Victory for the Shipyard Girls by Nancy Revell: Guest Post

Victory For The Shipyard Girls by Nancy Revell 

Series:  Shipyard Girls #5

Release Date: 6th September 2018
Publisher: Cornerstone Digital

Genres:  Saga

Sunderland, 1942

With the war showing no sign of abating, Helen is thriving in her role as shipyard manager. But at home the return of her father brings a shocking discovery that tears her family apart. 

Gloria is shouldering the burden of a terrible secret. If the truth comes out there could be dire consequences, and it will take all her resolve to resist the pressure around her.

Meanwhile Rosie is throwing herself into her work, taking on as many shifts as she can. Anything to keep her mind off the fact that she hasn’t heard from her sweetheart in months…

With life in the shipyards tougher than ever, will the strength of their friendship see them through to victory?

Why I was inspired to write 'The Shipyard Girls' Saga Series by Nancy Revell

                               

The moment I stumbled upon an archived article on the BBC website telling of the seven hundred women who worked in the Sunderland shipyards during WW2, I was instantly hooked.

The more I found out about these women who stepped into their men’s steel-toe capped boots and got to work repairing and building ships, the more inspired I became.

How could I not be enthralled by these female shipbuilders who swapped pinnies for overalls and became welders, riveters, platers, crane drivers and labourers?

Whose work was not only backbreaking, but also carried out under the constant threat of being bombed?

Women who often worked twelve hour shifts, six days a week, in all weathers, then returned home to cook, clean and care for their families – all the while living with the fear that the men they loved might not make it home?

Women without whom the ships that were needed to win the war would simply not have been built.

During the past three years of writing The Shipyard Girls series I have been lucky enough to be able to speak to some real life women shipbuilders.

One woman I met was just like one of my main characters, Polly, who found the love of her life in the shipyards.

Another woman told me about her aunty who left her job in the town’s main department store to go and work as a riveter just days after being told her fiancé had been killed in action.

Recently I found a newspaper article dated November 1942 which told the story of a shipyard welder called Mrs Florence Collard whose husband was in the Forces, and who returned to Sunderland after being bombed out of her home in Plymouth, only then to be bombed out of her home yet again. She was trapped in the kitchen, but rescued.

The end of the article reads:

Though suffering from shock she went to her work at the shipyard for the afternoon shift maintaining that “work comes first”.

This just shows how incredibly brave and resilient these women were.

Unbelievably, there has never been any kind of recognition for the invaluable work they did and the conditions they encountered.

Hopefully my Shipyard Girls will go some way to keep alive the memory of the real inspirational women who played such an important role in such a crucial period of our history.