Happy New Year, everyone!
Exciting news: a short essay I wrote will be published in the Globe & Mail newspaper on Friday, January 12. It will be near the back of the first section under “First Person” and is about biking in Toronto. I will send the link in my next blog – let me know what you think!
In this blog, I’m going to tell you about some of the research I did for my novel, A Thousand Kisses. Information came from many sources: a trip to Hull, England; the kindness of strangers who responded to my emails with information that I wouldn’t have been able to source without their help; and, of course, the internet.
I’ll start with the research I did in England. In March, 2016, just before I became totally immersed in the Humber School of Writing program, I traveled to Hull. Hélène lived in this fishing and ship-building town for the last few months of her life from October, 1917 to March, 1918. She had just moved from Russia, where she had lived for the previous 8 years; she was recently married and 5 months pregnant when she arrived in Hull. While Zeppelin raids were a constant threat in England, and she was once again adjusting to a new language and culture, in this photo taken of her at the time, she looks very content and full of hope for the future.
I visited the neighbourhood in Hull where Hélène had lived, which is largely unchanged, and I could feel her presence as I walked some of the streets she had walked. It was incredibly inspiring – in fact, spine-tingling – and helped me imagine her right there, in that environment, almost a hundred years earlier. I also went to three resource libraries, and was able to see the actual registry of her death in the public records.
Hélène was writing prolifically to her mother in France at this time (she signed her letters “and for you, dear maman, a thousand kisses”), describing aspects of her daily life. Here is a sample from one of the letters to her maman:
‘My life here is very expensive and there are many shortages. No butter, no tea, most provisions are very difficult to get. After January 1 [1918], we will have to have a ration coupon to get ½ litre of milk per person. Having a doctor’s certificate, I will have the right to get a litre. Meat is very expensive: rabbits cost £4 each, turkey is £3 per pound, eggs £4 a dozen, pork £2 per pound. Fish is very cheap and plentiful, so we have it often! For coal, one can get as much as one wants, but it’s difficult to find. We don’t have a ration card for bread and there is no talk of having one. Gas is rare. What is not agreeable is to think every day that the Zeppelins will come: they have bombed here often enough and have caused much damage.’