Letters from an Edwardian Lady is the first book in my new historical fiction series, Hands Across Time and tells the story of Ernestine, the editor of a magazine for Girls and Young Ladies. She receives a strange letter, addressed to her advice column and,slightly against her better judgement, she answers it. There follows the story of an unusual and heartfelt friendship between two women, separated by time but held together by the bonds they form through their letters.
Letters from an Edwardian Lady is available on Amazon in the UK and the US as an ebook, and will shortly be released as a paperback.
The next book in the series, A Lady's War, will be featured in my next blog post.
Here is the first part of the book, where Ernestine and Penelope begin their journey together. As usual, feel free to enjoy these chapters, but please respect my copyright!
Letters from an Edwardian Lady
Hands Across Time
Book One
Winter 1904
A Treasury for Girls and Young Ladies
A note about our advice column. Miss. E. Winters is
the editor of this magazine and, as such, is a lady of some experience and
organisation. Miss. Winters welcomes enquiries and requests from her readers:
all advice given is with the best of intentions and consideration for your
well-being, but may not be what you would wish to hear!
Please address your letters to the offices of this
magazine in Hartlepool Street, making sure you write clearly and without undue
hyperbole. As of January, 1905, we are unable to accept parcels at the offices,
so do be aware that all correspondence must be in letter form.
December, 1904
2005
Dear Miss
Winters,
I saw your
name and address in one of the old books my Grandma left me. I was sorting
through, trying to take my mind off everything and there it was. I didn’t know
you had agony aunts back then! Anyway, I’m thinking it might help to write a
letter. I know it’s mad, writing to somebody who doesn’t exist! Oh well, I
might as well have a go.
First off,
I’m really getting sick of not knowing when my mother is going to turn up and
be doing the housework. I never asked her to come and do it (well, I did, but
that was ages ago and I was busy at work). She’ll be here when I get home from
work and sometimes she turns up when I’m just setting off out the door. I
wonder if she spends her whole day here! And then there’s the notes: don’t use
bleach down your toilet, think of septic tank: don’t stand on back steps for a
bit, edges painted: make sure you put ornaments back on shelf, don’t leave out
to get broken. It’s like being five!
I want some
privacy! I’ve lived on my own since I was twenty one, so nearly three years and
I think I know how to do everything by now. How many women work and have their
own places, without worrying about someone coming in at exactly the wrong
moment?
Ah, what’s
the use anyway? Nobody’s going to read this letter and I wish I had a real
friend to talk to about it all, somebody who’d be on my side, you know? I
haven’t since Sue moved down country ages ago, it just isn’t the same when you
have to make do with email.
So, bye to
you, Miss Winter. I expect even if you could answer, you’d not understand. What
would a woman from the 1900s know about my life?
Yours
sincerely (very sincerely, haha),
Penny
Lazonby
1905
My dear young woman,
I do not know how to answer you, though I feel I
must reply as you are obviously in some great distress and in need of a friend.
I want you to know, before I begin, that I see no reason to mark your letter so
oddly or to sink into such strange and low vocabulary. Please, if we correspond
again, refrain from these impulses and you will be the better for it.
To your main concern, as I see it: your
relationship with your mother. I confess, my dear, I am at something of a loss
here. If I have read your missive correctly, you have your own home and are of
independent means but have little time to achieve those womanly duties of the
home for which we should have most attention? If that is the case, I cannot see
why you object to your mother giving you her well-meant, kindly assistance in
the running of your household. I am assuming, as she does not live with you,
that she must have her own home to organise and keep straight? She is either
neglecting it for your benefit or has a trustworthy maid or housekeeper who is
taking care of her own.
Do not underestimate the help we can glean from
our older relatives, especially our mothers. All the tribulations we see as so
important have also passed through their hands, even though we view our own
troubles as monumental and wholly singular. You can be assured that whatever
you are feeling and thinking now, your mother has considered it also and come
through to be the woman she is today. Do you not see what a boon it is to have
that wealth of experience at your fingertips?
Perhaps instead of croaking about
your lack of privacy and need to do things for yourself, you could appreciate
this elderly woman giving her time and limited energy to your home, so that it
might be a comforting place for you to return each day. Perhaps she knows how
much, in her youth, she would have loved to live more independently and not
have so many household cares to keep her? Or perhaps she wishes to show you the
fulfilment of running a home successfully? At present, she appears to be
failing on both counts but I strongly suspect this failure is more your doing
than hers.
Open your heart as well as your ears and take time
to listen. Time, my dear, not a few
minutes as you undo the combs from your hair or remove your daywear. Proper
time, spent listening to what she has to say, showing her that she matters and
so her confidences also matter.
One more little note: You sign your name Penny, as
if we were known to one another. Please use your full name of Penelope. It is a
lovely name, associated with a beautiful and faithful woman. Do not abuse it
unnecessarily, be aware of how you are perceived when you shorten a good name.
If you present yourself as less than you can be, then be sure others will do
the same.
Yours, cordially,
E. Winters (Miss)
Amanda J Harrington
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