People ofter ask authors if the setting and characters in their books are from real life. Although the setting – the village of Tyneford – is from my imagination, it does have similarities to where I grew up in a rural corner of Hampshire. Sadly, most of that corner is now covered in houses.
We lived in a house my dad had built, down an unmade-up road, which led to woods and fields, and eventually – a lake. There wasn’t a pets graveyard, but there was an old car in the woods, the same as described in the story. And although there wasn’t an air-raid shelter in our woods, I did visit one that a friend showed me. It was in the woods behind her Nan’s house. I don’t remember much – other than the earthy smell and the stepladder down to darkness – and the intense heady excitement of course!
In those days, children played out all day and only came home when they were hungry. The woods and fields were our playground all summer, and we entertained ourselves. ‘Tarzan’ was popular and stimulated a love of the outdoors. ‘Cowboys and Indians’ were all the rage then as well. Our imaginations were filled with horses, gun-fights and bows and arrows from ‘Westerns’ – films and series shown on TV. Cap-guns, bows and arrows and catapults were popular play-things.
I looked after a neighbour’s dog as a child, and it did get a bone caught between its back teeth. I had to take the dog round to our house – luckily my dad was in and managed to release the bone. The dog loved my dad after that!
My brother was always snake-hunting, and although we didn’t have Nissen huts in the woods, there were old dilapidated army-buildings with roofs of corrugated iron. It was usual in the 60s to return your bottles for a refund of the deposit. Local lads (including my brother and his friends) often found a way to take them back twice!
There was a large monkey-tree in a neighbour’s front garden, which fascinated me as a child because it was so exotic-looking. And the Victorian house next door was rather ‘Gothic’ and scary-looking!
The funfair came to the town about twice a year – I loved the switch-backs, ghost-train and dodgems.
We had a dog – but he wasn’t like Tanner. And that’s where the similarities end, really.
I never knew any twins separated at birth, nor any characters like Joe or Keziah.
Did I meet a character like Wilbur? Well, that would be telling… wouldn’t it? 😊
If you want to know more about hampshire – Hampshire – Wikipedia