The Girl with the Scarlet Ribbon is my fourth novel set in the northeast coalmining village of Ryhope, in 1919. Like all of my novels, it has a strong young woman, a really fantastic heroine, at its core.
At a book signing in Waterstones last year before Covid knocked book signings on the head, a woman came up to me to ask about my books. I was about to start telling her about the kick-ass feminists I write about but before I could get a word out, she said: "I don't like soppy books."
I dug my heels into the floor, straightened my shoulders and smiled through gritted teeth.
"I can assure you," I told her, "my books are anything but soppy."
When I'm writing, I do all I can to get my readers behind my heroine from the very first page, to root for them all the way through the book and rejoice in their triumphs, when they finally come. That doesn't mean that I don't put my heroines through the wringer. I do. I chuck everything and the kitchen sink at them. My god, do I make them suffer, but I know that they can cope because they're pit village lasses, and they're made of stern stuff.
For instance, in my second novel The Tuppenny Child the heroine, Sadie, arrives in Ryhope with no money, no friends, no family. She is there to find her baby who has been stolen from her. She becomes the first woman in the village to wear trousers, to ride a bike, to set up her own business – and all the while she’s searching for her stolen child. Not just that, but she brings down one of the most powerful men in the village while she’s on! It’s a rollercoaster of a ride that includes the fantastic traditional Irish custom of Nollaig na mBan – the Women’s Christmas – done in heartwarming, pit village style.
If the strong, determined, fearless women that I write about aren't feminists, then I'm not sure what is.
I hope you enjoy reading about every one of them.
__
I dug my heels into the floor, straightened my shoulders and smiled through gritted teeth.
"I can assure you," I told her, "my books are anything but soppy."
When I'm writing, I do all I can to get my readers behind my heroine from the very first page, to root for them all the way through the book and rejoice in their triumphs, when they finally come. That doesn't mean that I don't put my heroines through the wringer. I do. I chuck everything and the kitchen sink at them. My god, do I make them suffer, but I know that they can cope because they're pit village lasses, and they're made of stern stuff.
For instance, in my second novel The Tuppenny Child the heroine, Sadie, arrives in Ryhope with no money, no friends, no family. She is there to find her baby who has been stolen from her. She becomes the first woman in the village to wear trousers, to ride a bike, to set up her own business – and all the while she’s searching for her stolen child. Not just that, but she brings down one of the most powerful men in the village while she’s on! It’s a rollercoaster of a ride that includes the fantastic traditional Irish custom of Nollaig na mBan – the Women’s Christmas – done in heartwarming, pit village style.
If the strong, determined, fearless women that I write about aren't feminists, then I'm not sure what is.
I hope you enjoy reading about every one of them.
Glenda Young
Author of historical novels with Headline
Twitter: @Flaming_Nora
Facebook: GlendaYoungAuthor
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