Christmas on Coronation Street: The perfect Christmas read

Copyright

Published by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd

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London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk

First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 2017

Coronation Street is an ITV Studios Production

Copyright © ITV Ventures Limited 2017

Archive photograph in end matter © ITV / REX / Shutterstock

Jacket photographs © Nils Jorgensen/REX/Shutterstock

(Coronation Street set); Topfoto.co.uk (children playing); John Topham/

Topfoto.co.uk (women chatting and van); © Ivan Cholakov/Alamy Stock

Photo (Flying Fortress).

Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2017

Maggie Sullivan asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780008256524

Ebook Edition © November 2017 ISBN: [eISBN] 9780008255138

Version: 2018-09-25

Dedication

Mum, Dad and Bram, my everlasting inspiration.

Table of Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

December 1937

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Christmas 1938

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Coronation Street – Still the Nation’s Favourite

Pat Phoenix – The Woman Who Made Elsie Tanner

Acknowledgements

Keep Reading …

About the Author

About the Publisher

December 1937

Chapter 1

Elsie Grimshaw stopped and stared at the newsagent’s window, like she’d done every day since the small Christmas tree had appeared. The same as every year, it was draped in silvery tinsel and dotted with fluffy wads of cotton wool pretending to be snow. On the topmost branch was a fairy with a glittering wand. She shivered and wrapped her arms round her skinny body, trying to rub some feeling into them. It felt cold enough for real snow today though, and her arms were too puny and her coat too thin to offer any defence against the wind. Under the lower green branches of the tree, several gift-wrapped parcels were lying and she longed to pick them up. They were different shapes and sizes; all in fancy coloured paper, though much of it was faded. Some were strung with a ribbon that ended in a bow.

Must be some kind of chocolates, she had long ago decided as she gazed enviously at the packages. Seeing her own reflection in the newly cleaned glass, she was momentarily distracted and she stared at her outline. She pulled a funny face, laughed and then frowned, then stared straight ahead, a gradual smile coming to her lips. Her nose was all right, if a little pointed. She never had managed to scrub off the dusting of freckles. Her dark green eyes, which she knew were her best feature, looked huge against the paleness of her face. Lots of expression in those eyes, she was always being told. Nowt but bloody cheek and impudence, according to her dad. But it was her long eyelashes the girls at the factory envied. Much darker than the flame-red of her hair. She moved closer until they almost touched the glass. Everyone seemed to want long eyelashes. Not that she could see hers. Her fringe was too long. Long and lifeless, despite the curls, like the rest of the tangled mess that hung in different lengths around her shoulders. She’d tried to smooth it out but it wasn’t easy. Maybe she could get her sister Fay to have a go at it if they could cadge some scissors off one of the neighbours. Of course, it would look quite different if it was washed and cut properly. She thought of the women she saw regularly coming out of the hairdressers in some of the nicer streets of Weatherfield. Then she could look like her favourite film star. Fiery hair, fiery temper her mother always said. But Elsie didn’t mind, not if it made her like Maureen O’Hara. Maybe the hairdresser could make her look like that one day. Elsie peered again at her reflection and pulled another face, this time stretching her thin lips, then pouting. Nothing a spot of carmine couldn’t improve.

She rubbed her fingers over her cheekbones, which Fay reckoned stuck out like film stars’ bones. They stick out because I don’t get enough to eat, Elsie had thought. Not the kind of problem Hollywood film stars have to worry about. She pictured herself stretched out on a sofa like she had seen in the films, munching through the contents of the chocolate boxes, deliciously soft and sweet. She imagined licking the melting chocolate from her fingers, though it wasn’t chocolate that coated them now, stuck as they were with all the cotton fluff and grime from the machines at the factory. It never occurred to her the boxes might be dummies.

I’ll be fifteen next birthday, she thought. In March. Not that anyone else would remember. Fifteen, and I’ve never had a present in me life. One of these days I’m going to have one and it will be all wrapped up just like those. She sighed before adding: And not only for me birthday, but for Christmas as well.

Suddenly, through the thin fabric of her shabby coat, she felt the touch of a hand in the small of her back and she spun round, feeling foolish and hoping she hadn’t spoken her thoughts out loud.

‘Bobby Mirren!’ she squealed. ‘What do you think you’re doing?’

‘Just being friendly.’ He tilted his head to one side and gave her a lopsided grin. ‘Thought maybe you’d like Christmas to come early this year. If you know what I mean.’ He winked. ‘I’ll make it worth your while.’

Elsie’s hand closed on the wage packet that filled her coat pocket when he said that. Not for the first time she thanked no god in particular that she had a steady job at the textile factory. At least it meant the family could eat – most days. So long as her mam was smart enough to grab something back off her dad before he drank it all away.

She gazed at Bobby for a second or two then beckoned towards the end of the street with her head. There was still some daylight left in the early wintry afternoon. He crooked his elbow and she slid her arm through his as they sauntered off down the road together. She could feel the envelope in her pocket as she walked, but she was thinking that an extra ha’penny or two would never go amiss.

It was completely dark by the time she got home and as she opened the front door to number 18 Back Gas Street it wasn’t much brighter inside. A dull glow was emitted by the small clump of coal that still smouldered in the hearth at the back of the room, but the single lightbulb that dangled from the low ceiling close to the room’s solitary window was not lit. She flicked the switch on the wall but nothing happened. In the gloom, she stumbled over the pile of filthy clothes that still lay unwashed from last week. She sighed. Her mother had promised to do them today.

‘Is that you, our Elsie?’ There was no mistaking the bloated shape of Alice Grimshaw as she emerged in the gloaming from the scullery that was curtained off from the room, behind the stairs at the back. The telltale bump of her stomach looked about ready to drop, even though Elsie knew her mother had a few months to go before yet another wailing mouth to be fed appeared. In her arms, twelve-month-old Jack, favourite teddy in hand, struggled to get down, for once he’d heard the voice of his favourite big sister he was in no doubt about where he wanted to be. He grinned at her. A ghoulish grin, for his front teeth were already black and decayed from constantly sucking on the bottle he had inherited from his three-year-old sister Polly. It was kept almost permanently topped up with sugared water to keep him quiet.

‘I managed to get us a yesterday’s loaf,’ Elsie said. ‘I bloody hope there’s some of that dripping left over what our Phyllis cadged off Mrs James next door.’ Jack had crawled over the cold flagstones to where Elsie was standing and clasped her knees, his arms appealing to her to pick him up. It was hard to resist him with his blue eyes and blond curly hair, even if his head was scabby with lice. From a distance, he looked a bit like the little cherub in the soap advert they had in town, but close to it was hard not to see that his poor little face was too gaunt and his arms and legs too much like those of a matchstick man to really look like such a pin-up. His legs were too thin even to support the grey rag of towelling that served as a nappy. It had been pinned haphazardly around his waist and it slipped each time he moved. Now it looked as if it was about to descend below his knees. Not that Elsie cared. He would always be her favourite. The only boy at the end of a long line of girls. Normally she would have picked him up. But for now she was distracted. She could see that her mother had neglected her duties as usual, for the small inadequate sink was piled up with every dish they possessed. Not that there were many, and what they had was either cracked or chipped, even the tin plates they’d got from the rag-and-bone man, and all the cups had broken handles. No wonder everything gets damaged Elsie thought crossly. This lot’s been lying here most of the week.

‘There’s a bit left for scraping,’ her mother said, absent-mindedly bending down to pick up her son again. She groaned and quickly dumped him at the foot of the bed he shared with her and Arthur. Jack protested loudly, banging his teddy against the bedpost, appealing once more for Elsie’s favours. But his sister still ignored him.

‘Bloody good job,’ Elsie said. ‘Mr Whitehead at the grocer’s up the passageway saved the bread for me special.’ Elsie looked at her mother, wondering what she would say if she knew what the bread had actually cost her eldest daughter from the ‘groping grocer’ who worked in the shop at the end of the courtyard. Alice obviously had no idea, for she just smiled.

‘Thanks, love. At least I’ve got summat for your dad’s tea now. Can you give us a tanner for the meter an’ all? Yer dad’s still out and there’s no one else to ask.’ She made it sound like her husband Arthur was the usual provider of their basic necessities.

Elsie clenched her fists at the lie, though she knew she should have been used to it by now. It was one that tripped so easily off her mother’s tongue, even though the old man hadn’t done much in the way of providing since he’d been laid off at the mill five years before. ‘Why does it always have to be me as feeds the lecky as well as feeding the whole bleeding lot of us?’ Elsie’s voice rose to a shout and she felt tears of anger scalding her lids. ‘Why can’t you get the little ’uns to run more errands for the neighbours so’s we can have summat regular for the meter for once?’

Alice stared at her, but all she said was, ‘You’re a good ’un,’ as the lightbulb sprang into life. Alice gave up then, abandoning the baby to the cold floor. She went back into the scullery, returning with a hastily washed plate with the last of the dripping and a knife for the bread. She banged it down on the table, which was surrounded by odd chairs in the middle of the room. ‘Yer dad’ll be back soon and you know how he likes summat to eat soon as he gets in.’

This time at the mention of her father Elsie quickly crossed the small dining-room-cum-kitchen that also served as a bedroom for her parents and Jack. She ignored Jack’s outstretched arms as he tried to grab her and ran up the steep wooden stairs to the small first-floor bedroom she and her sister Fay shared with Polly, Ethel and Connie – some of their other siblings. She hoped that as usual they’d be running wild somewhere on the streets with no thought of coming home yet, giving her some precious moments of privacy, though that was a distant dream. Her other sisters, Phyllis, Iris, Freda and Nancy had the other bedroom upstairs while their parents slept below with baby Jack squeezing in where he could; Elsie thought the house generally felt like Piccadilly Circus but without the bright lights and excitement. Pushing her back against the door to bar entry, she took her wage envelope out of her coat pocket and scrutinized the contents. She skimmed off several of the loose coins and added them to the couple already in her pocket, stuffing a grey cotton square that served as a handkerchief in with them to prevent any jangling noises giving her away. Then she resealed the envelope and went back downstairs.

She was only just in time, for her father was already rolling through the door and as soon as he saw her he stretched out his hand.

‘What you got for me, gal?’ he asked.

‘What makes you think I’ve got anything?’

‘Because it’s bloody payday, that’s why, so don’t get smart with me, lass.’

‘Well, I ain’t got nothing.’

Elsie stood arms akimbo and stared at him defiantly. For a moment he looked shocked but then before she had time to move he raised his arm and whacked her sharply on the side of her head.

‘Don’t you dare cheek me! How’s a man supposed to get a drink round here? Gimme tha money.’

Elsie was aware of Jack screaming, though she wasn’t sure where he was for the room was beginning to spin as she fell to one side. She didn’t lose her footing, however, for her father grabbed hold of her before she hit the floor and with his huge hands triumphantly ripped the envelope out of her pocket. She tried to reach out for it but he snatched it away. Above the baby’s shrieks she heard the loose change from her pocket spilling out on to the floorboards and knew she had lost everything.

‘What the bloody hell is this?’ Arthur shouted, stomping on two of the rolling pennies. ‘You’ve opened it already! Trying to do me, are you? Well, I’ll show you you can’t swindle Arthur Grimshaw. Pick ’em up.’ He pointed to the coins that had rolled under the chair.

Elsie glared at him for a moment then she spat on the money without moving.

‘Pick ’em up yourself,’ she snarled. But her defiance was short-lived. She was only to be rewarded by another clout, this time to the other side of her head. She heard as well as felt his knuckles make contact with her cheekbone and knew she would have a lump and a black eye by the morning.

‘Don’t you dare bloody cheek me!’ he yelled. ‘I’ll make you pay for this.’ Now her father grabbed hold of her shoulders and pulling her in front of him began to shake her violently. ‘Pick ’em up, I said,’ he shouted into her face. ‘Now!’ The cocktail of alcohol fumes, stale tobacco and the odours from his otherwise empty stomach, compounded with her spinning head, made her retch. Flinging her arms wide to fend him off, she raced out of the door and ran round the back of the house and across the tiny yard. She was heading for the midden they shared with four of their back-to-back neighbours, praying none of their snotty kids had noticed her plight and would deliberately block her way.

Chapter 2

Fay Grimshaw at the age of thirteen was still officially part of the Weatherfield school system, although not many of her teachers could attest to that fact for she played truant from her classes at every available opportunity. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to learn; she simply didn’t believe the teachers in her school had anything left to teach her. They never seemed to talk about anything that related to her life, they weren’t interested in understanding her problems and they certainly had no notion of her secret ambitions. If they had, they might have been impressed; for Fay wanted to better herself, to climb out of the Back Gas Street hellhole she and her eight siblings had been born into. But they never showed her any practical ways in which she could do this. They offered no help, gave her no guidance, so she saw no point in attending what she thought of as unnecessary and pointless lessons.

The fact that it was called a Church of England school and they regularly taught lots of religious studies was another mark against the teachers as far as Fay was concerned. No one in her family had anything to do with religion and she could only wonder that her parents had ever considered such a school appropriate. Elsie, her older sister whom she adored and looked up to, had certainly not been to any kind of religious school and she was now getting along very nicely in her working life without having owt to do with the church. Not that Fay had much to do with it herself. On the occasions when she and her classmates had been expected to go to a church service, she had managed to avoid it. And she would continue to avoid it. The only time she might consider entering a church was when she eventually got married. And then she would only agree to having a religious ceremony if her father promised not to attend and if she could guarantee her mother wouldn’t turn up pregnant – again. Even as it crossed her mind now, her face flushed at the thought of her mother having yet another baby tugging hopelessly at her shapeless breasts like there had been for the last several years. It was bad enough to think that in a few months’ time little Jack would no longer be the youngest member of the family. The thought of the same thing happening year after year put her off wanting babies of her own.

But the thought of her having a wedding at all made her smile. A big white wedding like she’d seen once or twice at St Mary’s in Weatherfield. For it was something she and Elsie talked about a lot, her big sister being adamant she wouldn’t set foot inside a church even for that. So maybe she should follow in Elsie’s footsteps. It wouldn’t be such a bad way to go, would it? Although, if she was honest, she would like to have a better job than her sister. It was true Elsie seemed happy enough in the textile factory, loading yarns on to the huge reels to be woven into different patterns of cotton fabric. But Fay had different ambitions. She was almost two years younger, she’d probably never be as big as Elsie, and she’d certainly never have Elsie’s striking looks, but then she would be happy working somewhere quietly on her own. She wanted to do a college course and become a secretary.

When she was about eight years old Fay had seen a Charlie Chaplin film at the local picture house about a bank secretary, and she had fallen in love with the idea of working in an office. As usual, she and Elsie had sneaked into the cinema through the door people usually came out of, after one of their mates had left the emergency bar on the latch for them. Near the end of the first showing of the main feature they had slid in and gone to sit in the cheapest seats so they wouldn’t be noticed while they waited until the film was shown again. She had eventually come out of the cinema, eyes blinking in the strong daylight, her mind full of the glamour of the important role the secretary had played within the bank and she had decided then that was what she wanted to do.

Fay liked the idea of working somewhere quiet and comfortably furnished, somewhere that was well organized and ordered. In the film and in offices she knew everything was neat and clean. The secretaries’ desks always looked so tidy and there was even room for a potted plant or two. She admired the stylish way all the girls she knew who worked in an office dressed, and the way they came out of work looking relaxed and unflustered. Most had a smart coat and a pert little hat. So different from the way Elsie and her workmates came pouring out of the hot, noisy and horribly smelly factories where they worked. They were swathed in overalls and shawls and had untidy headscarves covering their curlers. No, the more she thought about it, the more she couldn’t wait to leave school, though she had no idea how she would manage to pay the fees to enrol into a secretarial college.

‘You don’t want to be fretting about that,’ Elsie had chided. ‘I’ll help you find a job so you can earn some money before you start.’

‘Could you?’ Fay was excited at the idea.

Elsie shrugged. Then she had suddenly looked serious. ‘Of course the old man mustn’t find out about it or you’ll end up with nowt. And our mam must think you’re still going to school, or she’ll make you turn your wages over to our dad like I have to do.’

‘Do you really think I could get away with it?’

‘You, young lady can do anything you set your mind to do. You’re pretty. You’re not too skinny and you’ve got all the best features our mam must have had when she was a lass.’

‘Do you really think so? Like what?’ Fay was surprised to hear her sister talk like that.

‘Well, for starters you’ve got our mam’s lovely brown eyes, but yours always seem to be smiling. And look at the way they match the colour of your hair.’ Elsie put a hand out to touch it. ‘And the way your hair curls without ever having to put it up in rags. I’m dead jealous. You don’t always have to drag it all back off your face, you know.’ She gave her sister’s ponytail a gentle tug.

‘I know but it keeps it out of the way.’

‘But there are lots of other things you could do to make yourself pretty. A bit of flesh on your bones, a spot of pink in your cheeks, rub some beetroot juice on to your lips and you’ll have all the lads chasing you before long.’

‘Nay, but I’m too small for anyone to want to bother.’

‘Don’t be so daft. You’ll grow. And soon. Though you wouldn’t really want to be as tall as me, now would you?’

‘One thing, I’ll never be as old as you,’ Fay retorted and both girls fell about laughing.

‘Seriously, Sis,’ Elsie said, you’re going to make something of yourself. I just know it.’ She smiled as she looked away into the distance. ‘The important thing is to hang on to the dream.’

Fay thought a lot about that dream and how she might be able to keep such a secret from her parents. She might even apply for the waitress job she had seen advertised in the café window in the centre of Weatherfield. As far as she knew, it wasn’t a place either of her parents frequented so she wasn’t likely to be found out. And though she had no idea what a waitress’s weekly wage might be, she began to picture piles of threepenny bits, sixpences, even shillings and the odd half-crown being added to the few pennies she already had in the biscuit tin that was hidden under the bed. She might even have some money left over to buy presents for her siblings: a pair of silk stockings for Elsie, a new toy car for Jack. Soon she’d be able to leave home and find a room to rent, like she’d read about in a book once at school. It all sounded so romantic and so grown-up; she couldn’t wait.

She was caught up in her dream while she was on her way to visit her best friend Valerie so she almost didn’t notice Elsie staring intently into the newsagent’s window on the other side of the road. But then she paused, wondering what her sister was doing. Fay was about to call out to Elsie to wait for her so they could walk home together, but before she could open her mouth she saw Bobby Mirren sidle up to her sister and cover Elsie’s backside with his large hand. Elsie looked startled and Fay’s instinct was to shout across to him to stop mithering and to leave her sister alone. But then she could see Elsie half turn and from the look on her face she seemed not to mind. Fay could only guess as to the exchange as she watched Elsie move Bobby’s hand away, but to her surprise the next thing she saw was the two of them sauntering off arm in arm.

Fay held back a little way but kept pace with them on the other side of the road, curious about where they might be heading. She was surprised when they stepped off the pavement and disappeared into some bushes behind the bus stop. Fay took the opportunity to cross the road. She kept herself out of sight and found a spot half hidden by the shrubbery where she could see them without being seen. They seemed to be kissing, which Fay found strange for she knew for a fact that Elsie didn’t particularly like Bobby. Hadn’t she told her so only the other day? Not only that, but she had been adamant that she preferred Eric Ross and would welcome the chance to let him know that she fancied him. But now, as Fay watched, it was Bobby who had his arms around Elsie and they seemed to be almost devouring each other with ever widening mouths. Even more surprising, Fay thought she saw Bobby’s hands slide inside Elsie’s coat as the two became more entangled and Fay wondered what Elsie could be thinking. Of course Fay understood about kissing, she’d even tried it once with Brian Morgan. But it had made her feel dirty and messy and it wasn’t something she was eager to try again. When she had told Elsie this, her big sister had laughed and told her not to worry about it for now. ‘Mebbe you’re a bit young yet. But you’ll be at it again one day before long, I promise you – and you’ll enjoy it too,’ Elsie had assured her. ‘But not before the time’s right, and the lad’s right too.’

Fay frowned. So did that mean Bobby Mirren was the right one for Elsie? Was she going to marry him? Suddenly Fay heard a shout, which she realized had come from her sister. She looked up to see Bobby pulling his hand out from under Elsie’s skirt. Elsie’s face was flushed as she patted down her clothing and rebuttoned her coat, but within a few moments they began kissing again, this time with even more energy. Feeling confused and not wanting to see any more, Fay crept away from her hiding place and started walking purposefully towards Valerie’s house. Maybe her best friend would be able to shed some light on it all. But in any case, she would talk to Elsie tonight. She’d have to tell her what she saw and she’d ask Elsie what it all meant.