1920s London Archives - Anna Sayburn Lane

Hooray! After the wettest January and February I can remember, the sun is finally making an appearance and the spring flowers are starting to bloom.

I’ve almost finished the research for my next book, and I’m focused on doing all the preparation so I’ll be ready to start writing soon. If you’re interested in how I research and plan a book, read on for a behind-the-scenes insight into the process.

I also have information about a book fair in London where I’m making an appearance, and all the usual recommendations and promotions.

Book news

My next book will be set in the world of espionage. I’ve loved spy thrillers since I was a child, when I was glued to James Bond films on the TV at Christmas. More recently I’ve come to appreciate John Le Carré’s less glamorous but more cerebral George Smiley, and the hapless reject spooks of Mick Herron’s Slow Horses series.

However, watching the films is one thing. Writing about the secret service is another. Since my visit to the National Archives’ excellent MI5: Official Secrets exhibition last year, I’ve read histories of Britain’s secret service (MI6) and counter-espionage (MI5) services, especially those that look at the role of women in the services. Some in the services favoured using women in secretarial posts, because they could blend into the background. However, sexist attitudes persisted: Dick White, head of MI6 in 1956, said: “Our secretaries need only two things: good legs and a good upbringing.”

I also took a trip to Bletchley Park, where the largely female code-breakers of the second world war worked in absolute secrecy to decipher intercepted messages about German U-boat activity, some in the ‘temporary’ huts that outlasted the war by decades, others in the grand old house itself.

And I returned to the National Archives to pore over recently declassified documents about the ‘Third Man’, Harold ‘Kim’ Philby, who worked at the highest levels of the UK secret service while all the time betraying secrets to the Soviet Union. Those documents led me to read Philby’s own account, My Secret War, and his wife Eleanor Philby’s account of their life in Beirut before he disappeared to the Soviet Union in 1963.

This is the way I like to research a topic – a mixture of reading and making notes, visits to important places or exhibitions, then branching off into particular stories that catch my eye. At some point, an idea for a story starts to form…

Once I have that, I begin by writing down the kernel of the idea, then start to think about characters and places. I then spend a lot of time working on the plot and the overarching shape of the novel, before I start to write chapter one. I’m almost ready – exciting times!

Beckenham Book Fayre

Have you ever wanted to write a book? With 10 books under my belt, I know a thing or two about how to get started. I’ll be sharing my tips for writing your first book at Beckenham Library on Saturday 7 March, as part of the library’s Book Fayre. I’ll be joined by several other local authors and there will be plenty of time for questions at the end.

Where? Beckenham Library, 22 Beckenham Road, BR3 4PE

When? Saturday 7 March, 2pm to 5pm

Why? Because it would be lovely to see you!

Recommendations

March’s Mystery Of The Month is Magda Alexander’s cracking tale of 1920s shenanigans, Murder At The Jazz Club.

London 1924. A birthday celebration at Gennaro’s, London’s swankiest jazz club, is just the ticket for Kitty Worthington. What could be more fun than dancing the Charleston with her fiancé, Chief Inspector Robert Crawford Sinclair?

But an argument erupts between the jazz singer’s brother and a marquis. Before long, the aristocrat is dead, and the brother’s been arrested. Wrongfully, his sister claims as she begs Kitty to investigate.
As Kitty navigates the seedy underbelly of the London jazz scene, she uncovers a web of secrets that leads all the way to the palace…

And if you can wait a couple of weeks, it’ll be on offer for just 99p/99c from March 26 to 31. Put it in your diary!

Next, a television recommendation. I’ve been a fan of the actor and writer Mackenzie Crook since he played the unforgettable Gareth in the original UK version of The Office. Since then I’ve fallen in love with the gentle comedy of Detectorists, about two men who navigate their friendship via the medium of metal detecting. His writing is delicate, beautifully observed and full of heart.

His latest short series, Small Prophets, is a also delight. It defies description and sounds a bit twee, but centres again around friendship. Michael, a man grieving for a partner who suddenly disappeared one Christmas is given hope by his father’s tall tales of growing ‘homunculi’, the small prophets of the title, who can tell you the truth of anything, past or future.

Again the observation is spot on, from the neighbours obsessed with what exactly Michael is doing in his shed, to the hapless manager of the DIY store where Michael works, and the bored shop assistant Kacey who becomes Michael’s friend and conspirator in homunculi. Grief, friendship, yearning and the trivia of modern life combine into a superb show. The actors are amazing. Watch it on i-Player in the UK.

Finally, one reader contacted me after last month’s newsletter to tell me ‘I’ve read all the Marjorie Swallow books – what do I do now?’

Well, there’s a whole new series if you’d like to try it. Have you read the Helen Oddfellow books? My contemporary thrillers, published from 2018 to 2022, follow literary researcher and London tour guide Helen, as she unravels mysteries from the past while getting tangled up with some unpleasant people in the present day. A word of warning: these are not cozy crime and are a lot harder-edged than the Marjorie Swallow books. But if you like a bit of grit with your thrillers, why not give them a try?

Have you ever seen a ghost? I don’t think I have, but I am haunted by one all the same, in my flat by the sea. December, with its long dark nights, seems the right time to share ghost stories, preferably around the fire with a glass of something warming! Read on for the full story.

And talking of stories, I have news of my annual Christmas story, a little look at what you might have found under the tree in the 1920s, a Christmas walk to share, plus the usual book recommendations and promotions.

A ghostly warning

My apartment by the seaside is on the second floor of a big house built in the 1840s, with lovely high ceilings, bay windows, cornices and mouldings. It was divided into flats sometime in the last century. But you can see how it fitted together as one big house. When we had some building work done in our kitchen, the workmen uncovered the top of a boxed-up narrow staircase leading down to the ground floor. They covered it up again, of course, and it’s now under the floorboards and kitchen tiles. It was probably the ‘back stairs’ used by household staff.

But shortly after that discovery, my writing group was challenged to write a ghost story. I used the hidden staircase in my story. I imagined walking into the kitchen to see a girl dressed in a black-and-white maid’s uniform, descending the stairs and disappearing into the floor. In the story, as she reached neck-height, she turned and gave me a malicious smile, as if she knew something terrible was going to happen.

The trouble is that ever since, whenever I pass the kitchen to go to the bathroom at night, I have to turn the lights on to make sure she’s not there. That’s the problem with having a writer’s imagination – I can scare myself half to death with imaginary ghosts. I do realise this is a ridiculous state of affairs. So, here’s a tip: if you are going to write a ghost story, don’t set it in your own house!

Marjorie Swallow’s Christmas

The invitations have been sent out, Mrs Smithson is cooking honey-roasted ham and mince pies in the kitchen, the All Stars Jazz Orchestra are tuning up and Marjorie is decorating the Christmas tree with a little help (or hindrance) from the new housemaid. Mrs Jameson’s detective agency in Bedford Square is all set for a wonderful Christmas Eve party. If you’ve read the Marjorie Swallow books, you’ll recognise plenty of the guests–and here’s nice Mr Rubin the diamond merchant, with a pile of expensive-looking presents. Let’s hope nothing happens to them…

I’m putting the finishing touches to Marjorie Swallow’s Christmas, a short story which I’ll be sending you on Christmas Eve to read with a glass of mulled wine and a mince pie, when all the present-wrapping and tree-decorating is done. Look out for it on Christmas Eve morning.

A 1920s Christmas Gift Guide

While preparing the story, I enjoyed researching the sort of presents you might have found under the tree in the 1920s. The British Newspaper Archive, one of my favourite sources of information, had a handy blog about the top 10 presents. So, are you ready?

1: A handkerchief. ‘There are no more acceptable gifts…than handkerchiefs,’ according to The Sphere, in December 1920. Walpole’s Irish Linens agree.

2: A pencil. ‘Everybody loves good pencils, and has a use for them,’ says The Sphere. I may be one of the few people in 2025 who would love a box of Blackwing pencils in my stocking – they are my preferred pencil for first drafting and note-taking.

3: Cigarettes. ‘There are few things that can give greater pleasure,’ says The Tatler. Not to mention lung cancer.

After that the list perks up a bit – I’d be very happy with a ‘set of gin cocktails’ or a cocktail shaker, not to mention ‘a black velveteen frock’ to wear to a dance.

However, my Christmas list is usually a list of books I want to read and haven’t got around to buying yet. Those days between Christmas and New Year, when everything shuts down and no-one knows quite what to do with themselves, are the perfect time to get cosy with a cup of tea, a tin of biscuits and a good book. So in that spirit, here’s a reminder of the Gift Guide I’ve worked on with other authors of historical fiction. Download the Christmas Gift Guide 2025 – there’s sure to be something that fits your taste.

1920s London