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Nancy Revell brings ‘The Shipyard Girls’ back to life
Beloved saga author, Nancy Revell, is back with her latest instalment in The Shipyard Girls series. The iconic series finished up in 2022 with the tale of Three Cheers for The Shipyard Girls. But, one day the renowned author decided that she wanted to revive some of the characters.
Her latest novel, The Widow’s Choice, is a continuation of the series and revives one of the central characters in The Shipyard Girls series. This marks a new direction for the saga. A new beginning.
Nancy Revell sat down for a chat with My Weekly about her latest work. She talked about everything from inspiration to what she wants readers to feel when reading the novel.
She said: “I am really excited about this new direction for these characters.”
A change in direction for the characters
She adds: “I’d ended The Shipyard Girls series and I had loads of my readers messaging me asking me to take the characters further.
“At the time I was adamant that the series was finished at book 12, but then because I had a bit of time afterwards and my mind started swirling and I just started thinking about Angie.
Angie is a character in The Shipyard Girls.
“She’s one of the main characters in the original series, but not the main one. I had left her, but I felt that there was more that could be explored with her character. I knew there was more that we could do with her.”
A flow of thoughts
Nancy spoke of her way of working, which tended to involve a thought that evolved into a fully formed story idea over time.
She added: “This thought happened with Angie. She marries someone who is very rich at the end of the series. You see Angie’s future at the end of The Shipyard Girls series, and I kept coming back to her. My mind was stuck on her as a character.
“I often wondered how she would cope coming from such a working-class background, she’s a coal-miners daughter who has had this wonderful love affair with someone who is far wealthier than she is. Which is a bit of a juxtaposition.
“He is from the higher sort of levels of society, and I just thought, there’s a story here. The story begins at the end of the 40s and takes you into the 50s. You watch Angie go through a lot of emotional turmoil. I hope readers will enjoy seeing her grow and develop.
“The book is set in Cuthbert Manor, in County Durham. This is all about Angie’s journey.”
A novel with hope
When speaking about what she wants readers to take away from this novel, Nancy talks about hope and being drawn into this new world and new era of the series at Cuthbert Manor.
She says: “I really want readers to be drawn into the new world of Cuthbert Manor. They will get to know the characters fairly immediately. There are all these other characters that were mentioned in the initial series, but further explored here.
“I think what really resonated with readers of The Shipyard Girls series is that people felt immersed in the girl’s world, and I really want that to be the case here with The Widow’s Choice.
“The new book is very character orientated. You see the journey of everyone.
“At the end of the day, what I really want people to take from this book is the feeling of hope. Hope for the future, hope for your life and hope for yourself.”
Nancy has stated that she envisions The Widow’s Choice as being part of a trilogy, so fans, watch this space and be prepared to fall in love with this new world and these new characters.
The Widow’s Choice will be released on January 4 2024, fans can pre-order online.
This article is in partnership with The Random House. This means the content has been paid for and approved by the named advertiser but written and edited by our own commercial content team.
