Ask the Author: Mary Gibson
Answered Questions (12)
Mary Gibson
I'm so glad you asked this question. My fifth book - HATTIE'S HOME - was published last year and I'm sorry the news of its arrival never reached you. I've also just had number six - A SISTER'S STRUGGLE - published in e-book this December, with the hardback following in January 2019 and a paper back in May. I'm so pleased you've enjoyed the novels so far, and hope these latest two also get the thumbs up!
Best wishes, Mary
Best wishes, Mary
Mary Gibson
I love this question! In fact it was a mystery from my own family history that inspired me to start writing novels. It formed part of the plot of my first (still unpublished) book - 'Penny Farthing Fortune'. My grandfather told the tale that our family were the rightful heirs to a great fortune. Given that he never let the truth get in the way of a good story I have my doubts, but that didn't deter me from using the idea myself!
Mary Gibson
Hi Katy,
Thanks for this great question. My parents were members of a reminiscence group called 'Bermondsey Memories' which meant that they left me a very rich photographic and oral archive, including video diaries and some radio and TV programmes to which they contributed. I've made great use of this treasure in my novels! Most of my historical research is done at the John Harvard Local Studies Library in Southwark, which again has proved a priceless resource. The place I'd like to resurrect and visit is the once magnificent Spa Road library. The building is still in use as a Buddhist centre - a fitting example of the precept 'All things pass away'! But I would love to walk around it as it was when I was a child, just to feel that sense of excitement again at being able to choose another six books!
Thanks for this great question. My parents were members of a reminiscence group called 'Bermondsey Memories' which meant that they left me a very rich photographic and oral archive, including video diaries and some radio and TV programmes to which they contributed. I've made great use of this treasure in my novels! Most of my historical research is done at the John Harvard Local Studies Library in Southwark, which again has proved a priceless resource. The place I'd like to resurrect and visit is the once magnificent Spa Road library. The building is still in use as a Buddhist centre - a fitting example of the precept 'All things pass away'! But I would love to walk around it as it was when I was a child, just to feel that sense of excitement again at being able to choose another six books!
Mary Gibson
For the incomparable Miss Elizabeth Bennett and Mr Fitzwilliam Darcy I would risk being predictable!
Mary Gibson
Hi Brenda, thanks for the positive feedback and your interest in my books. My ideas come directly from stories I heard growing up, either from parents, grandparents or elderly relatives. I fictionalize them and mix them up but always strive to give the authentic feel of bygone Bermondsey and the close knit community I grew up in. Hope you enjoy the next one!
Mary Gibson
Thank you for your question Layla and I'm delighted you enjoy my books. I am indeed writing more! My fourth, entitled 'Bourbon Cream & Tattered Dreams', will be published at the end if this year. Set in thirties Bermondsey it continues the story of Matty Gilbie, who appeared in Custard Tarts. I'm writing my fifth novel now, about three women who return to a ruined, post war Bermondsey, each struggling to overcome the scars of war. Hope you enjoy the rest of my Bermondsey novels!
Mary Gibson
Never give up! My first novel wasn't published until I was sixty, and there are numerous other examples of late bloomers. But while you're waiting to be published, just enjoy your writing!
Mary Gibson
Creating a world - one which might be totally alien to the reader - which they can get lost in and inhabit for a while. It's a joint creative endeavour between writer and reader that I feel very privileged to be a part of.
Mary Gibson
Write through it! If I'm stuck I sometimes put on some music which matches the mood of the scene I'm working on and write a list of words, whatever pops into my head. That seems to stir up the creative juices!
Mary Gibson
My fourth book is set in Bermondsey, during the nineteen thirties. The novel follows the fortunes of a character we met in CUSTARD TARTS AND BROKEN HEARTS. Matty Gilbie has become a beloved music hall star. The novel opens in America, where she has gone to pursue her dreams of acting and singing in ‘the talkies’. But the Wall Street crash and Frank Rossi, a dangerous man she is desperate to escape, catapult her back home to Bermondsey, an area of London which is suffering the worst of the depression. It is here that Matty begins to re-build her dreams of silver screen stardom in the most unlikely of places. But Matty finds that Frank Rossi is not so easily shaken off as she'd hoped …
Mary Gibson
I was born and brought up in Bermondsey, South East London, as were my parents and grandparents. I was initially inspired to write my novels when I realized that the once tight knit community I grew up in had vanished forever. When they were in their seventies my parents were part of a reminiscence group called ‘Bermondsey Memories’ . Some academics were conducting a study about building ‘communities’ in the modern world. They were looking for answers in the history of Bermondsey and came to interview my parents. But all they could tell them were that times were hard in those days, growing up between the wars, and people naturally helped each other. Ironically, the very things that had caused most misery in the lives of Bermondsey people: the poverty, poor housing, lack of health care, had proved to be the source of their community spirit. But when your birthplace becomes the subject of an academic study, you know it is fast fading into history. I knew I wanted to capture that lost world before it was totally forgotten.
Mary Gibson
I was fortunate to have been left a rich family archive of my parent's reminiscences about their experiences in the second world war. As well as the stories they told me, they left photos, scrapbooks, diaries, and letters. My mother was an ATS gunner girl and my father in the RAF. Their courtship began after an air raid, when the leather factory where they both worked at the time was bombed and Dad’s idea of a good first date was to ask Mum on a walk around the bomb damaged streets! This was this incident that sparked the idea for GUNNER GIRLS & FIGHTER BOYS.
About Goodreads Q&A
Ask and answer questions about books!
You can pose questions to the Goodreads community with Reader Q&A, or ask your favorite author a question with Ask the Author.
See Featured Authors Answering Questions
Learn more