Hélène’s Arrival in Hull in A Thousand Kisses

Thank you, everyone, for your support for my writing! My blog this week includes an excerpt from A Thousand Kisses. Hélène had recently been married, was expecting her and Walter’s first child in a few months, and had successfully escaped from Russia just weeks before the 1917 October Revolution – it must have been one of the happiest times in her life. She had finally achieved everything she had hoped for: a father for her daughter, Lili, a new life in England, and a baby on the way.

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Hélène’s 25th Birthday in Saint-Pétersbourg

Thank you, everyone, for your positive comments and support for my writing! This week we will re-connect with Hélène who was working as a governess in Russia in 1914. Having lived in Saint-Pétersbourg for four-and-a-half years, she now spoke fluent Russian, spent her spare time with her friend, Marie, and had settled into the routines of the Stolberg family. Little did she know that her relatively carefree life would soon come to an end, as WW1 loomed just around the corner.

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Hélène’s Life in Hull in 1917 in A Thousand Kisses

Thank you, everyone, for your positive comments and support for my writing! This week I am including an excerpt from when Hélène first moved to Hull, having lived in Russia for 8 years. She was staying with her parents-in-law, but spending most of her time with her husband’s sister, Minnie-Annie, and her family. After a few weeks, she was starting to feel at home in Hull, waiting for the war to end so her husband, Walter (who was still with his ship in the Gulf of Finland), and daughter, Lili (who was living with Hélène’s maman and the rest of the family in France) could join her there, and, with their new baby, they could start their lives together as a family.

 

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Hélène’s son, Albert Walter Scoffield: The Miracle Baby in A Thousand Kisses

Thank you, everyone, for your positive comments and support for my writing! February 27, 1918, exactly 100 years ago today, was an important day in Hélène’s life. It was the day her second child, Albert Walter Scoffield, was born in the most extraordinary circumstances. Conceived in Petrograd, Russia, born in Hull, England, he was a miracle in every way. He was also my father.

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Hélène in 1914 Russia in A Thousand Kisses

Thanks, everyone, for your positive comments and support for my writing! This week, I wanted to talk about Hélène’s early years in Russia. She arrived in 1909, when the Romanov family had been ruling the country for almost 300 years, there was relative peace, and Saint-Pétersbourg was at its political and cultural height. The city had been built by Peter the Great and his heirs beginning in the late 1600’s in an Italian architectural style and with its multiple canals was dubbed the “Venice of the North”, and “Russia’s Window on Europe”. Culturally, the sophisticated city boasted world-renowned opera and ballet companies, orchestras, composers, and writers. French was the language of the Imperial family and upper class, and 12,000 French nationals were living in Russia. Even clothing and furnishings were ordered from Paris. At the time, it was very acceptable for a young woman to travel from France to Russia by herself to seek employment and adventure. What a perfect environment and opportunity for Hélène: aside from leaving her family in France, Saint-Pétersbourg must have felt like home with an exotic twist.

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Hélène’s Childhood in France in A Thousand Kisses

Thank you, again, everyone, for your interest in my writing and novel, A Thousand Kisses. This week, I wanted to talk about a significant part of Hélène’s childhood, and include an excerpt from the book.

Hélène’s early childhood was happy, with a mother and father she adored, and a younger sister she could baby. When she was 6, her parents divorced and her father moved to another town. She didn’t see him very often after that, and an important early male bond was shattered. For Hélène’s maman, Charlotte, the resulting financial situation would have been dire: it was difficult for a woman with young children to work, and, often, the only option (aside from prostitution) was to find another husband to support her and her children. Hélène’s mother dedicated herself to this task, soon found a Captain in the military, and they quickly married. Captain Gilles Collard was, of course, the man who later molested Hélène, and so the unfortunate situation of a dependent mother, abusive step-father, and vulnerable daughter, was established.

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Excerpt from A Thousand Kisses: Train From Paris to Saint-Petersbourg

Thank you, everyone, for your interest in my writing and novel, A Thousand Kisses!

This week, I’m including an excerpt from the novel. It takes place after Hélène left her young daughter, Lili, in Barisis, in 1909, and travelled to Saint-Pétersbourg to become a governess. On the long train journey, she met two other young women from France who were also seeking governess jobs in Russia. One, Marie, would become a life-long friend and confidante: she and Hélène would eventually live together in Saint-Pétersbourg, in 1917, flee Russia just before the final Russian Revolution, and journey to England together. In the research I did for this part of the novel, I was able to find a 1902 German travel guide to St Petersburg (translated into English) which really helped bring the train experience to life for me (and Hélène!).

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Research For A Thousand Kisses

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.

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Excerpt 3 From A Thousand Kisses

Thanks again, everyone, for all your positive comments and support for my novel and blog!

 I wanted to share another excerpt from A Thousand Kisses with you. This scene occurs in August, 1909, in Barisis, in north-eastern France, when Hélène leaves her daughter, Lili, with the Tellier family before she goes to Russia. How heartbreaking that must have been! Hélène had tried for over a year to bring up Lili on her own in Paris, but, in that era, it was nearly impossible; like Fantine in Les Misérables, prostitution was the fate that met many unwed mothers. In Saint-Pétersbourg, where no one would know she had a child, Hélène could work as a governess and make more than enough money to send to the Tellier family to pay for her daughter’s upkeep, and save for their future. She planned to return to France in a few years and live together with her child; little did she know that WW1 and the Russian Revolution would intervene, and Hélène would never see Lili again.

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