build the ships which were suddenly so badly needed. There
was no choice in the matter and he was away for four years, and his family
missed him sorely. Money would arrive from him every week, but letters were
few, and there was no leave during that whole time.
When he eventually
came home he was not the same person. He was half his previous weight, having
been overworked and underfed all the time he was away. He had lived in a
hostel, where food was scarce and poor, and he slept in a kind of dormitory,
where you dared not take off your boots to sleep or they would be taken in the
night. When he came home he was as broken down as many who had been at the
front, due to the heavy work and long hours, and lack of food and sleep, all of
which was justified as being ‘for the War effort.’ In truth he was a casualty of war, and died shortly after he
returned home.
Mother recalls that
even in those last few weeks, he was full of fun and jokes, and would take
great joy in hearing her recite the poems of Longfellow, which she was learning
at school, his particular favourite being
‘Hiawatha.’
He was a man of huge
heart and loving kindness, who loved his family and always did what he
considered to be his duty. I wish I had met him but even without the privilege
of knowing him, I find him so easy to love. That was why it seemed so natural
to draw upon him when I wrote my first novel The Chainmakers.
Each time I read The
Chainmakers I find something different to say about it. You might
expect a novel inspired by a grandfather to be rather staid, safe or domestic
but this book encompasses a broad horizon and evokes a catalogue of emotions. In the days of Helen’s grandfather men had to be tough to survive and that is
what The Chainmakers is all about; ordinary people in a harsh
world. Just as Helen’s grandfather had to work hard to forge his chains of iron
so do we all have to forge a path for ourselves. Whether we craft a flimsy,
weak-linked chain or an iron strong one, is down to how well we learn to wield
the hammer.
Set against the blistering heat and grinding
poverty of the chainshops of the Black Country, this compelling love story
charts the struggle of young Anna Gibson to forge a new life from the remnants
of betrayal by her lover and a tragic marriage of convenience.
A simple offer of work as a model proves to be the catalyst for complete
change, taking Anna from the sunny beaches and liberal attitudes of an artist's
colony in Brittany to the struggle to survive and make good in the immigrant
community of downtown New York.
Anna learns her lessons well, and she finds herself still making chains,
but now chains of restaurants, leading to wealth if not happiness. Then comes
Prohibition, and Anna's decisions involve her in a gangland feud which
threatens her family and friends in a frightening web of intrigue and violence.
How do we recover from the agony of a lover's betrayal? What is true
love anyway? Can we befriend lawbreakers without getting hurt?
These questions are at the core of this unusual and compelling book.
Written with humour, colour and passion, Helen Spring weaves an absorbing tale
of obsession and complex emotions, and their far-reaching consequences.
The Chainmakers is available at just 77 pence on Amazon Kindle.
UK readers click here:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Chainmakers-Helen-Spring/dp/0595447651/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1339663261&sr=8-2
Kindle edition here:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Chainmakers-ebook/dp/B004OYUF1C/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&m=A3TVV12T0I6NSM&qid=1339663261&sr=8-2
US readers click here:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Chainmakers-Helen-Spring/dp/0595447651/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1339663408&sr=1-4
Kindle edition here:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Chainmakers-ebook/dp/B004OYUF1C/ref=la_B003CTKPL0_1_1_title_1_kin?ie=UTF8&qid=1339663448&sr=1-1
Helen
Spring’s other works include: Memories of the Curlew and
Strands of Gold, both available on Amazon.
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