What Made Me A Writer by Anni Rose

This week Anni Rose is back on my blog talking about what made her a writer. Anni has a fantastic series out with Choc Lit an imprint of Joffe Books the latest of which is Recipe for Mr Christmas. Over to Anni …

What made me a writer? – That’s a difficult question, I like to think it was in my blood. I know we both share a love of genealogy, and had a day out in Birmingham together last year, to trawl through adoption records to help a friend of mine find his half-brother. We did find the necessary record and managed to reunite the family.

As a writer, I am always fascinated about the characters I come across in the course of my research. Actually, I do have several other successful authors – writers of both fact and fiction in my family tree, so perhaps it was my destiny.

In fact if we were to go back as far as the fifteenth century, there is someone, potentially an ancestor of mine, although there are a couple of gaps in the tree that still need to be bottomed out, that I’d like to tell you about.

Our John, as I shall call him, was the earliest known owner of a copy of The Canterbury Tales, because he bequeathed it in his will, which was drawn up in 1420. At the time it was valued at £11 3s. Still a lot more than you’d pay for most books these days and back then £11 3s would net you either: eight horses; nineteen cows; 61 stones of wool; 35 quarters of wheat; or 557 days of skilled labour. Today’s cash equivalent value is estimated to be around £7,200.00 (2020), although one of the first printed versions of the book, printed fifty years after John’s death, did fetch over £4.5 million at auction fairly recently.

There does seem to be a certain amount of evidence to suggest that John’s copy was an original. Not only did he know Chaucer, but also one of the characters in the Canterbury Tales – Harry Bailey.

Chaucer’s starting point for the Canterbury Tales was the Tabard Inn, set in Southwark, which back then was “a most disreputable suburb of London” – home to brothels and drinking houses. And the host of the fictional Tabard Inn, in Chaucer’s books was one Harry Bailey. Harry travels with the pilgrims as not only their guide but the judge of the travellers’ tales, so he could have been said to have instigated the first short story competition.

Both Harry and the Tabard Inn really did exist. The Inn burnt down in 1669 but was subsequently rebuilt and renamed the Talbot which finally felt into disrepair in the 1870s and was demolished. These days a plaque can still be seen commemorating the site and the George Inn, the oldest galleried public house in London and its neighbour is still there. Another literary connection coming up – Charles Dickens wrote about the George Inn in a couple of his novels, including Little Dorrit.

Who owned the Tabard back in Chaucer’s day is unclear, it might even have been our John. We can certainly trace him in Southwark back to at least 1378 and he is listed in the Southwark poll tax returns of 1381 as a hosteller with three servants.

Whereas, Harry Bailey, in real life was an MP, a tax collector, a sometimes coroner in Southwark and also a collector for the notorious poll tax. And guess what, one of those who worked alongside him in 1381, collecting the poll tax was John. Although when the peasants revolted and stormed their way through Southwark, it is believed that John joined their numbers and may have helped keep London bridge open to let the rebels through.

Shortly after, there came a move to clean up the area and close down unsanctioned brothels. In 1390 a petition to the then king urged him to shut them down. So, the King demanded the landlords of five such brothels to appear before him and one of those landlords was John, who was sent to the Tower of London for fourteen days with his servant.

John appears to have seen the error of his ways, no more unsavoury behaviour from him! In 1392, he described himself as a tailor, and he remained a member of that fraternity until his death in 1420.

These days, with the internet, more and more information is readily available, so I’m still hopeful that a link will present itself soon and John can take his rightful place on my tree.

Of course registration of births, deaths and marriages has been a legal requirement for 150 years, which makes family research a bit easier. For a number of years, I was lucky enough to be a registrar. To be able to help anyone register a birth, death or marriage was a real privilege. I always loved hearing people’s own stories and being able to help them, which prompted the idea of making my main character, Maddie, a registrar in Recipe for Mr Ideal.

Maddie was such a fun character to write, she believes that marriage should be for life, regardless of whether the ceremony involves specially trained owls, dinosaurs or the police, it should be only the beginning of a story that will end in happily-ever-after.

Saying that, Maddie’s own married life is far from perfect. When her husband, David, suddenly walks out, Maddie’s long-held beliefs are put to the test.

Except Maddie knows David was never really her ‘Mr Ideal’; that was sweet, funny, motorbike-riding Josh Diamond – although obviously not that ideal, as he did dump her to move to the States. Even so, when Josh unexpectedly rides back into town, Maddie begins to wonder whether her happily-ever-after could still be to come …

So, thank you for having me on your blog today Morton, it has as always been fun talking to you and good luck with your own family history.

What a fascinating family history tale, Anni and we must go researching together again soon. Mx

About Anni Rose

Born and raised in Berkshire, Anni emigrated to Wiltshire eight years ago, where she lives with her husband, sister and two dogs.

As a child, she could usually be found either reading or writing fiction, producing reams of stories over the years.

On leaving school, the need to earn a living sort of got in the way and her writing was limited to financial reports or employees’ handbooks, but a local writing course and an encouraging group of writing friends re-ignited the fiction flame many years later and Anni went on to have several short stories published in various magazines.

Anni would describe her writing these days as mainly modern romantic stories with a healthy dollop of humour thrown in. Away from writing Anni can usually be found behind a camera, walking the dogs, enjoying one of her husband’s curries or one of her sister’s bakery treats.

You can catch up with Anni on her website www.anniroseauthor.co.uk, on Twitter – @AnniRoseAuthor, or on her Facebook page – https://www.facebook.com/anniroseauthor

About Recipe For Mr Christmas

Sometimes second chances take a little time . . .

Susie Keane is mourning the death of her husband. They had a wonderful forty years of marriage, but now she’s unsure of what to do with her life.

Until the arrival of the annual Christmas card from the oh-so-perfect Bailey family gives Susie the push she so desperately needs. Next year, she’ll be the one with the exciting stories to gloat about.

Hello cooking courses, motorbike lessons and pole-dancing classes. Goodbye moping about and feeling sorry for herself.

But then something happens that Susie isn’t prepared for. A school reunion.

And she definitely isn’t prepared to meet a man who does the impossible. Bob Diamond is the first person to put a smile back on Susie’s face.

Bob lost his wife eighteen months ago and knows exactly what Susie’s going through. And it doesn’t hurt that he’s a singer and guitar player in a band. Together, perhaps they can fall back in love with life and find joy again.

With Bob by her side, Susie soon discovers that, sometimes, the best gift of all is the one that brings two lonely hearts together . . .

This utterly heart-warming story about new beginnings later in life is perfect for fans of Caroline James, Judy Leigh, Cathy Hopkins, Alexandra Potter, Dee MacDonald, Sue McDonagh or Maxine Morrey.