Local People

A passion for writing

Devon author Tania Crosse talks about her writing career and how she came to set most of her books on west Dartmoor and the surrounding area.

I was born in London but we moved to Surrey when I was five, and I’ve always been a country girl at heart. I wanted to be an author from a very young age. The earliest example I still have of my attempts, is a school project when I was ten – a tale of twin sisters and their horses. While most of the class wrote a few pages, I completely filled the exercise book. However, after watching an early film of Jane Eyre, I wanted to be not just a writer, but a writer of historical novels. But university, work and then bringing up three children prevented me from following my dream. When my youngest started school, I allowed myself one morning a week either to write or to carry out research into the Victorian period, my great passion. However, when I submitted some of my manuscripts to agents and publishers, the answer was always the same. They told me I wrote very well but that the Victorian era had had its day as far as publication was concerned. I was disappointed but decided to follow their advice and planned a story set in the post-war years.

It was then that I discovered Morwellham Quay. I was captivated, and characters sprung into my mind, giving me an idea. If I were to write a novel and have it printed myself, I would have a direct outlet at the gift shop. When I enquired, I found that no one else had ever written a book based on the history of the port, and the trust that ran the living history museum in those days agreed that if I wrote such a thing, they would be delighted to stock it. It was

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a gamble as back then it was printed copies only. I knew I’d be lucky to break even, but I’d have the joy of seeing a book of mine in print. We launched Morwellham’s Child in 2001. It was a huge success, not only at the quay but in many local outlets too, so much so that we re-printed the following year. By then, I’d started another novel based on farming and mining near Peter Tavy. Then, as I’d proved there was still a market for Victorian stories, Pan Books offered me a contract for both books.

Thus my career proper was launched. I wrote a total of five Victorian sagas set on Dartmoor, featuring the gunpowder mills, the prison, Foggintor Quarry, the Princetown Railway, the second railway through Tavistock and the town’s workhouse. There followed two novels exploring the area’s role in the Great War, such as moss gathering and the hospital for soldiers at Mount Tavy. My agent then persuaded me to pen two sagas set in the 1950s, and these I based on Tavistock Cottage Hospital, changes on the moor and the legacy of the Second World War. Then came a period of some years when for various reasons I had to give up writing, but eventually I was drawn back to my passion and composed four 1930s and WW2 stories set in Kent and London, the last of which, The Street of Broken Dreams, won Saga of the Year 2020 in the prestigious Romantic Novelists’ Association awards.

However, my heart remained in Devon. Recently, Joffe Books have re-published my entire Devon series mainly under new titles. They’ve done phenomenally well, especially Morwellham’s Child under its new title The Harbour Master’s Daughter. Now, a brand new novel has been added to the series, The Convent Girl, set in Plymouth during the horrors of the Plymouth Blitz, although I couldn’t help but bring Dartmoor into the story, too. Plucked from her peaceful life in an Irish convent, Maisie is thrown into the turmoil that is Plymouth, and during the Blitz is forced to make a decision that will change her life forever.

It is now my plan to set all future books in the area, and I’m currently researching for another WW2 novel based on two nurses at Plymouth’s City Hospital during the Blitz and also in Tavistock. After that, who knows?

Tania Crosse

Tania’s novels are available as ebooks and paperbacks from Amazon. The Convent Girl, The Dartmoor Girl and The Girl at Holly Cottage are also available to buy/order through bookshops, including Book Stop, Tavistock. For more details go to www.tania-crosse.co.uk and follow her on Twitter @TaniaCrosse or on Facebook @Tania Crosse Author

The Convent Girl by Tania Crosse

During the 1920s, little Maisie O’Sullivan is left to be raised as a charity orphan in a Catholic convent in Ireland. Uprooted from the only life she has ever known, she is transplanted against her will to Plymouth in England, where she learns that being part of a family isn’t always what it’s cracked up to be. An horrific tragedy during one of the worst nights of the Plymouth Blitz leads her to commit a desperate act in the name of love and duty, but what will the consequences be?

A creative way of life

Giovanni Sponziello was born in 1942 in the poor, agricultural village of Sogliano in Puglia. He went on to pursue an international career, before finding his way to Tavistock.

Giovanni’s mother Anna, was a renowned, commanding figure, highly respected for her education and not to be trifled with. As the ninth and only surviving child, Giovanni was cherished from the start. Home schooled until secondary education, he was pushed into technical college to study surveying. At the beginning of his third year Giovanni took a rather brave leap of faith and walked out of the course, with no other option or plan, to the uproarious disapproval of his family. Slightly lost, he walked into the local hairdressing salon and asked for an apprenticeship. Immediately drawn to the immaculately dressed stylists, red leather furniture and shiny marble floor, he was a natural with clients and management. After two years of dedicated hard work, he wanted to increase his knowledge and expand his horizons; he applied for a hairdressing position in Manchester and was soon on his way.

Arriving in England in 1963 with a suitcase and very little English he embarked on his ‘second apprenticeship’ in a highly regarded salon owned by the Goldstein family. Noting his potential, Mr Goldstein soon took Giovanni under his wing, teaching him not only the latest fashion for ladies’ hair styling, but also how to run a successful business. In 1968 Giovanni applied for a position with Steiner, the premier name in hair and beauty with exclusive salons in all major British cities, Trust House Forte hotels, and on cruise liners. He was promoted to manager at the salon in Birmingham and soon rose

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International presentation of the coupe midi

through the ranks to become regional manager, then chief executive of Steiner SRL in Italy.

Giovanni attributes his ambition and success to character traits he inherited from his mother. Anna’s respect in the community meant she was tasked with distributing rationed food after the war which blossomed into running a large food shop. She was assertive, hard-working but socially aware, and Giovanni is the same, professional to a tee, with one eye on providing exceptional quality of service. Giovanni met his wife, Christine, when she was an apprentice hair stylist and they married within the year. Their first son James was born in 1972 but medical complications meant a reassessment of priorities. Giovanni relinquished his role in Italy and was offered the opportunity of opening a new salon for Steiner in Norwich. Giovanni realised the way forward was through corporate branding and began writing a training manual, ‘Progress with Steiner’, setting the standard for every employee to reach, and covering practical topics on styling techniques and colouring, but also etiquette, punctuality, and attitude. This manual was accepted as the Steiner formula and Giovanni was soon principal of a new Steiner training school in Wolverhampton for Steiner operational standards, which ran multiple courses on hair styling as well as professionalism.

Giovanni spent a year in Los Angeles scouting locations and establishing four new ‘Toppy’s’ salons, a Steiner franchise - as well as training both stylists and management to his exacting standards. He later managed the team of stylists who fashioned the hair for the Miss World competition in 1981 and also visited Japan, speaking at prestigious seminars. Giovanni organised two exhibitions, The World of Steiner at Wembley Stadium and somehow found the time to launch a new hairstyle, the ‘coupe midi’ which swept the nation.

By 1985 having achieved professional recognition and personal success, Giovanni felt that the time had come to leave Steiner and dedicate more time to his family. He and his family moved to Devon and he took up the position of manager of four salons owned by the Plymouth Cooperative Society. He expanded Snips to twelve salons, increasing clientele and turnover, raising the profile and promoting a new brand of professional service.

Giovanni turned 60, twenty years ago and decided to hand in his scissors. He has not been idle though. He began selling Italian produce at the Pannier Market in Tavistock and became a regular fixture, extolling the virtue of his authentic oils, pasta and coffee. He and Christine worked all hours creating delicious Italian menus and word soon spread. The Italian deli Sponzi’s was a huge success and has led to Giovanni teaching Italian cookery and giving Italian lessons. He is currently compiling a recipe book and has written a beautiful memoir packed with gorgeous photographs of his life and legacy. Giovanni also lent himself to a Tavistock barber shop and continues to cut hair for friends, unable to completely let go of his first love. Like his mother he is a proudly Italian commanding presence, and his passion for hair, strong work ethic and top-quality customer service have led to a fascinating, varied, international and creative life.

The coupe midi