STUDY OF SAGAS LEADS TO DOCTORATE AWARD

1st March 2004

STUDY OF SAGAS LEADS TO DOCTORATE AWARD

An Edge Hill Lecturer was awarded her PhD having spent seven years researching a group of women writers, authors of the best selling Liverpool Sagas.

Dr Val Williamson, Lecturer in Media and Cultural Studies, was inspired to research the popular Merseyside women?s fiction group around 10 years ago, when she was a creative writing undergraduate at Edge Hill. English lecturer Gill Davies introduced Val to the works of the 12 romantic fiction novelists that includes Helen Forrester, Lyn Andrews, Sheila Walsh, the late Elizabeth Murphy, June Francis and Joan Jonker.

The novels span generations and are based in and around the Liverpool area.

Val Williamson: "The sagas tend to focus on the breakdown of Empire in industrialised Britain from the Edwardian period to the late 1950?s. Readers? own experiences feedback into the novels too. Many of the authors invite readers to share their life testimonies, and as a result the unwritten history of working class women?s lives are woven into the sagas."

Val?s thesis explores the notion that the novels provide a historical perspective into the lives of working class women, she said:

"The sheer hard work that women went through to keep their families alive before the evolution of the welfare state is documented in the novels ? a perspective that isn?t always explored in museums or traditional historical records. Many of the women portrayed in the sagas were coping alone, due to the seafaring nature of Liverpool. I?m interested in the parallel with today?s single parents."

As a children?s storywriter, with published anthologies, Val has first hand experience of the creative writing process and a competition-winning story to her credit. Kidnap on the Cut, a thriller for 7-12 year olds, scooped a winning prize from Channel 4?s Richard and Judy Show writing competition last year.

Val said: " I would love to complete a novel but academic writing is taking up a lot of my time these days. I hope to have my PhD published and now that?s complete maybe I?ll find the time to work on a novel." ENDS EDITOR?S NOTES: For further information please contact: Roisin Rowley-Smith PR Manager Tel: 01695 584509 Fax: 01695 584355 E mail: rowlesr@edgehill.ac.uk or pressoffice@edgehill.ac.uk