Jeremiah’s Trunk

Writers of historical fiction, (Diana Gabaldon – Outlander, Kate Morton – The Forgotten Garden and Edward Rutherfurd – London, Paris, New York,) employ real historical figures and actual historical events to help create storylines. They were a great inspiration for me to play with different time frames and place my characters accordingly.

My husband, Frank and I have cruised the 250-year-old British inland waterways in narrowboats, many times over the past 20 years. When we first tried a week’s cruise on the Midland Canals in 2000, the historical Potteries piqued my interest. Despite the sometimes-contrary lock-gates and stubborn swing bridges, these antique structures intrigued and interested me. Back in Australia, we quickly organised a longer trip for the following year and so began our adventures of cruising hundreds of miles of stunningly scenic countryside, quaint villages and large industrious cities at the average speed of four miles per hour!

After publishing my biographical-fictional The Undertakers’ Mother in 2012, I needed a new plot and characters. With all my first-hand research to call on, I decided to write a fictional yarn using the canals as foundation stones. I consulted web sites and many reference books as listed at the back of Jeremiah’s Trunk. Narrow boat enthusiasts have many a tale to tell, so I included a few snippets of oral information throughout my story.

Abigail in the twenty-first century and Leticia and Meggie in the nineteenth century form a triumvirate of principal female characters. Jeremiah, Leticia’s beloved son, Meggie’s father and Abigail’s convict great-great grandfather, is the central character who links all three women in each century. He tends to be the ‘fall-guy’ in the tale. Although a talented artist from a respectable pottery family, he’s often in the wrong place at the wrong time. Despite his shortcomings, we want him to triumph in the end.

Being an advocate of family-history, I wanted a contemporary character as my principal protagonist and like the historical events, the present-day occurrences needed legitimacy. Hence Abby’s arrival in London in 2013 coincides with the birth of Prince George, followed by the frightening wide-spread electrical storm that ends the heatwave at 4 am the next morning. See Chapters 38 &39.

 [Frank and I were moored in a canal boat that night and were awakened by a deafening bolt of lightning that felled a nearby tree. For a few frightening moments, we thought the lightning had hit our boat!]

Of course, Abigail has her hands full with her hunt for her biological father. So, it was truly enjoyable and a real education to visit nearly every museum and location in both England and Australia, that she visits in the book. As most of my research was conducted after 2013, I was constantly challenged by changes that may have occurred since Abigail’s time.

When one intends to write the truth, it’s important to research carefully so that the truth shines through – even in a work of fiction!

The images represent a tiny fraction of the research that inspired me when bringing the Industrial Revolution to the page. They also highlight eighteenth and nineteenth century engineering skills showing some locks, tunnels, bridges and a spectacularly famous aqueduct plus horse-boats and people of the period in my book. Most of these images find their way into various scenes in Jeremiah’s Trunk.