Launch: Nancy Jardine’s Novice Threads

INTERVIEW BY ELLEN IRWIN

Nancy Jardine spends her days writing historical and contemporary fiction and is also an avid garden potterer. All historical time periods appeal immensely but so far the early Roman Britain, Victorian, and Edwardian eras have been explored in her published work. Her novels have achieved finalist status in prestigious UK book competitions and have gained various noteworthy Online Global Book Awards. She is published with Ocelot Press.

How would you describe Novice Threads in just a few sentences?

It is a young girl’s journey to adulthood during the 1840s and 1850s, fraught with new experiences – some of which are beautifully rewarding, though many are close to overwhelming. There’s also a transition from being raised in a Scottish rural mill town to living in the capital city of Edinburgh.

What inspired you to tell a story through the lens of a working-class woman during 1840/50s Scotland?

Writing about the lifespan of my main character, Margaret Law, was sparked by my own ancestral studies. Delving into the goings on of some Victorian-era relatives, I found a few details quite eye-opening. An example would be an enforced marriage after the Church Session had been involved in a possible paternity case, and another the frequency of infant death of children under five from disease or poverty-related issues. After further research, I found those situations weren’t so uncommon, though I was struck by how the strict morals of the era placed many restrictions on young women, which possibly meant decision-making was regretted later in life.

Your young heroine must endure many challenges as she pursues her dream of becoming a teacher. Is there something about her way of navigating these challenges that resonated with you?

Five years old, in 1844, Margaret is ecstatic that she’s to attend school and wants to learn absolutely everything about reading, writing and counting – similar to how I felt more than a century later! During the 1840s, Scottish Parishes were obliged to provide a schoolroom though it wasn’t compulsory to send a child to school. A fee had to be paid to the dominie (schoolteacher) for a child to learn basic reading, writing and counting. When they could afford it, parents tended to send sons rather than daughters to school.

My education during the 1950s and 1960s in Scotland was free of charge though, unlike Margaret’s experience, there were roughly the same number of boys and girls in my class. Unfortunately, circumstances change for Margaret’s parents, and they must give up their draper shop just before Margaret is twelve. She must find a job. Margaret cannot fulfil her dreams of becoming a certificated teacher (a highly innovative concept in the early 1850s for a female), though becoming a tutor in Edinburgh is an amazing alternative – for a while! Margaret faced difficult circumstances unique to her time, and I was inspired by how women of her era had to navigate such challenges to work towards dreams that often seemed unattainable.

Was there a unique bit of information you came across in your research that you wanted to include in Novice Threads?

I included nuggets about Edinburgh in Novice Threads. Tourists today see many iconic features when visiting Edinburgh – the Gothic-styled Walter Scott Monument; the neo-classical galleries; Edinburgh Castle. Research was key to avoid anachronisms because 1850s Edinburgh was a constant building site with many works-in-progress. The reader of Novice Threads will find a story that may be less-widely known about Sir Walter Scott’s Carrara marble statue, which sits at the base of the monument in central Edinburgh.

Does Margaret’s story end with Novice Threads, or do you have a sequel planned?

Margaret’s life-story will continue in Books 2 and 3. She will experience both thrilling adventures and heartbreaks as a mature woman. Some events are unusual for a woman of her class, though tragically others are too familiar. Periods of poverty are balanced by relatively better times. Lies and manipulation are rife. Her formative years, covered in Novice Threads, influence some of the drastic decisions that Margaret will have to make.

How do you think living in Aberdeenshire, Scotland has influenced your writing?

I’ve lived in a few different areas of Scotland which have distinctive local dialects, and I lived for a few years in Holland. Those experiences broadened my general outlook and nurtured my “author” voices in small ways. However, the current geography of Aberdeenshire in particular played a supportive role when writing a couple of the titles in my Celtic Fervour series. My novel, The Taexali Game, is set in Aberdeenshire – though during the Roman Scotland era of almost 2,000 years ago. My challenge with writing these titles was to avoid assumptions that the countryside was similar to today. Thorough research informed me that it was definitely different!

Might you discuss your publication journey? What made you choose to self-publish?

Having retired from primary teaching in 2011, I completed three novels very quickly. In 2012, I was super-excited to gain contracts with two different small independent publishers. By 2014, they had published all of my (then) completed novels – three historical adventures and three contemporary mysteries.

My seventh novel, The Taexali Game, is a locally based teen time-travel historical adventure, another different (sub) genre, so I self-published that one in 2015. I taught myself the formatting processes and paid for editing and cover design. I became hybrid published!

By 2018, all my publishing contracts had run their terms and I got my rights back. I chose not to look for new publishing contracts, having enjoyed the autonomy that self-publishing gives me. That said, I joined an author cooperative called Ocelot Press and re-published all my titles. We each self-publish our own work but aid and abet each other with aspects of preparing our work for publishing, and with marketing ideas.

What writing advice would you like to share with aspiring authors?

Never give up if you feel you’ve written something that people will absolutely love to read! Join author communities on-line to gain good writing advice and shared experiences – they can also help to remove isolation aspects since novel-writing can be a lonely task.

What is the last great book you read?
The Kiss of the Concubine by Judith Arnopp.

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