The Old House on the Corner (55 page)

Somewhat bemused, Gareth had taken the paper and could never have described how he’d felt when he read it: stunned, moved, griefstricken all over again because
Victoria had made a Will and the house and the money she had received for the piece of land that was now Victoria Square had been left to him.

It was weeks before he could bring himself to visit the solicitor, more weeks before he felt able to tell Debbie, expecting the third degree: ‘Why you, of all people? Why, Gareth, why?’

But Debbie had just nodded and kissed him dispassionately and he wondered if she’d known about the affair all along.

He read Victoria’s email again, although he knew it word for word. ‘I doubt if the day will ever come when I won’t think of you …’ Well, the day
had
come, he thought, breaking so many hearts.

‘Gareth!’ Debbie called fearfully from the bedroom. ‘I’ve just had this awful pain.’

Gareth hesitated for the briefest of seconds, pressed ‘delete’ and the email vanished from the screen. He would never read it again. It was time to dwell on the future, not the past. Move on.

‘Coming, Debs,’ he shouted.

Outside, in the empty square, nothing moved except the lights on Victoria’s tree that continued to chase each other around and around and around …

MAUREEN LEE IS ONE OF THE BEST-LOVED SAGA WRITERS AROUND. All her novels are set in Liverpool and the world she evokes is always peopled with characters you’ll never forget. Her familiarity with Liverpool and its people brings the terraced streets and tight-knit communities vividly to life in her books. Maureen is a born storyteller and her many fans love her for her powerful tales of love and life, tragedy and joy in Liverpool.

Born into a working-class family in Bootle, Liverpool, Maureen Lee spent her early years in a terraced house near the docks – an area that was relentlessly bombed during the Second World War. As a child she was bombed out of the house in Bootle and the family were forced to move.

Maureen left her convent school at 15 and wanted to become an actress. However, her shocked mother, who said that it was ‘as bad as selling your body on the streets’, put her foot down and Maureen had to give up her dreams and go to secretarial college instead.

A regular theme in her books is the fact that apparently happy homes often conceal pain and resentment and she sometimes draws on
her own early life for inspiration. ‘My mother always seemed to disapprove of me – she never said “well done” to me. My brother was the favourite,’ Maureen says.

As she and her brother grew up they grew apart. ‘We just see things differently in every way,’ says Maureen. This, and a falling out during the difficult time when her mother was dying, led to an estrangement that has lasted 24 years. ‘Despite the fact that I didn’t see eye-to-eye with my mum, I loved her very much. I deserted my family and lived in her flat in Liverpool after she went into hospital for the final time. My brother, who she thought the world of, never went near. Towards the end when she was fading she kept asking where he was. To comfort her, I had to pretend that he’d been to see her the day before, which was awful. I found it hard to get past that.’

Maureen is well known for writing with realism about subjects like motherhood: ‘I had a painful time giving birth to my children – the middle one was born in the back of a two-door car. So I know things don’t always go as planned.’

The twists and turns of Maureen’s life have been as interesting as the plots of her books. When she met her husband, Richard, he was getting divorced, and despite falling instantly in love and getting engaged after only two weeks, the pair couldn’t marry. Keen that Maureen should escape her strict family home, they moved to London and lived together before marrying. ‘Had she known, my mother would never have forgiven me. She never knew that Richard had been married before.’ The Lees had to pretend they were married even to their landlord. Of course, they did marry as soon as possible and have had a very happy family life.

Despite leaving school at fifteen, Maureen was determined to succeed as a writer. Like Kitty in
Kitty and Her Sisters
and Millie in
Dancing in the Dark
, she went to night school and ended up getting two A levels. ‘I think it’s good to “better yourself”. It gives you confidence,’ she says. After her sons grew up she had the time to pursue her dream, but it took several years and a lot of disappointment before she was successful. ‘I was
determined
to succeed. My husband was one hundred per cent supportive. I wrote lots of articles and short stories. I also started a saga which was eventually called
Stepping Stones
. Then Orion commissioned me to finish it, it was published – and you know the rest.’

Of being poor, but not poverty-stricken. Of women wearing shawls instead of coats. Of knowing everybody in the street. Of crowds gathering outside houses in the case of a funeral or a wedding, or if an ambulance came to collect a patient, who was carried out in a red blanket. I longed to be such a patient, but when I had diptheria and an ambulance came for me, I was too sick to be aware of the crowds. There were street parties, swings on lamp-posts, hardly any traffic, loads of children playing in the street, dogs without leads. Even though we didn’t have much money, Christmas as a child was fun. I’m sure we appreciated our few presents more than children do now.

The late fifties were a wonderful time for my friends and me. We had so many places to go: numerous dance halls, The Philharmonic Hall, The Cavern Club, theatres, including The Playhouse where you could buy tickets for
ninepence. We were crushed together on benches at the very back. As a teenager I loved the theatre – I was in a dramatic society. I also used to make my own clothes, which meant I could have the latest fashions in just the right sizes, which I loved. Sometimes we’d go on boat trips across the water to New Brighton or on the train to Southport. We’d go for the day and visit the fairground and then go to the dance hall in the evening.

I met Richard at a dance when he asked my friend Margaret up. When she came back she said ‘Oh, he was nice.’ And then somebody else asked her to dance – she was very glamorous, with blonde hair – still is, as it happens. So Richard asked me to dance because she had gone! We clicked instantly and got engaged two weeks later. I’m not impulsive generally, but I just knew that he was the one.

In some ways. In the late fifties, when I was 16, Margaret and I hitchhiked to the Continent. It was really, really exciting. We got a lift from London to Dover on the back of a lorry. We sat on top of stacks of beer crates – we didn’t half get cold! We ended up sleeping on the side of the road in Calais because we hadn’t found a hotel. We travelled on to Switzerland and got jobs in the United Nations in Geneva as secretaries. It was a great way to see the world. I’ve no idea what inspired us to go. I think we just wanted some adventure, like lots of my heroines.

I didn’t always find it easy to get on with my mother because she held very rigid views. She was terribly ashamed when I went to Europe. She said ‘If you leave this house you’re not
coming back!’ But when we got to Switzerland we got fantastic wages at the United Nations – about four times as much as we got at home. When I wrote and told her she suddenly forgave me and went around telling everybody, ‘Our Maureen’s working at the United Nations in Geneva.’

She was very much the kind of woman who worried what the neighbours would think. When we moved to Kirby, our neighbours were a bit posher than us and at first she even hung our curtains round the wrong way, so it was the neighbours who would see the pattern and we just had the inside to look at. It seems unbelievable now, but it wasn’t unusual then – my mother-in-law was even worse. When she bought a new three-piece she covered every bit of it with odd bits of curtaining so it wouldn’t wear out – it looked horrible.

My mother-in-law was a strange woman. She hated the world and everyone in it. We had a wary sort of relationship. She gave Richard’s brother an awful life – she was very controlling
and he never left home. She died in the early nineties and for the next few years my kind, gentle brother-in-law had a relationship with a wonderful woman who ran an animal sanctuary. People tend to keep their family problems private but you don’t have to look further than your immediate neighbours to see how things really are and I try to reflect that in my books.

I don’t feel nostalgic for my youth, but I do feel nostalgic for the years when I was a young mum. I didn’t anticipate how I’d feel when the boys left home. I just couldn’t believe they’d gone and I still miss them being around although I’m very happy that they’re happy.

Vastly important. I always stay with Margaret when I visit Liverpool and we email each other two or three times a week. Old friends are the best sort as you have shared with them the ups and downs of your life. I have other friends in Liverpool that I have known all my adult life. I have also made many new ones who send me things that they think will be useful when I write my books.

Richard’s son from his first marriage recently got in touch with us. It was quite a shock as he’s been in Australia for most of his life and we’ve never known him. He turned out to be a charming person with a lovely family. I’ve written about long-lost family members returning in
Kitty and Her Sisters
and
The Leaving of Liverpool
so it was strange for me to find my life reflecting the plot of one of my books.

Wake up, Richard brings me tea in bed and I watch breakfast television for a bit. Go downstairs at around 8 a.m. with the intention of doing housework. Sit and argue with Richard about politics until it’s midday and time to go to my shed and start writing. Come in from time to time to make drinks and do the crossword. If I’m stuck, we might drive to Sainsbury’s for a coffee and read all the newspapers we refuse to have in the house. Back in my shed, I stay till about half seven and return to the house in time to see EastEnders.

Don’t miss Maureen’s bestselling novels:

Stepping Stones

Lights Out Liverpool

Put Out the Fires

Through the Storm

Liverpool Annie

Dancing in the Dark

The Girl from Barefoot House

Laceys of Liverpool

The House by Princes Park

Lime Street Blues

Queen of the Mersey

The Old House on the Corner

The September Girls

Kitty and Her Sisters

The Leaving of Liverpool

Mother of Pearl

Nothing Lasts Forever

Martha’s Journey

Mother
of
Pearl

1939. Amy was just eighteen when she met Barney and they fell deeply in love. Their romantic, passionate marriage was a match made in heaven – and then war came. Barney volunteered to fight, and when he returned to Liverpool after VE Day, everything began to change. But what was it that made Amy kill her adored husband – and what happened to their five-year-old daughter, Pearl?

1971. Amy has been released from prison. But her freedom changes the lives of everyone – not least Pearl. Now twenty-five, she was brought up in a very happy home by her aunt, and has no idea of the terrible secret hidden in her past. As the truth unravels, both Amy and Pearl are caught up in the shocking fall-out of one family’s tragedy.