Although Arlington Books hadn’t actually said that they’d like to publish Cloughfold, Mum thought the invitation to their offices in London looked very promising. As she knew that Mayfair was a posh part of London, she also thought she should buy herself a posh dress for the occasion.
There wasn’t much time between the letter arriving and the meeting taking place, however, and so Mum didn’t have time to go into Leeds where the posh shops were. Instead she went to the Peel Market in Morley where she bought what she thought was a Very Nice Dress Indeed – and for a lot less money!
A couple of days later she was on her way to London to meet the people at Arlington Books. Wanting to be sure to be on time, she caught an early train, just in case anything happened to delay her.
But the journey went smoothly and she arrived at King’s Cross station with plenty of time to spare. As she already knew her way around London – and had an A to Z guide in her handbag as a safeguard – it didn’t take her long to go on the Underground to Oxford Circus and then spend a happy half hour window-shopping on Regent Street, which was very near to where she needed to be.
Although the meeting was scheduled for late morning, the letter hadn’t mentioned lunch and Mum was getting a bit anxious as she was starting to feel hungry by that time, despite having had a bacon butty on the train.
After all the formal meetings and greetings in the office, however, it soon became obvious that lunch – with Desmond Elliott, founder and publisher of Arlington Books – was going to be included. What wasn’t obvious was the venue…
Though Mum had been to a few editorial lunches by then, they’d always been in a nice, simple restaurant within walking distance of the relevant offices. This one involved a taxi ride…
…though by Yorkshire standards it was easily within walking distance as she was being taken to what was then The Inn on the Park (but is now The Four Seasons Hotel London at Park Lane).
It was certainly posher than anywhere Mum had been taken to before and for a moment she wished she’d bought a posher dress for the occasion after all.
But even then Mum wasn’t someone who was easily fazed by a situation – especially if it involved food and talking about writing! – and soon she was quite at ease, sitting in the hotel bar and drinking a celebratory glass or two of champagne before lunch as by then Desmond Elliott told her he liked Cloughfold so much that he wanted to publish it. And not only that, but he also wanted her to write two more novels for Arlington Books…
Then, over a delicious lunch, which included strawberries – at a time when they weren’t normally available so early in the year – and more wine, Desmond Elliott compared Mum’s writing to that of her beloved Brontes…
He even went so far as to suggest she should consider writing a sequel to Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre.
But, although Mum was both pleased and flattered, she knew that she couldn’t do it. She loved the story and the character of Jane Eyre, but she didn’t like Mr Rochester at all.
(If you haven’t read it, then I must tell you that the last chapter of the original story starts with the words, “Reader, I married him” and goes on to describe Jane’s early life as Mrs Rochester.)
Desmond Elliott thought it would be great to continue the story from where Charlotte Bronte finished it, but Mum disliked Mr Rochester so much that she couldn’t get beyond starting her sequel with, “Reader, I divorced him” and so that idea never went any further.
Luckily Mum had a couple of ideas of her own swirling about in her head and, as she travelled back to Yorkshire later that day, she began to make notes for the first of them…
That’s all for today, but I’ll be back soon to tell you more about Mum and her writing. Meanwhile, please take care and stay as safe as you can!
Follow my next blog: 107. MY MUM THE STORY-TELLER – PART EIGHT
01/10/2020
Wilf the bear-faced blogger 