Brought To Book

Fiction editor Karen discovers saga queen Margaret Dickinson’s favourite character from all of her books…

We chat to Margaret Dickinson

DAUGHTERS OF COURAGE BY MARGARET DICKINSON, MACMILLAN HB, £20, OUT FEBRUARY 9 Daughters of Courage picks up on the fortunes of the Ryan family, whom we first met in The Buffer Girls. Business woman Emily has come a long way from her humble start in a Sheffield cutlery factory, and now owns her own buffing business. Yet with the menace of the past never far away, and the great Depression looming, can she hold on to happiness and prosperity? Another page-turner with warm characters and an enthralling plot from the undisputed queen of saga!

WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO CHOOSE THIS ERA FOR THE BOOK? The Buffer Girls started in 1920 and I wanted to carry on the storylines from the first book through the hard times of the 1920s and ’30s to show how Emily managed to prosper while still helping her family and friends.

YOU MUST HAVE DONE LOTS OF RESEARCH. Local newspapers of the time were invaluable, but I always have to be careful not to get side tracked by interesting items that I really shouldn’t be reading because they’re nothing to do with what I’m supposed to be researching! Occasionally, I will see something that gives me a new idea to include in the current book or even a theme for a whole new novel.

HOW HAS EMILY’S CHARACTER CHANGED AND DEVELOPED? Emily is now married to Trip and running her own buffing workshop. Throughout Daughters of Courage she expands her business, despite the difficult economic times, but never loses sight of those closest to her. She’s a clever businesswoman, but is still always ready to help others who have fallen on hard times.

WHO’S BEEN YOUR VERY FAVOURITE CHARACTER FROM ALL YOUR BOOKS? Always the one I’m writing about! However, out of the novels already published, it would have to be Esther Everatt from the Fleethaven Trilogy. She was the epitome of a strong woman and Plough the Furrow, in which she first appeared, helped me achieve my ambition to be published in paperback.

DO YOU LIKE MEETING FANS? It’s a great thrill when readers come year after year to have a book signed and when they tell me they have the whole collection, it’s a great feeling. I do enjoy feedback from readers too; that way I find out what they like and maybe what they don’t like! I never stop learning.