Ask the Author: Jacky Hyams
Answered Questions (7)
Jacky Hyams
Hi Stacy,
As long as you continue to attribute my name and the book title to anything you write, I am happy to help. If you are writing about working women post WW2, the last chapters of Bombsites are useful, in that there was a huge boom in London for office workers in the early 60s. For the first time, young school leavers, ie typists and secretaries, were earning salaries that enabled them to splash out on fashionable clothes, etc. The Swinging London phenomenon was partly due to this surge in consumer spending by youngsters. My follow up to Bombsites, White Boots & Mini Skirts, which starts in 1966, gives a very clear picture of working life for young girls in London back then. Email me direct, please on jrhyams@gmail.com if you have any more questions. I don't use GoodReads very much.
working people.
As long as you continue to attribute my name and the book title to anything you write, I am happy to help. If you are writing about working women post WW2, the last chapters of Bombsites are useful, in that there was a huge boom in London for office workers in the early 60s. For the first time, young school leavers, ie typists and secretaries, were earning salaries that enabled them to splash out on fashionable clothes, etc. The Swinging London phenomenon was partly due to this surge in consumer spending by youngsters. My follow up to Bombsites, White Boots & Mini Skirts, which starts in 1966, gives a very clear picture of working life for young girls in London back then. Email me direct, please on jrhyams@gmail.com if you have any more questions. I don't use GoodReads very much.
working people.
Jacky Hyams
I don't get writer's block as such but days when I feel tired and my energy isn't at its highest level. I tend to rely on my own instincts.
If something tells me 'just leave it', I do! Fortunately, when I'm firing on all cylinders I can make up for the flat or do little days.
If something tells me 'just leave it', I do! Fortunately, when I'm firing on all cylinders I can make up for the flat or do little days.
Jacky Hyams
The freedom to create. Even when you're working on a fact based
book, there is tremendous freedom to paint 'word pictures' that will
engage and enthral your readers.
book, there is tremendous freedom to paint 'word pictures' that will
engage and enthral your readers.
Jacky Hyams
I can only advise non fiction authors, I don't write fiction.
First, whatever your topic, make sure you do your research thoroughly. It goes without saying you should be passionately curious about your subject matter. The resources now available to non fiction authors are incredibly varied. They aren't all online! Don't be daunted by what has been written before either. Because if you really believe that this is a story that must be told and you can be 100% engaged in bringing it to life, you will succeed eventually. Persistence and commitment are everything!
First, whatever your topic, make sure you do your research thoroughly. It goes without saying you should be passionately curious about your subject matter. The resources now available to non fiction authors are incredibly varied. They aren't all online! Don't be daunted by what has been written before either. Because if you really believe that this is a story that must be told and you can be 100% engaged in bringing it to life, you will succeed eventually. Persistence and commitment are everything!
Jacky Hyams
The David Bailey images of the wedding day of Reggie Kray and his tragic first wife, Frances Shea, had always been a source of fascination.
Why was so little known about her? She had been written about briefly in various different Kray books and she had been portrayed in a 1990s movie about the Krays, made while they were still alive. Yet she seemed to be a bit of a footnote in their history. I decided to try to bring her to life as a young woman. And what I found shocked me to the core.
Why was so little known about her? She had been written about briefly in various different Kray books and she had been portrayed in a 1990s movie about the Krays, made while they were still alive. Yet she seemed to be a bit of a footnote in their history. I decided to try to bring her to life as a young woman. And what I found shocked me to the core.
Jacky Hyams
Two different books, one on the 50s and one on the 60s.
Again!
Again!
Jacky Hyams
I have been a journalist and editor for over twenty years.
Writing non fiction, therefore, was a logical move into a different
field. And the genre I chose, popular 20th century history, was
one which had always fascinated me.
Writing non fiction, therefore, was a logical move into a different
field. And the genre I chose, popular 20th century history, was
one which had always fascinated me.
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