Sarah remembers inspiration
Commenting on her recent post about good news for romance, Sophie said that in dark times, the smallest patch of sunshine is something to be grateful for.
It reminded me of a little TV gem I found recently that brought me face to face with something that provided inspiration for one of my books, over twenty years ago!
Every writer needs inspiration
I find inspiration all over the place. In travel and the landscape, reading real-life stories, and even just from seeing a painting or photograph. Recently I stumbled upon a tv series which I find not only vastly entertaining but also inspiring. In all sorts of ways.
Sometimes one finds a TV series that exceeds all expectations and for me, Saving Country Houses is proving to be just the tonic I need at the moment.
A Country House?
You will know by now that I love visiting historic houses and I have often wondered what it would be like to live in one.
No, NOT like this one. It’s Calda House, a ruin on the shore of Loch Assynt in the Highlands.
Something more like the one below. (It’s Abbotsford, Sir Walter Scott’s pad.) Now that is inspiration, I’d say.
Well, a girl can dream, can’t she?
So, having reached the point in my current wip where I needed a distraction for a while (and not in the mood to tackle housework) I grabbed a cuppa and turned on the tv…
The Premise
Saving Country Houses looks at nine country houses and their owners’ attempts to make their old and often historic properties pay their way.
Let’s be honest about this, I was not expecting much. Possibly a depressing illustration of the very daunting problems facing anyone who owns one of these money pits. But with the excellent Penelope Keith as its presenter I thought I would give it a go. And I found myself hooked.
Warning — light entertainment
It you are looking for an in-depth, facts-and-figures-packed documentary on preserving historic country houses, this isn’t it.
The whole show is delightfully cheerful, despite the very real challenges the owners face. I have spent the past week dipping into it as my daily coffee-time diversion. Laughing at parts, shaking my head at others, but always hoping that the owners will succeed.
Inspiration?
I found lots. The old houses are delightful and I can imagine my characters residing in any of them. And even the great landowners of the past must have been faced with headaches like rotting windows and leaking roofs. Mustn’t they?
For example, think of the fortune-hunting Stacy Calverleigh in Heyer’s Black Sheep. His family home means nothing to him other than he can style himself Calverleigh of Calverleigh. He spends not a penny on renovations.
And a surprise
So I was happily sipping my coffee, enjoying the images of a long-disused plunge pool and imagining it being used by my hero. Possibly teaching the heroine to swim?
Suddenly the camera switched to Pitchford Hall, a beautiful half-timbered house in the Midlands. The name sounded vaguely familiar but it wasn’t the house itself that I remembered. It was this tree house…
copyright Shrewsbury Museums Service, reproduced with permission
This picture is from an early 20th Century lantern slide I came across all those years ago. I knew immediately that I wanted to put a treehouse in my story.
Thinking ahead to marketing my book, I emailed Shrewsbury Museum, who gave me permission to use the picture from their collection. I only saw this small, black and white image of the summer house but it sparked my imagination!
The Pitchford Summer House
The treehouse was built in the 17th century and is nestled into the branches of an ancient broadleaf lime tree, which itself dates back to Tudor times.
The whole thing is quite magical and, as soon as I saw it, I knew I wanted a tree house for my heroine. I would have loved to have a tree house when I was a child!
In 2010 the BBC reported that English Heritage had placed the Pitchford Tree House on the at risk register – you can read about it here.
The book it inspired
Back around 2006, when I was still writing for excellent and much-missed publisher Robert Hale, I was searching around for ideas for my next book.
The only inspiration I really had for my new novel was the name. Lucasta. I loved the poems of the 17th century Royalist soldier-poet Richard Lovelace and I especially loved To Lucasta Going to the Warres
Oh, the last lines still makes me sigh. Every time:
“I could not love thee, dear, so much,
Loved I not honour more.”
I had a vague idea of setting it in the Georgian period and I also thought I would like to make my heroine the sensible sister who is usually overlooked in favour of her more beautiful sibling. But not much else.
I thumbed through history books, looked at guide books from the houses I have visited and began to make notes and look up bits and pieces on the web.
I was searching for that serendipity moment that writers love, when you discover something and the whole story just falls into place.
The treehouse was it.
A hideaway for my sensible heroine, a place where she could take refuge. It is still one of my favourite stories and thankfully Robert Hale thought so too. They published it in 2011 – with one of my all-time favourite covers. The illustrator was Barbara Walton. I loved the cover so much I bought the original artwork from her. It now has pride of place on my wall.
Below is a short piece about Lucasta’s treehouse, which I slightly redesigned from the Pitchford original. But, every time I read it, it is Pitchford’s tree house that I see in my head:
Extract from lucasta:-
There had been a tree house in the ancient lime at Oaklands for generations and in times gone by it had been used by the family for summer dinner parties and even, it was rumoured, for gatherings of a far more licentious nature. Sir Oswald, however, had no time for such folly and the children had been allowed to use the tree house as their own special place. The octagonal building rested between the giant branches of the tree. It had windows on all sides except for the panel incorporating the door and gave excellent views over the park. A narrow flight of steps climbed steeply against the massive tree trunk to provide access, and the estate’s carpenter had undertaken to keep both the steps and the building in good order for the children, off-setting the minor expense incurred against other, more necessary works and thus avoiding the inevitable claim by Sir Oswald that the tree house was a waste of money and should be dismantled.
And back to the present…
After I finished writing Lucasta, I moved onto the next book, and the next. I forgot all about the tree house.
So you can imagine my delight when I saw it again, in glorious colour, on tv. Sadly, at the time I was writing Lucasta the house was in private ownership, so I couldn’t visit. Now, however, Pitchford Hall is not only open to the public, but you can actually stay there! I shall certainly make a point of visiting.
In the meantime, Saving Country Houses is being shown on Channel 4. I shall continue to watch it and who knows, I may find even more inspiration…
Happy reading (and viewing)
Sarah
Gosh, that’s a blast from the past! Remember the book well (also the treehouse!)
I hadn’t realised it was such a long time ago! I have a hankering now to re-read my own book 🙂
I absolutely love this story, Sarah. I, too, remember the book – and the tree house. Loved it.
Shall seek out the Channel 4 programme, which is new to me.
It is being streamed on their online service, Sophie – I haven’t been able to find it on their TV channel, sadly. I really enjoy seeing the different ways they all cope with their houses.
Great story, Sarah. I remember the series but not the treehouse. May have missed that one. I seemed remember hoping for inspiration for a book but, sadly nothing took. I now want to watch it again – from a slightly different perspective!
The treehouse is not mentioned much, Liz, but I recognised it immediately so I was looking out for it after that. My goodness, it brought the whole book flooding back to me! I do hope you enjoy watching the series again, Liz. I found the characters quite entertaining, some of them even eccentric!
Love the idea of a treehouse, Sarah. I remember, long ago when our kids were very small, my husband built a tree house for them. We were living on an RAF base. And when the barrack warden was on his regular rounds to check up on things, he would solemnly inspect the Tree House and pronounce it in good order. The kids were puffed up with pride about that. I imagine that tree house will have rotted away by now. Pity. Thanks for inspiring the memory with me too.
What a great memory, Joanna, thank you for sharing it. And what a lovely barrack warden to add the tree house to his rounds. Things like that mean so much to children, don’t they? There is really something rather special about treehouses!
I remember reading and reviewing Lucasta and loving it. Although my all-time favourite Melinda Hammond is A Dance for a Diamond. I must have read it three times. It’s such a lovely historical romance.
Thank you so much for those lovely comments, Julie, it means such a lot. I am so glad you enjoyed both books – A Dance for a Diamond is one of my favourites, too, it almost seemed to write itself!