I thought it was straight forward

I started writing this yesterday, and I was just getting into my writing stride when a plaintive voice floated up the stairs – “pub???” Naturally I succumbed and ten minutes later we were in The Ship behind a couple of pints of Otter. So… continuing what I started last night, back to names and naming…

As I’ve mentioned before, I have a real fascination with names – I guess from having an unusual first name and an unusual last name, even my married name is unusual. I was named Lois after my great grandmother, who knows why my parents also chose Elizabeth as my middle name. My husband’s name is Sparshott, and there aren’t many of them around either – except in the south of England around the Portsmouth area. Maybe it’s because of my unusual name, that I often have unusual names for my female characters – I say “have” rather than “choose” because their names just seem to come to me. It’s quite unusual for me to search lists and anthroponymyc sites (I had too look up the study of first or forenames to discover that word!!) although that does from time to time, for example if the character is from a past era.

Sometimes I have a story, or an idea, or a few lines to begin a story, and there’s a person – and it takes a while for the right name to emerge, and sometimes I doubt myself and try and change it. For example, Ismène, in “Lucky Portbradden”, nearly had her name changed – I think to Estelle (a completely different person who actually arrives in another book) but no, she’s Ismène and that’s that! My first published novel was ‘Farholm’ and the main character is Deke – I have no idea where that name came from, but when I gave copies to my book club friends they didn’t like the name at all, and in fact a couple asked how it was pronounced. That stumped me as I thought it was straightforward – like Deek, but they asked if it was pronounced like Dekay. It had never occurred to me.

Estelle did eventually arrive in another book, “The Stalking of Rosa Czekov” – Rosa is the deceased wife of Luka Czekov, but there’s never any mention of his ancestry. I know of so many people whose surnames are Eastern European, but inherited from distant family who migrated to the UK particularly before and following WW2, so it seemed normal. Estelle is married to Luka’s best friend, Brian – known as Rudi. I must have been thinking of the song “Message to you Rudy”, originally by Dandy Livingstone, but more recently by The Specials (a favourite group of mine!) The main character and from whose point of view the story is narrated, is Tyche… another problematic name for my readers I guess. Pronounced Ty-kee, the name comes from a Greek god of chance or fortune, viewed as a power that brought unexpected good luck or sudden bad times. I didn’t know that when I wrote my story, I’d come across the name and it just stuck in my mind waiting to be attached to a character. In fact it was fortuitous – Tyche comes to the small town of Easthope and meets Rosa’s widower and his friends, and indeed in a way, her arrival does bring unexpected good luck to some, and definitely some tricky and dangerous times for others (including herself)

When I began to write my Thomas Radwinter books,, I made a real effort to use “ordinary” names – his three brothers are Marcus, Paul and John, but I used the faces of real people as a starting point for the family. Marcus Radwinter looks a little like Marcus Warieng the chef, Paul is somewhat like Paul Hollywood the chef and baker, and John Radwinter looks like a chap who worked in Waterstones at one time. Thomas himself looks like the Danish actor Nicolas Bro as a younger man.

I have another Radwinter brewing, but I seriously think I ought to take a break and write something different, but what I have no idea… well, actually I have quite a few ideas but none seem prepared to take flight – just yet!