Abbey Books Summer Book Festival, June 2023

In June 2023 I was asked to give a talk at Abbey Books in Paisley, as part of a four-day long Book Fest. The topic was, ‘The Resurrection of the Works of Evelyn Hood’, and I realised I had my work cut out for me as I am not an author myself, and giving a presentation in a bookshop to people who are much more literature-savvy than me was outside the realm of anything I had done before.

That being said, as I put information together and everything took shape, I felt as if was rediscovering Evelyn’s life story, and decided to share this story through my own experiences as a young boy, who was too young to realise what it meant to an author to have a ‘first publication’ and couldn’t pinpoint when my mother became ‘my famous mother’.

I shared the revelations of that first contract for ‘The Kingmaker’s Daughter’ which celebrates its 50th birthday next year, 2024. I also shared the stark revelation that Evelyn, celebrating her first contract, declared that the coming months and even years meant that she would be devoting more time to writing, as the really hard work was about to start; that was a lifelong lesson for me that success does not mean the effort stops. Success marks only one of the very first steps in a long and arduous journey, but the journey is also well worth the effort.

Evelyn’s profession as journalist for local papers, her early writings, a few of which exist only as  typed on company paper from the Linwood car plant where she met my father, were shared as well. Her transition into drama, to stage direction and production, including musicals such as Guys and Dolls, Oklahoma and South Pacific. Her drama side-lines such as St. Davids Primary School Mothers Group which provided a fun, social drama event for parents at the school who came together on a Thursday afternoon and ended up putting on shows for the school.

And of course, I was able to add my personal story of what it was like to work with my famous mother, as we collaborated on seven musicals written especially for the children of the Mary Russell school in Paisley.

It was an enjoyable event being amongst friendly faces including a lady who had been at school with Evelyn and had some clear memories of her as a girl; also someone who had spent time with Evelyn as she spent many days researching in the north-east of the country while writing books on the fishing industry; and another who had attended writing group events with Evelyn. I know Evelyn would have been delighted to have been there and chat in the way that she is well known for; others in the room hopefully got an insight to her life and work and I was very proud to talk, for the first time in this setting at least, about my famous mother.

My thanks go to Brian Hannan and the Abbey Books book shop, Paisley for the opportunity to share something of Evelyn’s life and work.

Simon Hood