No,
I’m not buying a new house, but I did look for a setting for my current writing
project, which takes place in England. Unfortunately, it will be a while—if
ever—before I get to England again, meaning I couldn’t do my research on site.
As
a writer, I cringe whenever a reader tells me that I got something wrong,
including facts about the setting. I also don’t want people guessing that a
purely fictional character is based on the reader or someone the reader knows,
which is more likely to happen if the setting is real. So for this book I
created the fictional village of Puedam and a fictional market town called
Ressel.
To
give the story some connection with reality, however, I chose to set the
fictional village in a real English county. Using the internet and a book on
English shires, I went looking for the right one.
I
had several conditions. First, Puedam couldn’t be near anyplace that Hitler was
likely to target with his bombers, which ruled out areas with major
manufacturing centers or significant military installations. Second, since all the
settings (other than references to London) are fictional, I didn’t want it too
close to a real city in case readers would question why my characters never
went there. And, while not crucial, I was hoping for an inland farming area.
The
winner was Derbyshire in central England. As you can see from the map at the
head of this post, the population in the southwest part of the county is
relatively sparse and the land is flat enough to support farms. Relatively
isn’t really the right term, though. If you look at a larger map, the area is
sprinkled with villages, and there are several real cities, including Derby,
close enough for shopping. However, it fits my needs as well as or better than
anywhere else.
Besides,
I’m treading on hallowed ground by following in the footsteps of British
authors who created fictional villages and market towns throughout England for
their fiction.
__________
The map at the head of this post was downloaded from https://freeworldmaps.net/europe/united-kingdom/derbyshire/.
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