The People of Cragford Vale
Why the Norths?
The broad story of migration from a South Yorkshire pit village, shaped in part by social scandal and the hope of a different life, was loosely inspired by my maternal family.
But many of the people connected to that history are still living, so I didn’t want to simply rename them and reproduce the family story. I wanted to move away from direct reference and create something that could stand on its own.
Even the surname became part of that process.
North has a quiet connection to the real family name, but not so much that it immediately points back to them. It gave me just enough of a link to the original inspiration while allowing the fictional family to become their own people.
Then came the family dynamics.
I knew I wanted one child positioned right in the middle of things: old enough to fully understand what migration meant, but far too young to have any real say in it.
Not young enough for Australia simply to feel like an adventure.
Not old enough to decide whether to go.
That became Phillippa — Pip.
She is old enough to understand that leaving means losing people, places, routines and a whole familiar world. But when the adults make the decision, she has no real power to stop it.
That tension interested me immediately.
Migration is often described through the hopes of the adults — opportunity, work, escape, a fresh start — but for a child like Pip, the same decision can mean something entirely different.
And, if I’m being completely truthful, I also wanted another female voice within the family dynamics.
Because teenage girls are a hotbed of drama.
Not necessarily because they are difficult, but because that stage of life is already full of questions about identity, belonging, friendship, independence and being taken seriously.
Add emigration to the other side of the world, and there is plenty to work with.
The North family began with real history.
But the more I developed them, the more important it became that they stopped being representations of real people and started becoming characters in their own right.
Who are the Norths?
Meet the Norths
The Norths are an archetypal Yorkshire mining family. They are rooted in Cragford Vale. They are known, well respected and have a certain standing within the community. This isn’t simply where they live; it is where they belong.
Arthur North is the patriarch of the family. He loves his family deeply and wants what he believes is best for them. He and Violet have been married for twenty-four years — long enough to know one another’s habits, foibles and quirks, and to understand much of what the other is thinking without it always needing to be said.
Violet North is Arthur’s wife and the centre around which much of family life revolves. After twenty-four years of marriage, theirs is a relationship built not on grand romance but on familiarity, shared history and the ordinary intimacies of a long life together.
Jack North, their eldest son, is already beginning a life of his own. A trained electrician, he is married to Margaret — Maggie — and stands somewhere between being one of Arthur and Violet’s children and establishing a household and future of his own.
Daniel — Danny — North is almost seventeen and rather more inclined to push against the boundaries around him. There is a streak of rebellion in Danny, and he is reaching the age where the life his parents imagine for him may not necessarily be the one he imagines for himself.
Phillippa — Pip — North, thirteen, is already settled firmly into her own world. She has her school, her circle of friends and the beginnings of a first love. She is old enough to understand exactly what leaving Cragford Vale could cost her, while being far too young to have any real say in whether she goes.
And finally there is Steven — Stevie — North, eight years old and very much the baby of the family. He is swept along by the excitement of something new, without yet fully understanding what it means to leave the familiar world of Cragford Vale behind.
Together, they are the Norths.
A family with roots, history and a place in their community.
Which makes the question of leaving it all behind rather more complicated.
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