Page 79 - Write Away Magazine Dec 2019

Paul Michel

It is as if everything is being provided for me to get the most walking in somewhat of minefield in many areas. Something
from this story. My original idea of telling the story as a which has demanded respect and discipline. Hopefully I have
musical still stands. I am still writing the musical sections and achieved this.
ideas are still flooding in as I put the book together, in fact I’ll
go as far as to say the musical aspect will add new dimensions So there you have it, a Christmas ghost story set in war torn
to the story. Humour for example. Jimmy, our newspaper London on a ficticious railway station. All I can say is read the
vendor is meant to be the cheeky cockney lad full of mischief book when it is released next year and please do let me know
and charm which is difficult to portay in the book although not what you think.
impossible. In the musical version, the songs really bring this
out in the character. I cannot say when the story will appear on stage but I will be
looking for producers once we are in the appropriate position.
The same goes for Rosie, our flowergirl. The music allows for Let’s see what the future brings.
her tenderness to come out in a way the pages don’t allow. This
is something that is really important to the story in several parts On a final note, I would like to thank Jane for featuring ‘The
especially towards the end. Spirit of Christmas 1940’ in Write Away magazine. The only
real connection I had here was the lyrics to the song that gave
On the other hand, musical elements can sometimes dominate birth to the idea. I hope, by the way, you liked the lyric at the
the story rather than enhance it. In the early stages of the start of this article. Again these are my own work.
development of the story I needed to avoid that.
Also I would like to encourage you to visit the Severn Valley
So what else can we expect from the book? Well, telling the Railway Station in Kidderminster. It is a truly amazing place. It
story of life in London during the Blitz is, as I said earlier, the is right outside the main Kidderminster station so very easy to
main aim. To that end I needed to bring in actual events that find. It also has an outstanding pub on the grounds with some
took place during the time period. That took some research. of the best beer I have ever tasted. Well worth a visit. You can
One of the big events I picked up on was the fact that towards also ride the trains into Shropshire for a wonderful day out.
the end of the year (1940) the Luftwaffe started bombing the
city earlier and earlier in the evenings. I took some time to Thank you all and have a very Merry Christmas.
think about how it would have actually affected life especially
around our station, even though it is ficticious. I imagined
how the raids would have disrupted and devasted lives on a
station around early evening when trains were coming and
going. Hopefully you may get why I chose this time period
and location.

Another aspect of the book I feel I should try to explain is
our ghost, Billy Snow. To begin with you may ask yourself
why I chose this particular name. Well, William Snow was
my great, great uncle who died during WW1. To all intents
and purposes he is mostly forgotten through nobodys fault
except time. But being an ex-military man, I searched my
family tree only to find this hero who fought during the
Great War. After his death at the Battle of Guillemont in
1916 he was buried in La Neuville British War Cemetary,
Corbie, France. His family members have all but passed
on now except for a few. To my knowledge, I am the
only one who keeps his memory.

Although our character is not my relative, I found that
using his name would immortalise his name. There
will be a short paragraph on the characters inspiration
that will pay tribute to the late William Snow
containing all of the fact that I know about him.

Using a ghost in this story was very much influenced
by the musicals. Of course, the classic A Christmas
Carol also influenced me for the good although I
would never put myself anywhere near the great
Charles Dickens. But I did feel that using the ghost
of a soldier in a sensitive way would add a little
magic and mystery to the story.

On the subject of being sensitive, I felt like I’ve been

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