Tag Archives: 1920s

Background material

Wimbledon – the Frenchy with the short skirt & the gay superstar

“What have we got for below the fold?” Asked Rollo.
A voice piped up: “Wimbledon. That Frenchy won again. The one with the short skirt. And Daniel’s got a luv-er-ly pic.”
On cue Daniel walked to the front of the room and presented a picture of Suzanne Lenglen to Rollo who in turn showed it to the room. It was met by wolf whistles. No one bothered apologizing to Poppy.
From The Jazz Files.

Our heroine’s first day at work on The Daily Globe was on 4 July 1920, the day after the Wimbledon Finals. The men’s singles were won by Bill Tilden who defeated Australian Gerald Patterson (2–6, 6–3, 6–2, 6–4), and was the first American to ever win the title. Tilden also became the first player to reach 10 finals at a single Grand Slam event. His record stood until 2015, when Roger Federer reached his tenth Wimbledon final. Tilden’s personal life, however, was mired in tragedy and his closet homosexuality (illegal at the time) led to scandal and turmoil, including rumoured liaisons with ball boys.

Bill Tilden
Bill Tilden

The women’s singles were won, again, by ‘the Frenchy in the short skirt’ Suzanne Lenglen, considered by many the greatest French sports woman of all time. Lenglen won every year between 1919 and 1925, apart from 1924 when she had to withdraw in the quarter finals with whooping cough. She was a fashion icon and paved the way for women to wear shorter, looser fitting clothing on court, causing a scandal at the time. She was also renowned for smoking cheroots and drinking brandy between sets. Despite this dubious diet, she won an incredible 241 titles, with a 98% winning record over her entire career. She partied as hard as she played, and, in The Jazz Files, she makes a cameo appearance at Oscars Jazz Club the same evening Charlie Chaplin arrives. She died of leukemia on 4 July 1938, after going blind. She was only 39.

Suzanne Lenglen
Suzanne Lenglen
Suzanne Lenglen and Bill Tilden, singles champions at the 1920 Wimbledon Championships
Suzanne Lenglen and Bill Tilden, singles champions at the 1920 Wimbledon Championships

For more on Wimbledon in the 1920s visit the official Wimbledon archive.

Background material

Film footage of Poppy’s cruise to New York

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I’m currently writing book 3 in the Poppy Denby Investigates series. Poppy and her friends will be going to New York, travelling on an oceanliner the RMS Olympic, sister ship to the Titanic. As you well know, the Titanic sank in 1912 (in The Jazz Files Elizabeth Dorchester’s mother, Maud, died on the maiden voyage, and in book 2, The Kill Fee, the parents of Delilah’s new boyfriend also went the same way). The Olympic was one of three sisters operated by the White Star Line between Europe and New York. The third ship, the Britannic, was sunk by a German underwater mine in 1916. But the Olympic survived and had a long and illustrious career until 1934 when she was finally decomissioned. Poppy and her pals will be travelling in April 1921. I am beside myself to have found this incredible promotional film of life on board the Olympic. Just imagine what fun Poppy is going to have! It’s 16 minutes long, so make sure you have a cup of tea at the ready – and don’t forget to turn up the sound.

Background material

Mary Pickford & cinema in the 1920s

I saw this last night on TV and have now tracked it down on YouTube. It’s a documentary about Mary Pickford and the development of early cinema. I wasn’t aware that she was a shrewd businesswoman too and along with Chaplin and Fairbanks started her own studio. If the film industry itself doesn’t interest you then the documentary footage of the time just might. Of particular note is the footage of Mary and Amelia Earhardt speaking about the role of groundbreaking women of the time plus Chaplin and Fairbanks devising some slapstick routines in the garden. I loved it!

Background material

Pea Soup Fog – and other miseries

We can get all nostalgic about past eras and I’m the first to admit I focus on the glamour of the 1920s. But in The Jazz Files and its sequels I try to also show the darker underbelly of the period. In The Jazz Files there’s the long shadow of WWI, the Spanish Flu, the torture of suffragettes, domestic abuse, the dreadful living conditions of the poor and the forced institutionalisation of women with ‘mental health issues’. In Book 2(to come out in September 2016) there is the displacement of millions of people after the Russian Revolution and the plight of injured and unemployed servicemen in London. In Book 3, which I’ve just started, I’ve come across my first piece of misery: Pea Soup Fog! This lethal mix of mist from the Thames and noxious by-products from coal fires caused the ill-health or death of tens of thousands until the Clean Air Act of 1956 started to reverse it. Click here to see a picture of a policeman at Charing Cross in the early 1920s trying to direct traffic through the ‘pea soup’. Imagine poor Poppy having to live through that!

Background material, News

Poppy Denby Investigates

Here are some pics from a film shoot we did for a book trailer for The Jazz Files American launch. I’ll show you the finished film when it’s ready, but for now enjoy these stills of actress Amber Irish playing Poppy Denby as she arrives in London and starts investigating.

Poppy Denby arrives in London to start work as a journalist at The Daily Globe.
Poppy Denby arrives in London to start work as a journalist at The Daily Globe.
When a senior journalist is killed she is tasked with finishing the story he was working on when he died. Poppy Denby Investigates.
When a senior journalist is killed she is tasked with finishing the story he was working on when he died. Poppy Denby Investigates.
News

Pics from the launch

Everyone had a flapulous time at the launch party at Waterstones, Newcastle on the 25 September. Here is a taste of it. You might want to view the pics to the accompaniment of the Tiger Rag by the Original Dixieland Jazzband. At the launch it was played by Yussef Nimer and Jimmy Madrell from Middlesbrough, not Dixie :)

Yussef (left), Jimmy and yours truly.
Yussef (left), Jimmy and yours truly.
My commissioning editor, Jess Tinker from Lion Fiction who came all the way from Oxford.
My commissioning editor, Jess Tinker from Lion Fiction who came all the way from Oxford.
Me reading a chapter from The Jazz Files with my daughter in the background.
Me reading a chapter from The Jazz Files with my daughter in the background.