Bedford’s riverside landmarks provide the inspiration for novelist Ruth Hogan’s latest book, The Phoenix Ballroom, which is launched this Thursday (27 June).
Russell Park, the Suspension Bridge and the Swan Hotel all take centre stage. However, it’s the long-demolished Century Cinema on the Embankment that is the blueprint for the dilapidated Phoenix Ballroom in the book’s title.
Ruth told the Bedford Independent that for her fifth book, she wanted to give Bedford “the shout-out it deserves”.
The best-selling writer of The Keeper of Lost Things and Queenie Malone’s Paradise Hotel said: “I’d read a couple of novels set in Bedford which were less than complimentary about my hometown so I decided that in my next book I would give Bedford the shout out it deserves.
“The Phoenix Ballroom is set largely around the embankment area – the bowls green and pavilion in Russell Park, the river, the suspension bridge and the bandstand are all mentioned specifically.
“The Swan Hotel and The Embankment Pub were the inspiration behind a pub and hotel in the book, and the ballroom of the title is based on the building which housed The Century Cinema where I saw The Aristocats as a child and which ended its life as The Nightspot before it was sadly demolished in the 1980s.”
The Phoenix Ballroom is a story of hope and second chances across the generations. It follows the fortunes of recently widowed Venetia Hamilton Hargreaves who is left with a huge house, a bank balance to match and an uneasy sense that she’s been sleepwalking through the last fifty years.
Feeling she’s been given a second chance, she embraces life with an enthusiasm and purpose she’d forgotten she could muster.
She buys the dilapidated Phoenix Ballroom and with it a drop-in centre and spiritualist church with a touching cast of damaged and lonely people who find their chosen family. As their stories intertwine, long-buried secrets are revealed, missed opportunities seized and lives are renewed as the Phoenix lives up to its name.
Ruth, who lives near Castle Road in Bedford, studied English and Drama at Goldsmiths College and worked in local government for many years. A car accident and a subsequent run-in with cancer convinced her to finally pursue her dream of becoming a writer. The result was her debut novel, The Keeper of Lost Things which was shortlisted in the 2017 Books Are My Bag Readers’ Awards.
She says she is now living the dream (and occasional nightmare) as a full-time author sharing a rambling Victorian house with her husband and rescue dogs.
You can buy the book and support Bedford’s independent Eagle Bookshop by ordering your copy here.
Eagle Bookshop owner, Peter Budek, told the Bedford Independent: “The book is warm and wonderful, as you may expect, but with a few dark undercurrents and surprising revelations.
“It will delight her regular readers, while locals will also be able to enjoy the many recognisable features of our town – for it’s set in Bedford.
On Saturday 27 July, Ruth will be at the St Peter’s Street bookshop to give a reading, hold a Q&A session and sign copies of her books.
As tradition dictates, she will help create some show-stopping Phoenix Ballroom-themed for the event and we can’t wait to see them in all their glory!
