Settling In

When I was first thinking about In Memorium I found myself dwelling on the characters and not their setting. This was long before Lilia was Russian or Dasha went to Sunday confession. It's not the easiest thing, choosing a home town or even country for a long piece of work. With every decision I make a dozen questions rear their insistent heads; what were the immigration habits at the time of Lilia's arrival from Russia; what is their financial situation; where would Dasha's botanist father find the most work; where would Lilia insist upon living? So I started simple and chose a continent.

England. After four years away I've just this week returned to the UK and it truly was a homecoming. What better place to set these characters I've come to love? I've had a little more trouble with the city. During my many years back and forth to Great Britain I've lived in Devon, Bristol, Poole and Sheffield but none of these felt right. Devon is too posh, Bristol too unlikely, Poole too pretty and Sheffield too far north. Should I take the easy road and just put them in London? There are a few benefits to this. London was a common choice for those immigrating in the 60s and 70s and there were low income areas that didn't suffer from excessive violence or council housing construction. After all, can you imagine Lilia agreeing to live in a four by five flat with boys chucking rocks at her windows all day?

And now I come to the tangle of specificity. When I read a book I look for details; street names, locations of pubs, descriptions of churches; everything that turns a setting from an idea into a memory. Obviously I will need to do this in my own book. But what will be an appropriate area of London for my little family? One of these low income hotspots with terraced houses and access to the ring roads, possibly even Heathrow. I asked my Dad

Lara S.– born and raised in the UK – where he would recommend. He said Slough but since the airing of Ricky Gervais' The Office I don't think anyone will take that location seriously ever again. He countered this argument by suggesting Staines and my first thought was 'what a brilliant metaphor for Dasha's childhood'. I did some research into the physicality and location of the housing areas, looked at the population and employment rate between 1970 and 1990 and found the perfect church for Lilia and decided that Staines was the only choice for me. Now I can look forward to hours of minute detailing throughout the eighteen years that Dasha lives there. Why eighteen? You'll have to wait to find out.