Fortnight of Guests 2012: Miriam Halahmy

We have the awesome Miriam Halahmy here today, who wrote one of my favourite 2012 Contemps (see my review of Illegal here).  She's an awesome writer and an all round awesome person!  So (without further interruptions from me!) here is Miriam... :D

Ten Things You Should Know About Hayling Island And Never Thought To Ask!!

Miriam Halahmy

My cycle of three Y.A. novels is set on Hayling Island off the south coast of England. My family lived there for 25 years and I’ve been visiting the Island for over forty years.

My novels, Hidden, Illegal and Stuffed are published by Meadowside fiction. A minor character in the previous book becomes the main character in the next. Otherwise they are all set on Hayling but they are all stand alone stories.

Megan asked me to blog during June so I thought I would come up with some things about Hayling that you might know, might think you know, or might come as a complete surprise.

1.       My parents lived at 21 Bracklesham Road in a house which was two minutes from the beach. I always called it Mum’s beach and that’s where Alix and Samir pull Mohammed out of the sea in Hidden and hide him to save him from being deported. The palms you can see in the photo were planted by Mum. ( Aaah)
2.      Windsurfing was invented by Peter Chilvers in 1958 on Hayling Island with a bit of curtain and a wardrobe door. His invention was properly recognised by the courts in the 1980s – so no arguments.

3.      Hayling Island used to be connected to the mainland by the Hayling Billy railway.

4.      Hayling is a proper island, about 4 miles square and it is connected to the mainland by a bridge in the north and by a ferry to Southsea on the south-east tip of the Island.

5.      My favourite pub is the Yew Tree – see, you didn’t know that! But off the Island it’s The Royal Oak just before the bridge. Very old with beautiful flagstones.

6.      My dog’s name was Trudy (she appears as Alix’s dog in Hidden) So what’s that got to do with Hayling Island? I used to walk Trudy on Mum’s beach of course. Durrh!
7.      Sections of the Mulberry harbour were constructed near the ferry at the bottom of the Island. This was the massive floating harbour which was towed to France for the D-Day landing in 1944.

8.     Five little ships went from Hayling to Dunkirk in 1940 to save the British army stranded on the beach. I’ve been on one of them – Count Dracula. It is amazing! I could almost hear the soldiers crying out to be pulled on board and away from the German bombing.

9.      The Hayling Island bookshop is the smallest independent bookshop in the UK. I’ve blogged about it.  Hayling Island Bookshop! 

10.  The houseboat which Karl breaks into with Lindy in Illegal is at the Kench, a beautiful bay near the ferry and it also featured on the cover of a novel by Phillipa Gregory. The current owners told me. The houseboat is a converted Second World War boat, too. Lot of history on Hayling Island.

11.   Yes, I know I said 10 things – but hey – this is The Book Addicted Girl. So, final fact, smugglers used to terrify the locals into staying away from the coast by renaming a lane they brought their goods along. It was Pook Lane. The smugglers called it Spook Lane and said it was haunted.

Come on down to Hayling and join in the fun. You know you’ll love it!

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http://www.miriamhalahmy.com/
https://twitter.com/#!/miriamhalahmy  @MiriamHalahm


I'll have to go to Hayling!!  I want to go to that bookshop!! ;)  
Thank you so much for your amazing post, Miriam!!  I loved it and the pictures were awesome! 

Everyone, if you liked this post, make sure you follow all the FoG events on Twitter at #FortnightOfGuests

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I have been writing since childhood and started with poems, stories and diaries. I taught myself to play the guitar and wrote songs. I have published short and long fiction for children, teens and adults and two poetry collections. 

My cycle of three Young Adult novels are published by Meadowside, 2011/2013. I also review books, publish articles, I am a writing coach and I appraise manuscripts. I also work with asylum seekers who want to write their stories through English PEN.

I love reading fiction for all ages, biographies of poets and authors, anything about polar exploration, autobiographies, poetry, history books and anything else which catches my eye.