Silver Darlings

Silver Darlings is set in the early 1900s in Northumberland and Suffolk, locations linked by the North Sea and herring fishing, written by LK Wilde, also the author of the acclaimed Queenie of Norwich.

We meet two young islanders, Clara and Jimmy, who for different reasons are both forced to leave their island off the Northumberland coast. Clara becomes a herring girl, cleaning and packing the fish, on the mainland and Jimmy joins a Scots crew following the shoals south along the coast.

They both end up in Lowestoft in 1913 and it’s a record-breaking year for the fishing industry. But war is on the horizon and these two are about to face innumerable challenges that will tear them further apart from each other and make the prospect of getting home ever more distant.

Will they ever find each other again and make it back to their island home?

LK Wilde brings the harsh conditions of the herring girls and the fishermen to life in Silver Darlings.  Although the story line is a romance, a lot of historical research has gone into this, and we get a real feel of the hard work and poor living conditions that the men and women employed in this industry had to cope with.