Emily Tellwright was born in Stoke-on-Trent, UK and came back to live here about twenty years ago. In between, she had studied mathematics at Oxford, science, society and technology at East London, and cello in Cardiff and worked as a bookseller, an accountant, a musician and a tutor. She also spent many years as a carer.
Things I like to explore in my work
In my writing, and in my life, I’m interested in hidden patterns and assumptions that shape how we live. I’m particularly fascinated by how they change over time, establishing new norms and leaving many old habits – both good and bad – forgotten in their wake. How do they affect our sense of purpose and of identity? We feel we are part of a culture of some sort, but do we know what it is?
I also love the great fun of being human: all the emotions you can feel, the work you can do, the pastimes you can engage with, using your body and developing your heart, mind and spirit.
Emily enjoys books, cooking, the garden, knitting, music, old films, daily exercise, dancing and many other things. When she’s not writing or running Castle Sefton Press she’s often busy on her artwork.
Inspired by my roots
When I started writing Ghost Train I found that the place where I lived was the thing that brought all my ideas together. Stoke-on-Trent – once ‘The Potteries’, being a concentration of ceramic industries – is a unique city in that it is not really a city at all. It comprises six towns that grew until they touched and were eventually incorporated as a city. It is also part of a conurbation with two other towns that did not want to join (and still don’t!).
Despite the efforts of successive local government administrations, and the erection of numerous signs to the contrary, there is no city centre. Strangers seeking this mythical hub will travel round in confusing and infuriating loops to nowhere.
Life here is not quite like that in other cities I have lived in and has much to recommend it, despite the place’s evident poverty and dereliction. It’s an interesting prism through which to view our industrial history and our present society.
Ghost Train
Emily Tellwright’s first novel, Ghost Train, was directly inspired by a local place, The Wedgwood Memorial College in the village of Barlaston, which was run by Stoke-on-Trent City Council. The main college buildings comprised two large villas that have stood empty and increasingly dilapidated since the college closed.
When Emily found out that one of Britain’s most brutal twentieth-century murders took place in one of those villas before it became part of the college, the idea for the book came into her mind.
Forgotten Stories
Many people leading so-called ordinary lives are not ordinary at all. Some of them are extraordinarily kind, loving, passionate, determined, intelligent or exceptionally good at what they do, even if that is ‘only’ cleaning. I find that this is where the interesting stories are. Not all history is about battle, kings, flouncing about in long frocks and worrying if the new footman is going to be troublesome. If you have a passionate desire, a burning ambition or a desperate challenge, how much more is involved when you have to deal with it while still cooking dinner, cleaning the bathroom and finding money to pay the extortionate water rates.
If you’d like to read more of my ideas on life, food, people, books, art, film, television and all the other things that come into my head, have a browse through my blog and sign up to hear when I make a new post.
Find out more
You can explore Emily Tellwright’s books and art at Castle Sefton Press, which she runs with her partner, author and artist John Blake.