Friend and author, Denise Bloom...

... joins me today.  Hi, Denise, and thanks for making time in your busy schedule to be here.  So, tell me all about your new book?

DB  My current release is a set of four stories called The Ladies of Whitechapel.  It is my take on the ‘Jack the ripper’ murders.  I love writing about women and how they are challenged with life regardless of their race, class or age.

AW   What first got you into writing and why?

DB   I have written from a young age, when television wasn’t available twenty-four hours a day.  I would write short plays, that my friends and brother would perform.  I was always too busy during my career so when I retired it was an opportunity that I couldn’t miss.  I met Kate Rose who facilitated creative writing classes and I was hooked.

AW   You write historical fiction.  Is it all imagination or do you do research?

DB   I did a fair amount of research for this book.  Although it is fictional, the women in the stories are actual women who were murdered in 1888.  You need to paint a picture for your reader so they can use their imagination to bring it to life.  I do like research however, I can be distracted by it also.

AW  And what about other types of writing?  Have you dabbled with other genres?

DB   I do write in other genres and have a few books on the boil.  I have a supernatural one based in current day and 1940’s Vichy France.  There is also a detective novel that runs parallel to The Ladies of Whitechapel.

AW  Famous authors such as Roald Dahl and Dylan Thomas had a special space for writing.  Do you have a writing shed of your own?

DB   A writing shed is on my husband’s to do list.  I don’t have a special space to write, I can write anywhere.  On the plane, in the doctor’s surgery, at any social event.  I have a notebook in my handbag and use it constantly.

AW   And finally, if you had a whole afternoon to yourself and could choose to spend it with any one individual, living or dead, or a character from a book, who would it be and what would you discuss?

DB   My character from a book would be Hannibal Lecter.  Unfortunately, I may not last the afternoon.  His character is fascinating.  I studied criminal psychology within my degree and have an unhealthy curiosity about psychopaths and how their minds work.  I would ask him if he did have any feelings for Starling, or why he didn’t kill her.  Gruesome I know but exciting.

AW   You're telling me!!  Pretty scary too, I would expect. 

…about the book In the dark lanes, away from the hustle and bustle of Whitechapel High Street, four women live their lives.  But someone is watching – and waiting.

In 1888, five victims of Jack the Ripper became famous for their horrific fate.  That same year, police ignored many other women’s murders because of their class, or in an attempt to dispel the idea of a serial killer loose in Whitechapel.

Discover the forgotten women of Whitechapel: from heiress to whore, from wife to murderer.  Four woven tales of women struggling to survive the terror of Jack the Ripper’s reign.

…about the author  Denise Bloom is a retired Women’s services manager.  She started work with Bradford Social Services and Bradford Housing.  The final years of her career was managing hostels, refuges and outreach domestic violence services across Humberside and Lincolnshire.  She now writes full time along with inspiring others in creative writing classes.  Through her love of Victorian England and Ripperology a book was a natural step, using her knowledge of women’s struggles in gruelling situations.  This enables her to breathe life into her characters and allows the reader to experience the brutal life that women had to bear in the harsh streets of London Whitechapel 1888.

You can get the book from Amazon and you can follow Denise on her Website  Facebook  Twitter  Pinterest and  Instagram