From a collection of over 200 photographs, all of Ina posing for the camera. The photographer is not seen in any of the shots. He is obviously obsessed by Ina and she is more than happy to be photographed. A few shots are dated in the late 1950s but there is little else to identify locations etc. though there a few at popular UK sites and a handful in Germany.
Apart from Ina herself there are just 3 photos with her mother and two with her sister.
Ina is seen in a variety of poses and she seldom looks less than happy.
As I often remark, it always seems sad that collections of photographs that obviously meant a lot to someone and their families just disappear in house clearances and salerooms. At least it’s possible for collectors to preserve some of the social history contained in such photographs.
Having a favourite photograph, old or new, is as absurd as having a favourite film or book. The item at the top of the list is likely to change from day to day, month to month, year to year. However this photograph has consistently been a favourite of mine.
Why? Because it’s mysterious and spooky and the atmosphere is made partly by the scratches and blemishes. What’s the girl smiling at and what does she have behind her back? It could easily be a still from a David Lynch film (Lynch would also be top of my favourite directors).
The photograph is bound inside a small generic cover with five other photographs, each 8cm by 8cm. On the reverse of the cover it shows “Processed by Rothgeb* Photo Service of Youngstown Ohio” who are apparently a member of the Master Photo Dealers and Finishers Association.
(*Rothgeb sounds like one of the Ancient Ones from an H P Lovecraft story doesn’t it).
In the original Darkness Begins blog I shared details of my writing. The first novel in a projected trilogy is Alchemists of Time. Here’s some information about the first two books and an update on what’s happening with book three.
1859 Benjamin Strutt and Jane Taylor practice the occult sciences and conjure demons. Daisy is trying to escape from the squalor, the violence and life as a prostitute in the dangerous rookeries and backstreets of a Victorian town.
1959 When Alex and Maxine move into an old house, Alex finds himself transported back to the time when Benjamin Strutt lived in the house. Unless he can learn the alchemical and occult arts that Benjamin teaches him he can never go home to his own time. And Bella Nightingale is already threatening the stability of time itself with a killing spree lasting more than a hundred years.
After ten years living as a Victorian, Alex Harrison is not sure whether he wants to return to his own time of the 1960s. Maxine, Alex’s girlfriend, can’t even remember him after her timeline was altered. When an old enemy reappears the life of Alex and everyone he holds dear comes under threat and he must unite his Victorian family and his friends in the 1960s to defeat an evil that threatens to warp the very fabric of time.
What to expect in book 3 Well of Time*
It’s six months since the apocalyptic events at the end of book 2 and all is not well. Two of the Victorians find themselves transported to the late 1960s, Benjamin Strutt has disappeared from the 1869 house and those remaining are in disarray and under siege from fresh enemies. Meanwhile Alex and friends find they need to revisit their assumptions about time paradoxes to ensure their survival.
It’s early days in the writing process for book 3 so don’t hold your breath! I’ll try not to do a George RR Martin and leave it hanging for years and years.
I’ll update you on Loake and Patel book 3 in a later blog.
(*Potential for confusion with Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time I know).
