Authorpreneur Dashboard – Steven Kay
The Evergreen in red and white
Literature & Fiction
It is the year of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee. Rabbi Howell of Sheffield United, the first Romany to play for England, knows his career is peaking and the only way is down. His fate seems to be to return to obscurity, literally and metaphorically, back down the pit, his life ruled by the winding wheel and the domestic pattern set by his wife, Selina, her parents and family. He then meets Ada and risks throwing away career, home – everything. Follow Rab, Selina, Ada and The United through this turbulent, historic year.
Book Bubbles from The Evergreen in red and white
The Queen's visit to Sheffield
This excerpt describes Queen Victoria's visit to Sheffield in 1897 for her Diamond Jubilee. The description of the visit is as closely accurate to the actual event as I could make it. Previous chapters describe the incredibly elaborate decorations that were put up all round the city centre.
This week 117 years ago
What makes a man walk out on his wife, kids and a new born baby? How does it feel to be the woman he walks out on - especially in Victorian times when the absence of a bread-winner could lead to the workhouse? This excerpt describes Rab's last hours in the family home - I try to see it from both sides. Does it work? That's for others to judge.
Christmas 1897
I wanted to use this Christmas scene to show the tensions in the family. Christmas is a time when people come together but also when fault-lines open up as unrealistic expectations are not met. Rab's wife has moved to her sister's for he confinement. Traditionally, Romani childbirth would have taken place in a separate tent which could be burned afterwards. This must have created a dilemma for those newly taken to house-dwelling. It can be seen that Selina wasn't resident in Brightside when Edith's birth was registered. I trawled through census records and found that her sister was living near the place Selina is recorded as living at: I then tried to put two and two together. Hope you enjoy this bubble. Season's Greetings!
Sheffield is one of the characters in my book
Some people don't like descriptive passages, others love them. One man's meat... This chapter begins with one of the longer descriptive passages: it describes winter hardship in Sheffield in the late Victorian era when the book is set.
