Author Vikki Heywood on penning her debut novel Miss Veal And Miss Ham
IMAGE BY PATRICK FORE/UNSPLASH
Central to the story of my debut novel Miss Veal And Miss Ham is a previous Post Office employment scandal which affects my elderly lesbian characters in a particular way. As attitudes to women changed in the early 1900s, greatly assisted by the requirement for them to work through two world wars, lesbian women were able to find vocations that matched their desired, or enforced, private lifestyle. The best of these roles also provided accommodation, as a lady, and her companion could find happiness living together and financial peace of mind.
In the case of my novel, I chose running a sub-post office and sweet shop in a small rural community for my characters. Situations such as these helped provide cover for relationships that were mostly regarded as outside of the social norm; they helped provide an answer to why they were not married and raising a family. It was simple – their work was their life, and their work was part of the war effort. Sub-post offices up and down the country were vital throughout both world wars to deliver millions of letters, parcels and telegrams to front line soldiers and their anxious families back home: morale depended on it. In many villages, the post office in someone’s converted front room was the epicentre of the community.
In the case of my characters Beatrix Veal and Dora Ham answered such a call from the GPO in 1917 and were housed in a small Buckinghamshire village on Miss Veal’s temporary “non-establishment” sub-post mistress contract with minimal rent. A non-establishment contract and unequal pay being the cornerstones of many women’s employment status within the postal service. My novel begins 35 years later in 1951, a year after Beatrix has been “let go”, the house sold and the two ladies’ bankrupt. Beatrix and Dora are victims of the major rationalisation that occurred in 1947 when our post-war, cash-strapped Civil Service (who ran the post offices) closed old-fashioned sub-post offices to provide new modernised jobs for the returning men. Several thousand post office workers were fired after many years of service, with no redundancy pay and no pension – so my elderly characters find themselves in desperate financial straits and homeless as a result.
After 43 years together Beatrix and Dora are deeply in love and dependent on each other for their happiness. At a time of a nascent welfare state and little sympathy in their family, or society, for their lifestyle they find themselves with no appealing options. Their heroic attempt to find a way to stay together, live the life they want to live and overcome this late-in-life challenge is the plot of my story. Miss Veal And Miss Ham is a homage to the power of determination and a celebration of love.
Miss Veal And Miss Ham, the debut novel by Vikki Heywood, is published by Muswell Press. Available in all good bookshops and online.
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