Heaven and Helen

A New Book by Rochelle Jones

Heaven and Helen now available
from Amazon and eBay

About the Author

Rochelle Jones was born in Los
Angeles, she moved to England
and lived for many years in
Cheshire before moving to
Cornwall

To find out more click on the photo

.

This is a story following the lives of Helen Clifton and her daughters spanning the late nineteenth century to the mid twentieth century.

'Heaven and Helen' spans three generations, starting with Helen Clifton in Victorian England who leaves the secure life she has with her aunt in Hampstead to prove that she can make something of her life, but ultimately she finds her life on an increasingly downward spiral. Yet, in the midst of the difficulties she experiences she finds love and desperately tries to make a life for herself and the new found companionship. Ultimately her love's doomed downward cycle becomes impossible to support and she finds that she must decide whether she will break with her new life to save herself or follow him into the drunken oblivion that must surely be his destiny. When pregnant with her first child she realises that she has no choice. Despite her pregnancy Helen eventually marries and settles into family life with a husband who she cannot love, but none of it will fill the void left by her first love. Increasingly her life feels empty and full of despair, again she must leave the secure life and family that she has made, it is a decision that will have consequences that she cannot control and risks sending her own life down a spiral of ruin.

Helens children grow up unaware of their mother's past and yet they come to realise how their lives were affected as they grew into adulthood. Particularly affected is Helen's eldest daughter, Arabella, or Bell. Born to a father she never knew, and knowing nothing of his past, yet knowing that the circumstances of her parents had been of a scandal that had profoundly affected her mother and this drives a wedge between her and her sisters such that she could never be close to them. In the years that follow the tragedies of loss in one and then another world war sees Helen's children come to realise that they must come to terms with the affects that the legacy of their mother's life has had on them. As the next generation grows however it is Arabella who finds that as she tries to escape the legacy left by her mother that she cannot settle no matter how far away she moves from her past. As she seeks for herself a life that has meaning will her ambitions for one of Helen's granddaughters lead her down a similar road towards self destruction?

Ranging from nineteenth century Hampstead and Whitechapel to mid twentieth century Hollywood, 'Heaven and Helen' tells the story of self-willed, impulsive Helen Clifton, her own worst enemy; and her three daughters and granddaughter; all so different from each other, yet all equally affected by the legacy of Helen's strange life.

About Hampstead

Hampstead Heath in the late Victorian age was considered one of the healthiest suburbs outside of London where the air was free from the thick smoke which pervaded the city of London proper. Many grand houses were built in Hampstead in the 18th century and by the 19th century it was an affluent area as the wealthy of London chose to move there. Much of the heath was purchased by the Metropolitan Board of Works for the people in the late 19th century and it became known as the playground for Londoners, the heath remains common land to this day. Much of the rest of the land of Hampstead was sold off for building in the 19th century such that by 1900 it had a large population.

Whitechapel London

Helen impulsively leaves the home of her aunt but realises she has no means to support herself. To live away from home she must earn a wage, something she has not done before. Having grown up in a privileged upper middle class household she had never been expected to work. As the limited financial source she has runs out Helen must try to find gainful employment, but finds that her lack of experience and the social barriers of her background limit her options. After several failed attempts at work considered beneath her station she finds herself drawn to the poorer regions of London. Eventually, determined not to return to her home, Helen finds herself in Whitechapel and drawn to less reputable means of earning a living, and this at a time terror strikes the streets of Whitechapel as a number of gruesome murders take place.

Flower and Dean Street, Whitechapel

Whitechapel is at this time full of poverty where large sections of England's rural population had moved seeking work, along with many immigrants from Ireland and Eastern Europe. Overcrowded slums, driving poverty and prostitution became endemic in 1880's Whitechapel making it a dangerous place to live, and the area became infamous for the murders by Jack the Ripper.

Work for Women in the Victorian Age

Helen had difficulty finding work. There was work to be had for women, but work in the Victorian age was very much class based. As capitalism spread in Britain during the Victorian age more women were able to take on work. Working class women could get employment on assembly lines in factories, as washerwomen, in textile mills, the coal and steel industry or even breeding animal. Their work was often done as a means to an end and the hours often very long, often exceeding 14 hours a day.

Women with some education could find a domestic position, but demand for such positions was very high. However for 'respectable' women, women from middle or upper middle class backgrounds, there were fewer options. The main positions available were as School teachers, as a governess or in nursing.

Blitz torn London

For Helen's daughters life became very difficult during the Second World War, as it did for everyone. To do their bit for the war effort, those living in London became voluntary nurses or ambulance drivers to help the injured during the blitz.

The London blitz during the Second World War was at its height from the middle of 1940 to the middle of 1941. During this year long period, London was repeatedly bombed almost every day. Many thousands of civilians were killed and great swathes of London were destroyed as massed bomber formations dropped tons of explosives on the city relentlessly. For the people of London there were terrible hardships as they lived with the death and destruction, seeing terrible sites all around them. So great was the destruction that millions were made homeless, their lives were disrupted forcing them into a strained existence, suffering physical exhaustion, lack of sleep and hunger. To fight against this and simply carry on the whole population was mobilised to support each other and worked together to keep the city alive despite the severe damage done to the fabric of the city. Just by showing this defiance the people of London were able to lift their spirits and maintain a sense of purpose because they were, in their own way, fighting back.

Fire Fighters in the Blitz

Every night of the bombings the fire-fighters were out trying to minimise the destruction of the bombs. There were nearly eight thousand casualties amongst the fire-fighters, including eight hundred killed, during the blitz. The dangers they faced were numerous and unpredictable, the work was relentless and fire-crews became exhausted through lack of sleep. During ten weeks of the blitz bombings occurred almost every day and night, the physical and mental strain was so hard that many virtually dropped though exhaustion.

The city populace was mobilised into volunteer working parties, the volunteer Fire Guards who formed supplementary Fire Parties, equipped with pumps and sand buckets, each responsible for a number of houses, they located and extinguished incendiaries and small fires. There were also rescue teams, ambulance crews and others who confronted the chaos and horror that would last for hours or even days as they dealt with fires, shocked and injured survivors and digging out the trapped. Then there were the distraught and the homeless. These were dealt with by other volunteers who set up canteens, emergency accommodation with clothing and bedding. They arranged those necessities to help people who had often lost everything to carry on by running laundries, libraries and other useful facilities. Volunteers often worked during air raids and many became casualties themselves as they worked to help others.

It was into this setting that Helen's daughter, with many others, found themselves as they helped do their bit for the war effort, with all its dangers and uncertainties.

Nurses at a bombsite