The End of An Era

 A Celebration of a Highly Acclaimed Historical Series
by Lynne Patrick

Chris Nickson’s book launches are always a bit special, but this was one which will be hard to top. It was not so much a book launch, more a celebration of an entire series: the chronicles of Tom and Annabelle Harper, which first hit the bookshops in 2014 with Gods of Gold, set in 1890, and came to a tear-jerking conclusion a few weeks ago (or thirty years later, depending on how you view it) with Rusted Souls.

Tom Harper was a detective inspector when we first met him, chasing villains through the mean and smoke-blackened streets of Victorian Leeds. In the course of eleven books, he has progressed through the ranks to become chief constable, and along the way he acquired a gloriously outspoken wife: Annabelle Harper, pub landlady, astute businesswoman, eloquent speaker on women’s rights and all-round purveyor of sound good sense. Their daughter Mary, born between the third and fourth books in the series, grew up to be as feisty and canny as her mother, and both women played key roles in the series. All fictional, of course, though in the course of eleven books they’ve come to feel like old friends.

Mary even put in a guest appearance at the celebration evening, held at the Central Library in modern-day Leeds – where else? – in October, though Annabelle was detained elsewhere, probably making a speech on women’s suffrage... The event was the culmination of an exhibition titled
A Copper’s Eye, curated and mounted by Chris Nickson himself with the help of library staff. It covered the thirty years of Tom Harper’s career, which was a arguably one of the most important periods in Leeds history, encompassing the rise of socialism and the women’s suffrage movement, the First World War, and incidents in Leeds including the gas strike of 1890, the catastrophic railway station fire of 1892 and the suffragette riot of 1908, all of which involve Tom Harper and form the background to one of the books in the series.

The exhibition was full of examples of Chris Nickson’s unique ability to weave history and fiction together. There were contemporary documents, and photographs of buildings which provide locations and background for the books: Swinegate Clothing Depot, Barnbow Munitions Works, Gledhow Hall, turned into a hospital for wounded soldiers, and of course Tom Harper’s workplace and spiritual home for most of the series, Mill Garth Police Station, stern and stolid like an old-fashioned primary school. There was even a pub sign for the Victoria on Roundhay Road, where Annabelle was landlady and the Harpers lived for most of their married life – and which has personal resonance for Chris Nickson, whose great-grandfather was landlord there.

There were people too: photos and mini biographies of real historical figures like poet and pioneer socialist Tom Maguire, celebrated in a red (not blue) plaque in Leeds bus station; suffragist campaigner Isabella Ford; and
eminent musicologist and song collector Frank Kidson. All three appear as themselves in the books, unlike Owen Madden, who was born in Leeds and became a famous gangster after moving to New York; he doesn’t exactly appear, but he did become the inspiration for Davey Mullen, villain-in-chief in Brass Lives, ninth in the series.

And gazing at each other across the room, with no indication that they weren’t as real as the others, were pictures and biographies of Tom and Annabelle Harper. The books are so full of fascinating moments and incidents from the real-life history of Leeds that it’s easy to believe the Harpers really were part of it all, and that’s how the celebration evening made it feel. Chris Nickson spoke eloquently – and off the cuff – about how his love for the city of his birth inspired the books; how a painting of a young woman reached into his subconscious and pulled out Annabelle, and how it came about that Tom Harper took part in those real incidents so seamlessly. Two local historians, whose work Chris relied on heavily in his determination to get the history right, filled in some background; Vine Pemberton Joss talked about the development of the women’s suffrage movement in Leeds, in which Annabelle was so closely involved, and Dr Anna Reeve described how some pieces of ancient Cypriot pottery found their way to Leeds University and into On Copper Street, the fifth book in the series. And then there was Mary Harper, a spirited and poignant performance by young actress Amy McCann.

The exhibition has sadly closed now, but it ran to considerable acclaim for two weeks in September and October. The book launch and celebration took place on October 2^nd, attended by an enthusiastic audience of the books’ loyal fans, and also by the Lord Mayor of Leeds, Ms Al Garthwaite, and her Lady Mayoress – a fitting tribute to the efforts of the Leeds Library staff and most all Chris Nickson himself. Tom Harper’s retirement may have marked the end of the series, but not of his creator’s exploration in fiction of the history of Leeds. There’s plenty more from this talented and prolific author to absorb the most dedicated reader.

https://chrisnickson.co.uk