The Palace of Strange Girls

I am a Lancashire lass, born and bred in Blackpool, reading a debut novel by another Lancashire lass, Sallie Day, set in Blackpool, and enjoying the simple pleasure of recognising many of the references to local sights and venues with which I grew up.

I cannot remember how I came into possession of this book. Did I buy it in my local Waterstones, did I spot it in a charity shop, or did a colleague pass it on to me? I suspect that whichever one of these is true, what really attracted me to the book was the back cover with a black and white print of Blackpool Tower reproduced on it. I am always drawn to items with that iconic image on them, whether it be a Cath Kidston design on a beach bag, or a Marks and Spencer's insulated sandwich bag. They speak to me of home, and nostalgia for the past.

The novel is set in 1959 and follows the Singleton family who are on their annual holiday to Blackpool along with most of the population of Blackburn and other mill towns. It is amazing to think that at the height of its popularity in the inter-war years, Blackpool attracted seventeen million visitors a year. By the late fifties, with the demise of the cotton mills and the availability of cheap package holidays abroad, this was on the wane. Sallie Day sets her novel at this point, and has done an excellent job of researching the industrial and social history of the times. There is a real sense of change, and a mixture of fear and anticipation about the future. Not only are the industries and factories changing, with all the implications for employment and trades relations, but the young people are also changing with their dangerous fashions and music. The reader feels this tension between the old and the new worlds throughout the book, as it is at the heart of the Singleton family. 

The father Jack is torn between promotion to Mill manager, or a job offer to be the area union rep. The mother Ruth, is a control freak, unwilling to allow her sixteen year old daughter Helen any freedom to meet with other young people, or to wear any of the new fashions. Her own personal agenda is to move out of her modest terraced home in Blackburn to one of the new semis that are being built on the outskirts of town, an ambition not shared by her husband.

The youngest daughter, seven-year-old Beth, painfully stifled and mollycoddled by her mother after a recent heart operation, is the character I enjoyed most. She just wants to get on with finding all the objects in her I-Spy book, so that she can collect enough points to become a member of Big Chief I-Spy's club.

May I echo the Northern Echo when I say that Sallie Day's debut novel has a terrific sense of time and place. It is populated with Bendix twin tubs, stilettos, suspenders, net underskirts, block mascara, Teddy Boys, winkle-pickers, Babycham and winceyette nighties, with a backing track of Bobby Darin songs. A great End of Summer read.