(Here's Gill's grinning fyzzog)
So, what you pimping these days?
A tale of gold and grim reality, “The
Sinking of RMS Tayleur: The Lost Story of the Victorian
Titanic”. It’s about an enormous luxury ship that left
Liverpool 160 years ago this month for the Australian Gold Rush only
to sink in mysterious circumstances two days later, a few miles from
Dublin. Although the ship was literally a few metres from land,
close enough for ropes and spars to be got across to form temporary
bridges, more than half of the people on board died including
virtually all of the hundreds of women and children. Shipwrecks were
common then, an accepted risk to travellers, and around three vessels
were reported wrecked in British and Irish waters every day. But
this particular shipwreck made the papers around the world, with
thousands of articles written on it at the time. I’m amazed that
it isn’t better known today.
How did you come across such an
amazing story?
Quite
by accident. I was in the museum in Warrington, where I live,
looking at shrunken heads and the like, when I saw a cabinet of
shipwreck artefacts including crockery and a porthole. Now,
Warrington is an inland town and the stretch of Mersey near my house
is so shallow you can see discarded bicycles poking out and sometimes
wade across when there’s a drought, but according to one of the
curators ships had been built here. One of them, the RMS Tayleur,
was the largest ship of her type at the time and certainly the most
luxurious, and he suggested I look her up online. When I read some
of the survivors’ accounts I wept until I was a snottery mess, and
didn’t think I should ever look at them again for the sake of my
sanity (and my over-wiped nose), but I just couldn’t stop thinking
about the people on the ship.
How long did it take to research
and write?
Hmm … about two years, start to
finish. That’s including the research for a short piece on one of
the children on board, submitting a proposal to my lovely publishers
Pen & Sword, and editing. And we moved house to Scotland and
back while working on it, too. But I don’t feel like it’s quite
done yet, even though I’ve just watched it being bound and turned
into actual factual books.
(here's wot Gill's so excited about)
Your previous outing into print
was a collection of short pieces, did a longer piece of work involve
any different challenges?
The
short piece on the Tayleur
is actually included in my first book, “Wild: a collection”
(published by Pure Slush), so “The Sinking of RMS Tayleur”
could almost be seen as a sequel. Yes, I found it more challenging
to judge pacing and the arc of the chapters and the book as a whole
in the longer piece, but luckily my editor, Jen Newby, let me work on
the book until I was happy with the flow.
Where can we buy a copy?
You can purchase it from Pen &
Sword
HERE,
bookshops including Waterstones (with or without the apostrophe) and
WH Smith, online retailers, and also Warrington Museum and the Ocean
Explorer Centre near Oban. Plus there will be talks and events about
the
Tayleur and Victorian sea travel (and maggoty food, yum!)
at various locations throughout the UK where you can pick up a copy
and probably cake, too. I’ll be posting details on my site and
social media closer to the time, or you’re welcome to email me at
gillhoffs@hotmail.co.uk
to find out more.
What was your biggest writing
“learn” from this project?
To
take care of myself physically while I work instead of just pushing
on, and to organise my notes better while I work instead of
constantly putting it off ‘til later then panicking when I can’t
find the precise survivor quote that I need. And to hide my
printouts from my son unless I want them illustrated with bums and
killer crabs.
What's next?
Raising
awareness of the Tayleur
tragedy – many of these people were heroes and they should be
celebrated, not forgotten – and, as you put it, pimping my book.
I’m researching the Mary
Celeste
for a thriller, and other shipwrecks and Victorian sea travellers in
case they would suit another nautical nonfiction book, and still
writing short pieces, too. I’ve sent a maritime thriller set in
the 1930s out to agents so my fingers, toes, eyes, and legs are
crossed for the time being, and apart from that I’m reading and
watching a ton of DVDs and crappy TV. And preparing for an
appearance at the Other Worlds Convention (you can get info on this event HERE) alongside my fellow writers
Kevin G. Bufton and Die Booth in Warrington in April. And trying to
get rid of the writers’ arse that’s developed from too much
Nutella and sitting at my laptop. And sleeping.
Ways to keep in touch with Gill ...
- Search Gill Hoffs on Facebook.
- And connect with her on twitter @GillHoffs
