Marty Wingate's "The Orphans of Mersea House," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: The Orphans of Mersea House: A Novel by Marty Wingate.

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The Orphans of Mersea House is set in 1957 Southwold, a small town on the Suffolk coast. It’s a story of post-war life in England, where rationing ended only three years earlier, thirty-seven-year-old women were considered spinsters, polio continued to strike fear in the hearts of parents, and the de-criminalization of homosexual practices was still ten years away. We drop into this time and follow the intertwining stories a ragtag group of adults and children at a boardinghouse.

Characters in books are sometimes inspired by (or based on) real people. Occasionally, an actor in a certain role will be the model for how a character looks or acts—I am doing that in my work-in-progress. But while I was writing Orphans, I had no inner vision, and it’s only now that I’ve thought about trying to match character to actor. I’ve found it not that difficult.

First, Olive, because she’s the center. Carey Mulligan will do, and not only because she is, at this moment, the same age as Olive, but also for her acting in...[read on]

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--Marshal Zeringue