Queenie of Norwich: A compelling tale based on the true story of one woman's quest to beat the odds.

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Stan’s students were all adults by that time – he really preferred adults to schoolchildren – so they didn’t have to worry about the sort of games and entertainment you plan for children. They held the party on a Sunday evening, because all the other evenings were taken up with Stan’s work at the restaurant and Queenie’s at the theatre. Once I had all that information at my fingertips it was time to start writing! I didn’t make a conscious decision to write in Queenie’s own voice, I just started writing and it came out in the first person. Writing as Queenie was an emotional process, and I shed more than a few tears before the book was completed.

This could be a sad story but it’s not. Coupled with the despair there is raw joy and understanding. When Ellen confronts her mother for how she treats her the mother says, “I didn’t ask for this.” At a time when contraception didn’t exist, this was telling for me. Dreams of writing started early for Laura, and she carried a note book round at school, scribbling stories whenever she could, including in lessons when she should have been focusing on other things. It probably explains her dubious Maths skills now! I am going​ to marry a lady that has a little girl about your age,’ my father had said. ‘And this little girl has not got any father. So you have to promise me one thing and that is that you will never tease her or say anything mean to her about that. There’ll be times when you may get in a fight and disagree with each other the way sisters do but that is one thing you never must say. And if other kids say it you never take their side.’ B efore Queenie​ went off to work she came into the living-room and kissed both Mr Vorguilla and his friend. She kissed both of them on their foreheads. She gave me a butterfly wave and said, ‘Bye bye.’ Queenie was born on 6 January 1903. [1] [10] She had at least one sibling, an older sister, Tina. [12] [13] The sisters lost their mother and father when they were young due to Dragon Pox. [14] Afterwards, they were left to "raise each other," an experience that lead them to share a very deep bond into adulthood. [15] [16] Despite being the younger sister, she acted as being the older sister, reminding Tina how to eat right and her consistent reminders of the dangers of the Second Salamers. [17]Flood, Alison (26 November 2019). "Debut author of Queenie caps success with Costa prize shortlisting". The Guardian. The broadcaster’s distinctive remit is set by Parliament, and it has a role to represent unheard voices, challenge with purpose and reinvent entertainment. For 40 years, it has been a British success story, engaging generation after generation of young people. Queenie’s story has been a long time in the making. After writing my first novel, Silver Darlings, I finally felt ready to take on the challenge.

She looked all through the cupboard, but she knew the cake was too big to be hidden there. Then she looked in the oven and even in insane places like her dresser drawers and under the bed and on the closet shelf. It was nowhere. Queenie cried out, ‘I won’t. I won’t. I’m sorry.’ And he didn’t hit her. But she began to cry. She kept crying while she tried to persuade him. Why would she give away the cake she had worked so hard to make? Why would he not believe her? Why would she lie to him? This is the fictionalised life of the eponymous Queenie Read, a real person who was born in Norwich in 1900 as Ellen Hardy, “dragged up” in poverty in the yards of Norwich, and had, to say the least, a colourful life. LK Wilde brings the hard reality of that life to light in the early part of this story, demonstrating the real poverty and hardship that poor people in Norwich had to endure. We get to know the character of Ellen and her sisters and brothers, and how they had to look after their alcoholic parents. In 2018 she embarked on an ambitious Music project with Cornish folk band The Rowan Tree, unearthing and retelling forgotten stories of Cornish miners in India. The project involved a substantial amount of writing as well as music, and her dream of writing a book was rekindled.

What is the novel about?

Use a little logic,’ he said. ‘If it’s here, get up and find it. If it isn’t here, then you gave it away.’ I was born Ellen Hardy in 1900, dragged up in Queen Caroline’s Yard, Norwich. There was nothing royal about our yard, and Mum was no queen. Her bed was empty and she wasn’t in the bathroom. I went down the stairs not turning any lights on, not wanting to wake Bet. I looked out the little window in the front door. The hard pavement, the sidewalk, and the flat grass in the front yard all glittering with frost. The snow was late. I turned up the hall thermostat and the furnace rolled over in the dark, gave its reliable growl. We had just got the oil furnace and my father said he still woke up at five every morning, thinking it was time to go down to the cellar and build up the fire. At first my father would not let us take any money for fetching her groceries or hanging up her washing – he said it was only neighbourly.

I put on my father’s rubber boots that were by the door, instead of going upstairs for my shoes. I stumbled across the yard to the Vorguillas’ porch and rang the bell. It was a chime that seemed to proclaim the musicality of the household. I hugged Buffalo Bill tight around me and prayed. Oh, Queenie, Queenie, turn the lights on. I forgot that if Queenie was working in there, the lights would be on already. After graduating from Ilvermorny, Queenie acquired a desk job in the Wand Permit Office, [11] within the Magical Congress of the United States of America. Because of her beauty, she was described by others as being a "bombshell". She was also an extremely accomplished Legilimens, someone with the ability to extract feelings and memories from another's mind. Turn, turn, turn,’ she said, and I moved my head as directed. She laughed and said, ‘No, no, I didn’t mean you. That’s the record. That’s the song. It’s by the Byrds.’Shh,’ Queenie said, because I’d closed the door with a crash. ‘They’re in there listening to records. It’s him and his friend Leslie.’ I decided to break the process down into three parts- Ellen Hardy, Nellie Westrop and Queenie Read, all names Queenie held at different times in her life.