It was during this week in 2019 that I finished writing The Railway Girls, book 1 in the series. It was published in the spring of 2020, by which time I had also written book 2 (Secrets of the Railway Girls) and was part way through writing the third book (The Railway Girls in Love).
Cassandra di Bello, who was a commissioning editor with Penguin, thought up the idea of women working on the railways and then needed an author to write the series for her. She rang my agent, Laura Longrigg, to see if Laura had anyone suitable and Laura suggested me. She sent Cass a pre-publicaton copy of The Surplus Girls (written as Polly Heron). Cass liked my writing style, so I wrote a series proposal, which opened with what subsequently became the prologue of The Railway Girls – and I got the job!
I already had a long-standing interest in the Second World War and had several shelves of books on the subject. You won’t be surprised to hear that I now have several more shelves! I was especially pleased to be asked to write about the railways as my great-aunt Jessie worked a railway clerk during the First World War and her father, Thomas, was a railway clerk all his life. If you think back to The Railway Girls, where Joan’s first job was in the charging office, that is the sort of work Thomas did. His organised the delivery of goods and parcels, including by road at the end of the railway journey.
Friendship is the cornerstone of my Railway Girls stories. When I was asked to write the series, the instruction was: ‘The heart of this series will focus on the core female characters and their friendships – and how they support each other through the hardships of war.’
Book 7 (Courage of the Railway Girls) was published in April and book 8 (Christmas Wishes for the Railway Girls) will be published in October. At the moment, I am writing book 9 (Springtime with the Railway Girls), which will come out in April 2024.
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