Every writer is blessed with an over-active imagination. For Helen J Christmas [below], author of the ‘Same Face Different Place’ series, this led her to researching Britain and its social history. Here, she explains how her research was transformed into fiction. “I have a passion for writing. I have indulged it for most of my life but it wasn’t until 2011, my career as an author really took off. My current series (a combination of romantic suspense and noir fiction) was inspired while walking along the beach with our dog. I was just daydreaming about my life, when a set of characters and stories began to flood through my head. I was born in 1964 and remember the eras of the ‘70s and ‘80s – I thought ‘how great it would be to write an epic story that took the reader on a journey through the decades of Britain!’
My debut novel Beginnings (published in 2012) is the first book of my series ‘Same Face Different Place.’ It is a love story set in the criminal underworld of the 70s and the start of a mystery which rolls across four decades.
I am lucky to be gifted with a powerful visual memory. I decided to set my story 1972 and once I got started, found myself absorbed in the era. Yet there came a point when I needed more than my own memories. I wanted to shape my story around real events to add authenticity. This was where my research began. It was in April 2011 when I ventured up to London by train and it took one very special exhibition in Whitechapel, (by photographer Ian Berry), to immerse myself the world of the 70s. These pictures depicted the architecture, the culture and most important of all, the people [below]. It allowed me to portray a little history; issues such as housing where demolition of Victorian terraces took place on a massive scale to make way for high rise blocks. I also learned about Toynbee Hall (described as a catalyst for social change) since it was the nearest institution to a community centre for my characters to seek help. By the time I returned from this trip I felt more inspired than ever; so much so, that research has become an important part of the writing process.

[photo: Helen J Christmas]

[photo: Helen J Christmas]

[photo: Helen J Christmas]
There is of course, lots you can research on the internet which has become an essential tool. You can find material on virtually any topic now. YouTube is an excellent resource for researching older news items and this is where I discovered details of the 1987 hurricane and the Black Monday stock market crash (both featured in book three, Pleasures). In addition, it enabled me to relive the rave scene of the early ’90s (also in Pleasures) with documentaries as well as live video footage, depicting the music and the fashion. I do actually have a few of my own memories of this era and it was the inspiration behind some very exciting scenes in the book.
So what am up to now?

[photo: Helen J Christmas]
Right now, I am writing the fourth and final book Retribution where the story is heading towards the Millennium. For the first time since starting the series, I have taken a new approach by interviewing real people: for example, there is a character who joins the army, at the start of the Bosnia conflict in 1992. Much of this research was done on the internet but it was depicting of army life where I struggled – a situation where I wrote to the Army Recruitment Office asking for help and they put me in touch with a retired officer who was in the Royal Engineers in the ‘90s (my character’s regiment). After an extremely enlightening conversation, I managed to write an entire storyline involving my character’s Army career. So I hope I have done him justice!”
Biography
Helen J. Christmas lives on the south coast of England with her husband. She has a passion for gripping stories with strong characters and, with a love of writing since childhood, started her own series of books titled ‘Same Face Different Place’. Her first book Beginnings is a mystery suspense thriller combined with a love story, set in 1970s London. Helen finished her second book Visions in 2013 (a psychological thriller set in the 1980s around the counties of London and Kent) and Pleasures in 2015 (where the mystery extends into the ‘90s).
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Books
Beginnings (Same Face Different Place, Book 1) Buy
Visions (Same Face Different Place, Book 2) Buy
Pleasures (Same Face Different Place, Book 3) Buy