A writer
has published a novel about growing up in 1960s Havering in a world of changing
fashion, music – and violence.
A writer
has published a novel about growing up in 1960s Havering in a world of changing
fashion, music – and violence.
Sheila
Norton, 64, now living in Chelmsford, spent her youth in the borough and has
used these memories as inspiration for her latest novel, Yesterday.
She
said: “I have written novels but they were all contemporary rom-coms. This time
I wanted to try something a little different and since I grew up in the 60s, it
is a time I know very well.”
Tensions
The plot
centres around the feisty female lead, Cathy Ferguson, who is caught up in a
violent outburst between Mods and rockers.
Tensions
between groups of warring teens resulted in hundreds of arrests in Clacton in
1964.
However,
it is only when she is a middle-aged journalist that she is asked to relive
those memories.
Sheila
said: “I always thought of myself as a Mod. I was only 14 and still at school
so wasn’t really part of the group but I liked the way they dressed, their
music and Cathy is the same way.”
Sheila
spent most of her youth in Ardleigh Green, Hornchurch, attending Romford County
High School, now Frances Bardsley Academy for Girls, in Brentwood Road,
Romford. It was then Sheila started to develop her love for writing.
She
said: “What I remember most is probably Romford Market when it was still a
cattle market, seeing it filled with cows and sheep, and the brewery smelling
of malted barley and wheat.”
Sheila
added: “Your teenage years is the period you often go back to when you’re older
and the sixties in particular was extraordinary.”
‘Yesterday’
is being released on Thursday first as a Kindle edition to celebrate the 50th
anniversary of the feud.
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