Please welcome Elizabeth Elwood to the blog today as she explains how her short story, Number 10 Marlborough Place, came to life in the current issue of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine.
Plumbing Those Childhood Memories: “Number 10 Marlborough Place”
Having been born just after the Second World War, I seem to have reached
the time of life where my childhood memories are other people’s history. On the
plus side, from the writer’s point of view, this gives me a rich treasure chest
to draw on when searching for inspiration. Of course, I only remember the aftermath of
the war: the food rationing, the blackout curtains in the attic, playing with
my brother on the rubble of bombsites, and my grandmother irate over the bottle
of brandy that she had nursed ‘for emergencies’ all through the war, only to
have it stolen by a burglar before any of the family could enjoy it.
I had never bothered to tap this fund of memories before, but recently,
there have been an abundance of series set during the fifties which, either
annoy me because of inaccuracies, or delight me because they trigger memories
long buried away. The latter, most notably, came from the Netflix production of
The Crown when I watched the episode on the Great Smog of London which
occurred in December, 1952.
Having startled my husband from his nap by squealing, “I remember
that!”, I paused the show for a moment and let my eyes turn inward. The television
screen morphed into a blur and I became lost in the past. There was a dank
chill in the air and I could feel my mother wrapping a scarf around my nose. We
were moving slowly along the street. Paving stones appeared beneath my feet,
but I was surrounded by a yellow haze that obliterated houses and hedges and
everything that was familiar. The image came back so vividly, all those years
later.
After we had watched the rest of the show, I found myself recalling two other
events that seemed connected to my memory of the fog. One of these was a terrible
three-train collision at the Harrow Wealdstone station. My best friend’s father
had been in one of the coaches and everyone in the neighbourhood had been
shocked at the dreadful destruction. I had walked up the road with my mother
and brother to see the wreck, and the towering pyramid of coaches soaring above
the station was still impressed on my mind. Curious to know why I had connected
the two events, I googled the crash to see what I could find online. It had
occurred in October of 1952, only two months before the Great London Smog, and still
is listed as the worst peacetime rail crash in the United Kingdom.
The second vivid memory that came rushing back was the fear run rampant
when the murderer John Reginald Christie was on the loose. Once again, Google
came up with the significant dates. Christie had been responsible for the
disappearance of several women over the course of the previous decade, but the
horror of the discoveries at 10 Rillington Place burst onto the news in March
of 1953 and mesmerized the country until he was apprehended at the end of the
month.
So it appeared there had been three dramatic incidents, all in one
winter, lurking in the background of my normal childhood life. Of course, they
were all secondary to what really counted: playing with our friends; doing
schoolwork; buying gobstoppers and sugar mice when we stopped at the newsagent
to pick up our Girl and Eagle comics; making sure our mother knew which Famous
Five book we wanted for Christmas; and most exciting of all, going to see the
pantomime put on at the Kodak factory. But all these years later, those events
called to me. What an exciting challenge to weave a story that ran through that
cold, anxious winter. And how thrilled I am to see it now in the
November/December issue of the Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. “Number 10
Marlborough Place” contains many blasts from the past within the mystery. I hope
you enjoy it.
Elizabeth Elwood ©2021
A former English and drama teacher, Elizabeth
Elwood spent many years performing with music and theatre groups and
singing in the Vancouver Opera chorus.
Having turned her talents to writing and design, she created 20
marionette musicals for Elwoodettes Marionettes and has written four plays that
have entertained audiences in both Canada and the United States. She is the author of six books in the Beary
Mystery Series and her short stories have been featured in EQMM and
mystery anthologies. Born in England, Elizabeth lives on British Columbia’s
beautiful Sunshine Coast. Visit her website at https://elihuentertainment.com/
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2 comments:
Enjoyed the story behind the story. Thanks, Kevin, for hosting Elizabeth and introducing folks to a talented writer.
Maryann
I love reading authors' accounts of their writing process. Thanks for posting! I'm reminded of something Flannery O'Connor once said: “Anybody who has survived his childhood has enough information about life to last him the rest of his days.”
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