Reach for Tomorrow

by Jessica Blair

Marie Newton is the daughter of the famous painter Arthur Newton, and she has inherited much of her father's skill. Luckily he is happy to encourage his daughter's talent and sends her to a prestigious art school in Paris along with her best friend Lucy, a young widow. The girls both find sweethearts in Paris, though this does not bring happiness for Lucy. In order to help her recovery, Arthur proposes that the girls join him and his wife on a visit to America to visit relatives. But Arthur's past is about to catch up with him, as Edward Clayton is determined to find his real father. His widowed mother Colette is apprehensive about his quest as she knows Arthur Newton is now married with a daughter. Edward remains determined nonetheless and follows the clues from Paris to America where he must face a tragedy that has left a shattered family.

400 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

My real name is Bill Spence. Jessica Blair came into being when my publisher, Piatkus, accepted my first historical saga and declared that, for various reasons, they would prefer to publish it under a female name and they suggested Jessica Blair.

I was born in Middlesbrough in 1923. I trained as a teacher but never followed the profession as war intervened. I served in the RAF as a bomb aimer doing thirty-six operational flights in Lancasters of 44 (Rhodesia) Squadron Bomber Command. After the war I was sent to Rhodesia by the RAF.

It was on the voyage to Durban that I wrote my first short story and was bitten by the writing bug. On return to England I wrote articles for newspapers and magazines and fulfilled my desire to write a novel by using some war time experiences as background.

My second book was a Western and 36 were published between 1960 and 1993. During that time two more war novels and a romance appeared in print. Along with my wife, Joan, I wrote three books dealing with aspects of Yorkshire. I started a review column in the Yorkshire Gazette and Herald and that is now in its fiftieth year.

Visits to Whitby, on the Yorkshire coast, sparked off an interest in whaling and ten years intermittent research into the subject resulted in the publication of an illustrated history. It was from this study that the Jessica Blair novels arose. The first of these appeared in 1992 and a new phase in my writing career began.

There have been twenty-five Jessica Blair novels published to date (February 2015) One more is with my publisher, Piatkus, an imprint of the Little Brown Book Group. All Jessica Blair novels are available in hardback, paperback, ebook, audio download, and Large Print.

Writing was a part-time occupation until 1977 when, with the full support of my wife, Joan, it became full-time. Throughout my whole writing career I have had her, and my four children's, unstinting support, advice, and inspiration.

Reviews

[Yvonne G · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whilst I may rail against the latest trend of adding more and more genres and sub-genres into the consumer choice for fiction reading, some aspects of our progressive thinking as a modern literary community, have made more positive changes and advancements.

Bill Spence, was one of a small group of male authors who were far ahead of their time, back in the 1980s and 1990s. In an attempt to break out of the traditional male author dominated genres and make the transition to being recognised and published amongst the hitherto stronghold of his contemporary female writers in the world of historical / romantic fiction, took courage, persistence and even a name and pseudo sex change, at the behest of his publisher.

In this 21st Century of writing and publishing, the concept of a male author, writing in what was once a predominantly female genre, is no real big deal – authors such as Nicholas Sparks and John Green have forged hugely successful careers, with their award winning romantic fiction novels.

I feel that, shaking off the persona of Jessica Blair, Bill Spence could quite comfortably hold his own in his chosen genre, without the authenticity of the female voice being questioned, although with his reputation already firmly staked out as Jessica Blair, Bill won’t really want to rock the boat now!

To capture and hold my attention, the secrets of a good historical romance, to some degree mirror those for any other fiction piece. There needs to be a strong storyline which I am able to follow throughout the book, with relatable characters who are well drawn, defined and developed. The main difference between a good historical romance and other mainstream genres, has to be the degree of research an author has conducted, about their chosen place and point in time, because that’s what draws me in and keeps me enthralled.

Jessica Blair has succeeded on all fronts with “Reach For Tomorrow”. The book is detailed in it’s descriptions, unhurried in it’s unfolding storyline, with an unrushed, planned final conclusion; whilst at the same time being in no way trite or laborious in it’s reading.

The characters are interesting and reflect perfectly the relative freedoms afforded to female members of ‘artistic’ families, in relation to their traditional counterparts, in late Victorian England.

And of course, there is always that unexpected twist in the tail of the story, that I wasn’t expecting!

I have read several books of Jessica Blair’s authorship and have found them all to be of an equally high standard, with well developed content and context relevant to the time and place in which the individual stories are set.

My kind of author!!

[Mrs L A Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it

Absolutely loved this book and the prequel. I wish there was another one. Would love to read how the family got on in America.