The Quality Street Wedding Read online

  In the case of the Doncaster outbreak they faced a strain of streptococcal bacteria which appeared to be ‘of a much more serious type than those normally seen’, to quote the British Medical Journal. Not only was the fever it caused more serious, but it spread more widely. Adult women appeared to be twice as likely to catch this strain of scarlet fever, and adult males were four times as likely to succumb; the infection even appears to have reached household pets as the BMJ mentions the case of an Airedale who suffered. But these are only records of the very worst cases – the scarlet fever cases – because they were the only patients the isolation hospital were able to find room for. Patients who presented with symptoms which were thought to be less dangerous were quarantined at home until they had ceased to be infectious. In another similarity with the 2020 pandemic, this infection left patients with complications long after the infection had left them: arthritic pain went on for months in a way that was unusual for streptococcal infections.

  The 2020 pandemic meant the postponement of many things for many people. For my fiancé and me it was a wedding. Postponed or cancelled nuptials and small ceremonies are a continuous theme in this book, and there will be many more contemporary couples who will sympathise with them. Although I cannot direct anyone to a sweetshop chapel in Halifax for a post-lockdown wedding, I can offer one in Rotherham. The inspiration for Hebblewhite’s misshapes shop came from a real Yorkshire bridge chantry. Rotherham and Wakefield both boast interesting examples of bridge chantries (and Halifax may have had one which didn’t survive to the twentieth century), but it was Rotherham’s I was interested in because for a little while in the early twentieth century it was a newsagent, tobacconist, and sweetshop. I decided to take it and put it underneath a real iron bridge in Halifax (which is still standing in all its bold red glory) and to concoct an imaginary campaign to return it to a place of worship. This wasn’t such a far-fetched idea, because in Rotherham in 1927 – after hundreds of years of using the chapel as a warehouse, almshouse, lodging house, and gaol – the local people decided to turf out the shopkeeper who was occupying it and hold services there on Sundays.

  Weddings have been held in this little chapel and the idea of giving one of these ‘sweetshop weddings’ to my characters was irresistible. The real Albert Baum, however, was not married in a sweetshop, but his situation was inspired by some real events which were happening in Britain at the time.

  It was with a special kind of heartache that I read Louise London’s book Whitehall and the Jews which describes in detail the hurdles which Jewish refugees had to get over if they wanted to come to London to escape the Holocaust in Germany during the Thirties and Forties. The character of Albert Baum has – like my cousins’ grandfather Al Baum – Polish family, which makes him ineligible to claim refugee status in 1930s Britain. I was astonished to discover just how many Jewish refugees wanted to come to Britain to escape the Nazis, but were refused asylum; I wanted to write about one of them but I was cautious because I didn’t want to imply that the Mackintosh’s toffee company had any special campaign to rescue refugees at that time; I have seen no archive evidence that they did. Although, given the company’s work to rescue children from the Spanish Civil war, and their much later attempt to give asylum to Ugandan refugees, it wouldn’t be the most unlikely discovery I’ve ever made. We will see what the company archives hold when lockdown is lifted and we can all look at them again. Eventually, if we give it enough time, this will all become history.

  Acknowledgements

  At the close of 2019, during the early stages of writing this book, water started pouring through the living room ceiling. The roof had failed, and an emergency house move loomed. I thought I could still hand the manuscript in on time. Sadly, there was worse to come; my partner’s brother Grant died suddenly, and his family were devastated by his loss. His funeral was the last time they all saw each other; by then, the pandemic was already building. My partner Scott (NHS Nurse extraordinaire) was transferred to a Covid-19 nursing team just as the first lockdown began and before we’d even finished unpacking in our new home. From that moment on, we never seemed to catch our breath.

  Perhaps this is why the third book in the Quality Street Girls series is so different from the two which went before it. Looking back, I notice that I have kept my characters away from crowded places, and I rarely describe their faces – perhaps because I have seen so few this last year.

  The Quality Street Wedding is a different book from the one I had planned, and it nearly didn’t see the light of day, but thanks to the patience, understanding, and editorial genius of Kate Bradley, you are reading it. Huge thanks are also due to my agent, Jemima Forrester, who keeps me sane by making me laugh and always being ready to do battle with my imposter syndrome. To Kati Nicholl for copy edits which sing; Lara Stevenson for deadline day support; and all the team at HarperCollins Publishers for their hard work in the hardest of times.

  Thanks also to Craig Leach for sharing his memories of scarlet fever; Adam Thompson for going out in search of my bridge chantry; Messers Flowers, Vannucci, and Stoermer for a Pascha gift of substance; my parents for looking up the details of their own Archbishop’s special licence; Dr Annie Gray for helping me to put food on the table when I could find none in the shops; J. B. Wilkinson for saving Scott’s bacon; both the Authors’ Elevenses Club and the Kings Close Coffee Club for their moral support; and all the team at BBC Radio York for their continued enthusiasm for the adventures of Ruffian, the horse.

  Special thanks to Mark Kendall, Jonty Joyce, and Alex Cronin for coming to the rescue. I can never thank you enough for all you did.

  Penny Thorpe

  March 2021

  Keep Reading …

  If you enjoyed The Quality Street Wedding, you’ll love Penny’s other books set in the nation’s favourite chocolate factory …

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  About the Author

  Penny Thorpe lives in Yorkshire where she has been the company archivist and historian for her local chocolate factory for more than a decade. She’s worked in libraries, bookshops, offices, a Swiss school, a racecourse, a barber’s shop, a church, and a police station (to name but a few).

  Penny is a recognised expert in her field, but still isn’t quite sure how that happened. She has written about the history of confectionery for years and regularly appears on television and radio to talk about the history of Yorkshire, chocolate, coffee, Quakers and food.

  To stay in touch with Penny, follow her on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

  Also by Penny Thorpe

  The Quality Street Girls

  The Mothers of Quality Street

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