Ripper Streets inspiration

Well, Christmas is over and New Year is looming, and I am trying desperately to get more words completed for my second book.

It is amazing how much vintage TV can help you with period novels. 

There have been several versions of Christmas Carol, a couple of very vague old Black & white Victorian am-drams, and each has given me descriptive or fresh ideas.

I am most looking forward to the new series of Ripper Streets commencing BBC on Sunday 30th December, as although it is set late in the 19th Century compared to my initial and second novels, it's previews look to be a further good source of detail for clothing, street scenes, habits and peculiarities of the period that can be applied as a benchmark to work backwards from.

I was a little anxious when I saw that there was a pugilist storyline in one of the episodes, as my main character Samson Shepherd is a skilled pugilist himself, but then you take account of the fact that pugilism and "The Fancy" were more important as sports and past-times for the period as Soccer and Rugby become later...

How anxious do fellow writers get when they find aspects of their characters appearing in other new works?

Where else do you get your inspiration for period novels?

Let me know, I would love to hear...


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