...to the blog this week. Hi, Grahame, and thanks for taking some time out to be here. Tell me, what is your current work in progress?
GP I’m currently working on my
seventh book, which is the fifth book in my Ghost from the Molly House Series,
which I hope to bring out later this year.
In March I published my latest book ‘A Journey into Fashion (The
Dressing Room)’. It’s fictional and is an
amusing, coming of age story about the power of love and friendship, and of course,
it’s about fashion.
AW What first got you into writing and why?
GP I retired nearly five years
ago from the NHS, and I’d always enjoyed writing, but most of it had been work
reports and academic assignments. I
like writing about my home town of Huddersfield and thought I had a story to
tell; my writing grew from there. I
think it takes a lot of bravery to write and put your work out there; it’s very
exposing, so it took a lot of courage; I’m still learning.
When I published my first book in 2014 (no longer in
print) I had one scathing review, it was done with real venom, it was a real
rant, and although some of the comments were justified, a lot of the things
that were said were incorrect and untrue, it almost felt like a personal
attack. So, I lost confidence for a
while, but slowly I picked writing back up again, and the scathing review taught
me a valuable lesson. But as I say, I’m
still learning and probably will never stop, like it or not; everyone has an
opinion.
AW You write ghost stories and novels set in the world
of fashion. They are such diverse
subjects; how did that happen?
GP Good question! I’ve always been interested in high-fashion,
I’ve no idea where it came from, but it’s always been my absolute passion. I wanted it to be my career, but young
working-class men from the North of England, did not do fashion in the early
1970s, it’s all in the new book. A
Journey into Fashion is fiction, but I’ve tried to tell what I hope is a
touching, honest, yet humorous coming of age story. It starts in 1956 and covers a 40-year period, and although the
book is aimed at people who are interested in and enjoy fashion and fashion history,
there’s far more to it than that. I’ve
tried to tell a fashion story from a totally different perspective, my story isn’t
based in Paris, London, New York, or Milan, but in the Northern textile town of
Huddersfield! Yet it’s full of the big historic
fashion names, I think I’ve made it work, but the only way you’ll know is by
reading the book!
In terms of my ghost stories, I like history, and I’d
read a book by Rictor Norton called Mother Clap’s Molly-House, which is
fascinating. It’s a well-researched
book about the ‘Gay’ community in London of the 18th century. I’d wanted to create a ghost story, and it
gave me the idea for a ghost who had experienced a lot of hardship and
witnessed terrible cruelty and awful injustice in his life. I wanted him to be sympathetic and accept
people for their kindness and good nature, not their wealth, position, gender,
the colour of their skin, their religion, nationality, or their sexual
persuasion.
I wanted a character who looked for the goodness in
people, but who understood there was also evil and badness in the world. So, I created a sympathetic time-travelling
ghost called Jasper Claxton, with super-powers and a wicked sense of
humour. He’s not gay by the way, not
that it matters, and he has all sorts of adventures all over the world in
different time periods. I developed a
different set of characters depending on which period he’s in, and I keep
returning to them. I love them all; somehow
they have become part of me. Jasper is great
fun; he’ll run and run, because he can go anywhere in any period, past,
present, or future, giving me endless story opportunities. I just have to come up with the ideas!
AW Ghosts and fashion, how much is solid research and how
much is imagination?
GP I do a lot of research for my
books, I have an almost encyclopedic knowledge where fashion is concerned,
particularly for the ‘Golden Age’ of haute couture from the early 1930s to the
early 1960s and the great haute couture houses like Patou, Balenciaga, Vionnet,
Lanvin, Gres, Poiret, Schiaparelli, Chanel, Dior, Balmain, Givenchy, Fath,
Valentino, and YSL. Then there were all
the Hollywood costume designers. I
still follow today’s designers, but for me, they don’t have the magic or allure
of the ‘Golden Age’. People’s lives are
so different today, let alone the huge cost of the clothes. However, fashion has a way of creeping into
all my books.
In terms of my ghost stories, it’s often real history
that leads, drives or inspires the story, I do a lot of research, and then I
add fantasy. My ghost Jasper can do
anything with his super-powers, but I try to make him as real as I can, I want
the reader to feel he still has limitations, it helps to add a bit of drama to
the story. I worry what someone might
think if they looked at my internet search history, what with the devil, black
magic, the occult, demons, voodoo, witches, werewolves, wars, torture, cults,
and spells to name only a few!
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?
GP I have a special chair in our
garden room. I sit there with my laptop
on my knee, and off I go. We do have an
office at home, but I don’t use it very often, I like my chair.
AW 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 want to discuss?
GP For me it would have to be the late Cristóbal
Balenciaga, the most celebrated haute couturier who ever lived, he was known as
the couturier’s couturier, Dior called him ‘the master of us all’. I’ve visited the Balenciaga museum in
Getaria in Spain; I was allowed to have the whole museum to myself after it had
closed, it was a 60th birthday present from my family. It was eerie but amazing. I would want to know everything about his
early life in Getaria, what had inspired him and how he developed his many couture
innovations and fabrics.
I do know a lot about him, but it would be good to
hear it from the man himself, although he was quite a reclusive character, he
rarely gave interviews. Of course,
there are many others.
...about the book A Journey into Fashion (The Dressing Room), is a
story about the healing power of love and friendship, it’s also a celebration
of the high-end fashion world. It’s a
touching, amusing, coming of age story, set in the North of England. It starts in the late 1950s and describes
one man’s 40-year journey from humble, unhappy beginnings to find himself and
build a future while striving to make his dreams come true. His is an unusual story driven by
self-doubt, dogged determination, and hope to enter the world of fashion; it’s
a journey full of diversions. The story
covers a number of significant events and is told with honesty, and humour and
takes you on his voyage of self-discovery and into fashion.
...about the author Grahame Peace was born in Huddersfield in West
Yorkshire, England, where he still lives.
He writes humorous, paranormal-historical-fantasy, mystery, and fashion
fiction. Grahame has several nursing
qualifications and a degree in Health & Social Care, and a master’s degree
in Innovation and Leadership. He worked
for many years for the National Health Service in Mental Health Services,
before becoming a full-time writer. So,
he knows about ‘life’ and the many challenges, and ups and downs it can throw
at people.
He’s always had a fascination with the history of
fashion, especially the high-end fashion industry, which is evident in several
of his books. His other interests in no
particular order are: keeping fit, fighting off the ravages of time,
theatre-going, music, history, the cinema, good coffee, travelling, reading,
cooking, oh and the odd glass of white wine or anything that sparkles!
You can get Grahame's boooks from Amazon
about the author… As a child, Helen had
a vivid imagination fuelled by her love of reading, so she started to create
her own stories in a notebook. She still prefers fictional worlds to real life,
believes characterisation is the key to a successful book, and enjoys infusing
her writing with humour and heart. Helen is a member of the Romantic Novelists'
Association and The Society of Authors.
