A new heroine – who wears the trousers
A Sunderland author is returning to the historic streets of her home city with the aim of bringing Wearside to the world. Glenda Young’s, The Tuppenny Child, her follow-up to the best-selling Belle of the Back Streets is now available in paperback from Headline books.
The Tuppenny Child is Glenda’s second novel set in the northeast coalmining village of Ryhope in 1919. It’s a heart-warming family saga which tells the story of Sadie Linthorpe who arrives penniless in Ryhope searching for her stolen child.
Glenda says: “Sadie Linthorpe is a real go-getter, determined and brave. She becomes the first woman in the village to set up her own business, she uncovers corruption, and all the while she’s searching for her stolen child.
“She also becomes the first woman in the village to wear trousers!”
Glenda says she has loved researching historic Ryhope, the village where she grew up.
“It’s been emotional delving into the archives, looking at maps and plans of pubs and buildings in Ryhope from 1919. I feel very proud to be writing about my culture and heritage. The Tuppenny Child also includes the traditional Irish custom of Nollaig na mBan – the Women’s Christmas – done in pit village style.”
The author says she felt “honoured and proud” earlier this year as she was asked to give the welcome speech at the official opening of Tyne and Wear Heritage Open Days in September 2019.
Glenda, who graduated from the University of Sunderland with a degree in Journalism, is very proud to be putting the village where she was born on the literary map. And although these are Glenda’s first published novels, she has already built an impressive reputation as an award-winning short story writer.
Her short fiction has appeared in magazines including Take a Break, My Weekly and The People’s Friend. A life-long fan of the soap opera Coronation Street, Glenda has written TV tie-in books for ITV about the show. She is also creator of the Coronation Street Blog, which launched in 2007. Glenda edits a team of 16 bloggers, reaching the finals of the UK Blog Awards in 2016 and 2018.
She also has an unusual claim to fame – she is the creator of the first ever weekly magazine soap opera. Riverside appears in The People’s Friend, the longest running women’s magazine in the world.
Look out for Glenda’s next compelling saga set in Ryhope, Sunderland in 1919
PEARL OF PIT LANE
Released in hardback, audio and ebook November 2019
Paperback release March 2020
A further three novels by Glenda Young set in Ryhope in 1919 – The Girl with the Scarlet Ribbon, The Paper Mill Girl and Rose of Miner’s Row – will be published by Headline in 2020 and 2021.
Endorsements for Belle of the Back Streets
‘’Will resonate with saga readers everywhere…a wonderful, uplifting story’ Nancy Revell (author of Sunderland’s The Shipyard Girls books)
‘I really enjoyed Glenda’s novel. It’s well researched and well written and I found myself caring about her characters’ Rosie Goodwin
‘All the ingredients for a perfect saga and I loved Meg; she’s such a strong and believable character. A fantastic debut’ Emma Hornby
‘Glenda has an exceptionally keen eye for domestic detail which brings this local community to vivid, colourful life and Meg is a likeable, loving heroine for whom the reader roots from start to finish’ Jenny Holmes
‘I found it difficult to believe that this was a debut novel, as “brilliant” was the word in my mind when I reached the end. I enjoyed it enormously, being totally absorbed from the first page. I found it extremely well written, and having always loved sagas, one of the best I’ve read’ Margaret Kaine