Authorpreneur Dashboard – Jane Davis
At the Stroke of Nine O'Clock
Literature & Fiction
London 1949. The lives of three very different women are about to collide. Each believes she has already lost in life, not knowing how far she still has to fall. Six years later, one cause will reunite them: when a young woman commits a crime of passion and is condemned to hang, remaining silent isn’t an option.
Book Bubbles from At the Stroke of Nine O'Clock
THE CLUB
THIS IS OUR FIRST GLIMPSE INSIDE THE CLUB. Think black-market supplies, illegal gaming and illicit affairs. Few other places offered the opportunity for ex-servicemen and bored businessmen to rub shoulders with a roll-call of royalty, politicians, intellectuals, journalists, celebrities and gangsters. It seemed the ideal venue for my three main characters to meet.
Betrayal
THIS IS THE MOMENT that actress Ursula Delancy learns that she has been abandoned by the man she left her husband and child for. Mack has not left her for just any woman. Oh no! The ultimate blow, he has left her and returned to his wife.
Chapter Two, Ursula
IN THIS EXTRACT, we meet star of the silver screen, Ursula Delancy. She does not know it yet but she is just about to be abandoned by the man she left her husband and child for. Already hounded by the press, soon she'll making headlines for all the wrong reasons. Like Ruth Ellis, the inspiration behind the nook, Ursula is pre-judged by those who think they know her simply because they’ve read about her in the press. And, like Ruth, Ursula appreciates all too keenly that it’s impossible to tell your side of a story without hurting those you love.
Chapter One, Caroline
AT THE STROKE OF NINE O'CLOCK is the result of my long-held fascination with Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in Great Britain. I was only a teenager when I was hooked by the story of the blonde hostess, who took a gun, tracked her errant racing-boy lover down to a public house in Hampstead, shot him in cold blood, then calmly asked a bystander to call the police. My character whose trajectory most closely follows Ruth’s is seventeen-year-old Caroline Wilby. Like most working-class daughters, she’s expected to help support her family. For her this means leaving her family and everything she knows behind. Alone in a strange city, she must grab any opportunity that comes her way, even if that means putting herself in danger. She’s our direct route into the world of afternoon drinking clubs, where hostesses must use their powers of persuasion and feminine wiles to part male customers from their money.
Prologue
AT THE STROKE OF NINE O’CLOCK travels back in time to the recent past, following the paths of three very different women whose lives intersect at a particularly fraught moment in time—post-war London—where they each tangentially connect to a very real-life character, the infamous Ruth Ellis, whose imminent execution for the murder of her lover roiled the headlines of the day. I wrote Ruth's chapters in a reportage style, sticking very closely to written testimonies. She remains an elusive character because she chose not to defend herself (some might say she sabotaged herself) in order to protect those she loved.
Chapter Three, Patrice
Patrice is a duchess. One of the few duchies to pass from father to daughter, the ancient family estate belongs to her. She married a man she thought was principled, but who has proved himself to be a poor businessman. Charles has already brought them close to financial ruin, and perhaps worse, to social disgrace. Increasingly, Patrice is of the view that she will not leave her estate to her husband, but since she is childless, there is no obvious candidate.
