Shipyard Girls author launches latest novel in Cuthford Manor series with Sunderland book signing

A Secret in the Family, a family saga set in the fictional Cuthford Manor, by Nancy Revell, will hit book shops from January 30.

It’s the second instalment in The Cuthford Manor series which is a spin-off of the hugely-popular The Shipyard Girls series and charts the life of one of the women welders after the end of WW2.

Speaking about her inspiration for the series, Nancy, real name Amanda Revell Walton, said: “As an author, whenever a new book is published, I’m often asked where my inspiration comes from.

“Sometimes that inspiration will have come about after researching what was happening at that particular time in history – like with The Cuthford Manor trilogy, the idea came to me after reading about the demise of many of the country’s stately homes post war.

“The series, The Shipyard Girls, which ran to twelve books, was inspired when I chanced upon a lone article about the forgotten women of WW2 who swapped their high heeled shoes for hobnailed boots, their pinnies for overalls, and went to work building ships. I passionately wanted to bring these incredible women to life.

“Without fail, though, every novel I pen is motivated and inspired by what makes my characters tick – what drives them, what causes them to behave the way they do, what makes them the people they’ve become, and how events which happen to them during the course of their lives changes them.

“Family dynamics and dysfunction have also always been a draw for me, and the latest book, the second in The Cuthford Manor series, A Secret in the Family is about a mother, who abandoned her children to run away with her lover, only to turn up out of the blue eight years later.

“Her arrival – and her reasons for coming back into their lives – has far-reaching (and unexpected) repercussions for all those at the manor, especially for her middle daughter, Marlene.

“I have to say that I really loved writing this novel as so much of the story concerns the mother-daughter relationship - something I find endlessly fascinating.

“Before I started writing fiction, I was a journalist, and it was those at the centre of the latest breaking news maelstrom which really captivated me. Why had someone done what they had done (good or bad)? How had someone been able to overcome some incredible tragedy?

“Interviewing ordinary people with extraordinary stories never failed to enthral and inspire. So, I guess it was inevitable when I made the crossover from writing articles to novels that it was the characters and their psychology that ended up being the foundation block and the inspiration for every book.”

This month saw the unveiling of Molly, a life-size statue on St Peter’s Riverside which honours the women who worked in the shipyards during World War 1 & 2.

*A Secret in the Family is published by Penguin on 30 January 2025 and can be bought from Asda, Sainsburys, Tesco’s and Morrisons, most bookshops, and Amazon.

*Nancy will be signing books at Waterstones on Saturday (1 February) 11am-1pm. She will then be giving a talk at the Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens from 2pm-3pm. Local independent booksellers, Featherstone Books, in Houghton will be selling books at the event.