Easter Sunday in Shrewsbury - Beginning the Big Edit! - The Big Shrewsbury Editing Trip - Part 2

Day 2 - Sunday 5th April 2026

I began my day with an early walk, which took me through the centre of Shrewsbury, enjoying the beautiful historical architecture and a bit of exercise to wake me up.

I ambled all the way down to the English Bridge, fully intending to revisit the two houses where war poet, and my favourite poet Wilfred Owen lived. His father worked at Shrewsbury Station, which was what brought the Owen family to Shrewsbury, having previously lived in Oswestry and Birkenhead.

As I crossed the English Bridge, there was a very light shower, which resulted in a very delicate rainbow over the town.

I wandered down past the Abbey, on my way to Monksmoor Road, where Mahim (the former home of the Owen family) is located.

It was via Wilfred Owen that I first discovered Shrewsbury. I visited back in 2010, as part of my ongoing quest to visit all the sites that are associated with his life, and discovered a really attractive town, which is full of history, stunning architecture, and interesting independent shops. Since that visit, I've been back a few times, always spending at least 5 days working on writing my novel 'Charlotte - The Lady in White'.

As I passed the Abbey, The sun was shining and the light was really strking. There was also a lot of blossom out, enhancing the essence of spring.

I also enjoyed the opportunity to capture this moody image through an old gothic window on the outside of the Abbey.

The two houses where Wilfred Owen lived haven't changed at all since I last saw them. First I passed the one in Underwood Road, where the family lived prior to moving to Mahim.

Mahim feels special to me - moreso than Underwood Road. It was the final home address of his life.

For me, the magic is looking up at the roof and the window of the attic room, which was his bedroom. I love to look at the house and picture him looking out of the window, while working on his poetry.

Apparently, Wilfred Owen, himself, visited the former home of his own favourite poet - John Keats - and stood outside in a very similar way. I quite like the circularity of that.

I enjoyed walking down to Mahim, but by this stage, my stomach was calling to me, so I headed back towards town.

As I passed the Abbey again, I stopped off at 'Symmetry' - a monument to Wilfred Owen, which is set into the graveyard of the Abbey and which has a quote from his poem 'Strange Meeting' engraved on its side. It's a moving monument, which contains some interesting details from Wilfred Owen's life, mainly documenting his birth and death.

Remaining in the Abbey area for a bit, I stopped off at The Peach Tree for some breakfast. It's a beautiful place in a lovely old building, just across the road from the Abbey, which has a lot of the old beams and construction exposed.

There were also some lovely photos of historic Shrewsbury.

The food was lovely too. I chose to have avocado, feta and poached eggs with a toasted baguette and a lovely cup of tea - just what I needed. It was delicious and looked really nice on the plate as well. Thoroughly recommended!

After that, I headed back to my lodgings and had a good old catch up with my best friend, before setting my mind to the writing.

I eased myself in, by posting yesterday's blog post and getting my mind into a writing mindset, then braced myself to begin the big edit.

Charlotte - The Lady in White

As I explained, I am in Shrewsbury with the intention of using a solid week of alone time to tackle a big edit on my novel 'Charlotte - The Lady in White'. I am hoping that this will be the edit that will enable it to be good enough to publish.

The story of the life - and afterlife - of Charlotte White (née Smyth) of Berechurch Hall in Colchester, Essex, where I was born, is an interesting combination of historical fact, folklore, and creative license. It originated with a lesson in primary school when I was ten, and involved a long summer of intense research, and many years of writing and editing.

You can find a little about Charlotte and links to other blog posts about her from much further back on this link.

https://www.jobellwriter.com/post/charlotte-a-real-ghost-story-for-samhain

Once I had posted on here, I finally took the manuscript out and began editing. The novel begins at Charlotte's death and tells the story of her afterlife chronologically from 1845 until 2012. The story is interspersed with flashbacks to Charlotte's life, which slowly reveal the story behind the folklore.

I spent my time editing the first few pages, rewriting the afterlife narrative into the present tense and attempting to make clearer distinctions between the experience of existing as a living being and that of a ghost.

I recently completed a writing course with West Waterford poet Lani O’Hanlon, which gave me a really valuable insight into the power of vivid sensory description in a piece of writing, and it occurred to me that very vivid descriptions of the physical senses in the sections describing Charlotte’s life could be very well contrasted with strictly restricted descriptions of her afterlife to make her state very clear in each section.

In my mind, if the book was a movie, the afterlife sections would be viewed through a muted filter, with some kind of mild audio distortion, while the life sections would be in vivid technicolour. Bringing that across in words is a challenge, but if I can really achieve this, it will make a world of difference to the reader’s experience.

I successfully edited the first 16 pages, which is not too bad. I’m highlighting each page in different colours to indicate the senses that have been used, in the hopes that this might help as well.

A pleasant evening

In the midst of editing, I took a break to pop out for some food. I went to Floro Lounge.

There, I had a delicious superfood salad and a lime and soda, which I really enjoyed.

It was lovely to sit in the visually interesting surroundings of Floro Lounge - the lounge bars are great places to sit with all manner of interesting paintings, mad wallpaper and multiple lights giving the place a very specific atmosphere, which I love.

I spent some time reading my book. I’m reading ‘She Rises’ by Kate Worsley. I thought it would be sensible to be reading a historical fiction novel while I’m editing my own historical fiction novel. It’s a beautifully written book, which is full of excellent sensory description and interesting characters. I’m still in the early pages, but I’m enjoying it.

Food consumed, I took another walk around Shrewsbury town centre, listening to Josh Widdecombe’s ‘Museum of Pop Culture’ podcast, before heading back to my lodgings.

There, I improvised a leg workout and worked a bit more on the novel, before watching Sarah Millican’s new special ‘Late Bloomer’ in bed.