Novelist Eliza Morton is writing romantic sagas set in her hometown of Liverpool
I was an actress before I was a writer but I sometimes wonder whether all those years playing different characters, understanding how plots work, was just preparation for when I began to create my own stories. When I started out working in theatre, I played the part of Linda in Blood Brothers and every night when we would receive a standing ovation, I experienced the tremendous power of storytelling. In some ways I try to recreate whatever it was that made the audience feel they connected with the characters and their struggles and triumphs, in every book I write. Like many people in Liverpool, my family originally came from Ireland. So many stories were passed down to me. One strange example of memory is this. My father used to tell me a story about a man drowning in sugar when we would pass under the Tate and Lyle shute on the Dock Road. I retell it in one of my books, Angel Of Liverpool, and in the acknowledgements I wrote that I never knew if the story was true or if my dad made it up (my dad died when I was young). After the book came out a family member sent me an old newspaper article and I learned it was not only true, it was my aunt's uncle who had drowned in the sugar. For me that is why sagas are so important. To commit to the page people's memories and how difficult life so often was for our mothers and grandmothers but how resilient they were. Also, I love to write a big sweeping romantic arc in my books. Romance always gives us hope.
My Background
‘I'm a big believer in lived experience - I spent my teenage years playing my piano accordion in Liverpool working men's clubs, I come from a religious family (my grandmother was a struggling single mother of ten) and I also spent many hours in various churches and convents with my uncle who was a priest and aunt who was a nun, and I was taught by nuns. So running between the Northern clubs, dancing lessons, and church! My mother was a piano teacher and daughter of a dancer and I became an actress. I am also a mother and though I have my two boys now, I have suffered loss like so many mothers have. I came to writing late but I am grateful for the rich tapestry of the people I have met and the experiences I have had along the way that I can draw on.’
