Step Back Through Time with Nancy Revell's Latest Cuthford Manor Novel
We caught up with Amanda Revell Walton (AKA Nancy Revell) to find out about life after The Shipyard Girls series
Born and raised in Sunderland, when Amanda was first approached to write a historical fiction series it was a no-brainer to her that it needed to be set on home-turf, and so The Shipyard Girls was born – a series of feel-good historical fiction which followed a group of intrepid young women through the trying years of World War Two. With the series brought to a close in 2022, Amanda finally had time to look beyond the series for her next challenge. Her inspiration? Her dedicated fan base.
‘During it all, my readers were wonderful – it’s like I’ve got this huge extended family, and they wouldn’t let me let go of the stories or the characters. We left them on the cusp of this new life with the end of the war – what are they going to do now?’ As Amanda reflected, she realised she realised she couldn’t stop thinking about one character’s happily ever after in particular. ‘I just began to think about Angie who is one of the main characters, but not one of the major three. The series ended with her marrying the very wealthy love of her life called Quentin,’ Amanda explains. ‘I wanted to get away from the industrial side of the area because I’d written about wartime Sunderland for six years. Angie was moving to this manor house in County Durham and I wondered how she would react going to this manor, from town to country and from poor living to immense wealth – the idea went from there and the Cuthford Manor series materialised.’
With the first instalment in the series, The Widow’s Choice, already out, the second novel will be published in January 2025. Packed full of intrigue, A Secret in The Family sees the return of Angie’s mother, who controversially abandoned Angie and her younger siblings years previously. ‘It’s a real cat-among-the-pigeons, and they’re all going to feel a bit differently about her.’
With such an established career in historical fiction, does Amanda have any insight into why audiences can’t seem to get enough of the genre (Bridgerton, we’re looking at you)?
‘I think we’re just going through such an awful time. I feel it myself sometimes when I’m watching TV, and think that’s just too heavy, I need something lighter. We’re drawn to all the good points of the ‘50s and I think in books like my own I don’t dwell on the negative or darker side of the period (although there’ll be mentions of what was going on), but the actual feel of the book will always leave the reader with a sense of buoyancy, hopefulness and happiness,’ she explains. ‘Not that bubblegum sickly sweet feel, but something more real. My readers are very genuine and lots of them when they write to me it’s because they relate to an issue within the book.’
When it comes to writing historical fiction, striking the balance between the facts and telling a good story is a tricky tightrope to walk. An experienced journalist herself, Amanda took the research in stride. ‘When I first started The Shipyard Girls, I went into full-on journalist mode researching everything. I think my journalistic background helped because you’ve got to look for stuff that’s unusual, things that capture the readers’ attention, and things they haven’t read before,’ she says. ‘One of the things I want to do in my books is that although they are historical, they still deal with contemporary issues, because whatever genre I write I always want my readers to relate to it.’ Sprinkling in references to social movements, to including the names of real-life trailblazers in her work, at the back of Amanda’s books you can unpick the fascinating history she has unearthed.
A local lass through and through, Amanda’s dedication the the North East is palpable. ‘I’ve always had this fierce loyalty to Sunderland and to the North East, and I think it came from my parents (especially my dad who was a Sunderland ’til I die sort of guy), and I was brought up in the culture and alongside the industry,’ she explains. When Amanda began writing the series, she relocated back to the North East to reconnect with her roots. ‘If I was going to do this and do it properly I had to be immersed in the culture again. It was a really wonderful experience because I was experiencing Sunderland and the North East as a much older person, and I went through this new learning curve about the area. I fell in love again.’
As the new series is set in County Durham, are there any famous locations readers should look out for? ‘One of the things which is jumping out to me at the moment is High Force, and with this series I’ve been able to go further afield with the characters which is great.’
