York of Shadows with Clare Grant
Winter of Shadows with Clare Grant
Very honoured to have this lovely lady on the BookTrail today. Recently came across both her and her book and was immediately drawn to getting it on the site. Now – even better still – the lady herself is here!!
Book Map of Winter of Shadows
I grew up in the Yorkshire Dales and from as early as I can remember our family trips to York grabbed my imagination. The excitement of Christmas visits to the snowy, dimly-lit Victorian streets of Kirkgate in York Castle Museum stayed with me so when I had the idea for a dark, historical crime series, it was always going to be set in York. To this day I still get a thrill when I step onto the cobbles of the museum’s Victorian streets.
Book Map of Winter of Shadows
My heroine, Ada Fawkes is a forensic crime scene photographer in the days when photography was still seen by some as magic or even witchcraft and then it was definitely no job for a woman.
My series begins when Ada moves to York in 1862, she desperately needs a fresh start – her last murder investigation in Paris has gone badly wrong. The first location to decide was Ada’s home. I headed for York library archives where I read Victorian directories of the city which document who lived where and their professions:
Book Map of Winter of Shadows
I walked the streets, checking distances and noting landmarks. Finally I chose Chapter House Street behind the Minster as the location for Ada’s fictional house (it is also one of the locations for the BBC’s Gentleman Jack). It is so atmospheric to walk around, especially at night and you can easily imagine yourself in another century.
Book Map of Winter of Shadows
Coney Street is the location of Ada’s new photography studio. The busy shopping street was the choice for several photographers’ studios then. Ada’s studio itself is a figment of my imagination but I based it on the rickety black and white half- timbered Tudor buildings you can still see in York.
Book Map of Winter of Shadows
I first introduce Ada as she makes the mistake of walking through the Shambles early one morning and the sights and smells there stir up memories of a gory murder. Today the Shambles is York’s most famous and picturesque medieval street, but then it was the street of butchers. Anyone walking through had to step round the innards and blood of the animals slaughtered behind the shops and which were thrown into the open gully in the middle of the street.
(c) Clare Grant
Book Map of Winter of Shadows
I am fascinated with the contrast of how we think of York today as a genteel tourist destination and how it really was. Visitors through time have enjoyed engaging with the city’s past and exploring its layered history from the gothic Minster to walking the medieval city walls. But alongside these historical landmarks, much of York was desperately poor.
Fossgate
Book Map of Winter of Shadows
Locations in my crime thriller reveal this gritty side of the cathedral city. They include Hag Worm’s Nest, a slum yard infamously notorious for outbreaks of cholera, Fossgate, a street of taverns so grim even the destitute could afford gin and the Refuge, a harsh charity-run home for ‘fallen women’ in Bishophill which Ada Fawkes must visit as she investigates the mysterious deaths of three young women.
Lendal Tower
Book Map of Winter of Shadows
It is almost impossible to walk round York and not see the deep River Ouse which flows through the city centre. It is integral to the history of the city and to my series. The Winter of Shadows starts in snowy winter of 1862 when there was still a ferry crossing between Lendal Tower and Barker Tower. It is the old ferryman who discovers the first mutilated body as he rows a passenger across the river. In January 1863, Lendal Bridge, (those arriving by train usually cross this bridge to walk into the city) opened after two disastrous attempts.
Yorkshire Museum in the Museum Gardens.
Book Map of Winter of Shadows
Ada Fawkes agrees to deliver a lecture on photography to the Yorkshire Philosophical Society at the Yorkshire Museum in the Museum Gardens. It is an unusual occurrence for an all male society and Ada’s fashionable clothes and expertise in photography raises many eyebrows. This is a fascinating museum to visit and the gardens, by the river, a relaxing place to sit and have a picnic. I am no stranger to sitting on a bench here, with a coffee, for research purposes of course.
Book Map of Winter of Shadows
York is a small city and at almost every turn you catch a glimpse of the spectacular Minster, the largest medieval building in England. In Winter of Shadows, the city is deep in snow and when on Christmas morning a body is found on the Minster steps, Ada must urgently take a photograph of a footprint in the snow before it disappears.
But there is always more to discover and researching my books gives me the perfect excuse to keep returning to my favourite English city.
Love this so much!! Thank you Clare. Fantastic guide and a really immersive and fascinating read.
BookTrail Boarding Pass: A Winter of Shadows
Insta: @clare_grant__
