I am so pleased to have the author, Francesca Capaldi as my guest on the blog today. Francesca is going to be talking about the setting of her book, Littlehampton in West Sussex, in particular what it was like in the 1910's when her book, Love and Loss at the Beach Hotel, is set.
First, let me tell you more about the book. Also, following Franesca's post there will me lots more details about the book.
The Blurb
Can true love win the day?
Hetty Affleck is working as a maid at the prestigious Beach Hotel in Littlehampton. Her beau, Lorcan, is away at war and has recently stopped replying to her letters but she is determined to keep her spirits up. When she meets wealthy shipbuilder's son Victor Perryman, they pass the time of day and they both feel a connection but she can’t allow herself to think anything more of it - not only does she have Lorcan to think of, but she and Victor are divided by wealth and class.
Yet they meet again and Hetty is charmed and intrigued by Victor and his openness towards her. It becomes harder to ignore the attachment growing between them.
When Lorcan comes back on leave, Hetty is forced to face her true feelings. Who does she really love, and can that love conquer everything in its path?
***
Welcome to the blog Francesca. It's over to you...
The Beach Hotel series is set on the Sussex coast, in Littlehampton, the place where I was brought up. One of the things I’ve been amazed about when doing research for the books is how extensive the seaside entertainments were back in the 1910s. I suppose it was a time before TV, or even ‘wireless’, let along computers and all the distractions they have to offer today.
When my character, Hetty Affleck, went for a walk by the sea, she would have seen the beaches and promenades filled with all sorts of amusements and stalls, many of which we don’t see anywhere nowadays.
Along a promenade, you might see stilt walkers, acrobats, wrestlers, fire eaters, conjurers, escapologists and ventriloquists. In Bognor (it wasn’t Bognor Regis until 1929) there was a chap in a clown’s costume called Frank Bale, who used to sport a banjo or guitar and had an entourage made up of a talking cockatoo, a monkey and a performing dog. In Love and Loss at the Beach Hotel, I’ve made him into ‘Bertie Fisher’, whose antics are enjoyed by Hetty when she encounters him on the prom.
A popular entertainment back then was puppets. For some reason, puppet masters often seemed to be called ‘Professor’ something. One of the most common puppet shows was, of course, Punch and Judy. And despite the rather iffy premise of the storyline, this is one of the few old beach entertainments that is still going strong in some places.
On the beach in Littlehampton, there used to be donkey rides, whilst on the common there were carriages pulled by goats.
Something I’d never heard of before researching the era was sand artists. They’d show up on beaches with combs, knives, sticks and brushes and produce masterpieces in damp sand. There was one in Eastbourne called Ted Child. Later on in the Beach Hotel series, I will have one turning up to portray Chichester Cathedral. Sadly, any works of art would have been washed away by the next high tide.
Music played a large part in the entertainments. One might see a hurdy gurdy man with a monkey, a blind accordionist or a one-armed fiddler. There were one-man bands, spoon players, unaccompanied singers and harmonium players. In Littlehampton, a band often performed on the bandstand situated on the large grass common, not far from the Beach Hotel.
Littlehampton had three Pierrot troupes, though the best known was probably that run by Harry Joseph (rather like Nathaniel Janus, in my books). The Pierrots were dressed like clowns, in pantaloons and loose white silk blouses with black pompoms. On their heads would sit conical hats. They often played on a makeshift stage under the east wall of the Beach Hotel, with a harmonium on wheels and a banjo. The audiences would sit on rows upon rows of deckchairs to watch them. They’d perform popular and humorous songs, sketches, pantomimes, revues and burlesques.
During the Great War and afterwards, the popularity of the Pierrots slowly waned. The clown costumes were replaced by blazers, white trousers and yachting caps for men, and evening dress for the women. They tended only to perform songs, though there was quite a variety of genres, from comic to operatic. In the Beach Hotel books, my Pierrots become Nathaniel Janus’s Entertainers.
Harry Joseph also ran the Kursaal, which opened in 1912 as a Pierrot theatre and fun palace. It plays a part in the Beach Hotel books, and is where Hetty is standing when the river explodes. In 1916, it became the Casino Theatre, as ‘Kursaal’ was considered too Germanic. One of the entertainments that went on there, according to a signboard in an old photograph, was vaudeville, something more popular in the United States at that time.
Next to the Kursaal / Casino Theatre was the Windmill Tea Rooms. These, along with the windmill were sadly demolished in the early 1930s to make way for a Butlin’s funfair, which was still there when I was a child.
All of these entertainments would have been easily accessible to the staff at the Beach Hotel during their time off, along with the hotel guests. These days, very few of these lively entertainments exist anywhere at beach resorts, and I can’t help feeling that we’re the poorer for it.
Thank you so much Francesca for being my guest on Left on the Shelf. The book looks just like my cup of tea and I would love to read it. Coincidentally, I was in Chichester and Bognor Regis just a few days ago. I could really picture your descriptions of the area during the time that you have described.
About the Author
Francesca has enjoyed writing since she was a child. Born in Worthing and brought up in Littlehampton in Sussex, she was largely influenced by a Welsh mother who loved to tell improvised stories. A history graduate and qualified teacher, she decided to turn her writing hobby into something more in 2006, when she joined a writing class.
Writing as both Francesca Capaldi and Francesca Burgess, she has had many short stories published in magazines in the UK and abroad, along with several pocket novels published by DC Thomson.
Her Welsh World War 1 sagas were inspired by the discovery of the war record of her great grandfather, a miner in South Wales. Heartbreak in the Valleys was a finalist in the Historical Romance category of the Romantic Novelists’ Association Awards (RoNAs) in 2021. Her latest series, The Beach Hotel, is set in her own childhood town, where her Italian father had a café on the riverside. The first in that series, A New Start at the Beach Hotel, won the Romantic Saga Award in the RoNAs in 2024.
Francesca is a member of the Romantic Novelists' Association and the Society of Women Writers and Journalists. She currently lives on the North Downs in Kent with her family and a cat called Lando Calrission.
You can also find Francesca at:
https://www.francesca-capaldi.com/
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Book Details
ISBN: 978 1804368466
Publisher: Canelo Hera
Formats: e-book, audio and paperback
No. of Pages: 368 (paperback)
Purchase Links
Bookshop.org
Amazon UK
Amazon US
Blackwell's
(media courtesy of Rachel's Random Resources)
(all opinions are my own)
(bookshop.org affiliated - supports independent bookshops)
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