The unsolved disappearance of a Bradford priest in 1953 has helped inspire a new historical crime novel by local author David James Buckley.
Set in 1958, Surviving Angel follows Acting Chief Inspector Jim Bible as he investigates a double murder in a fictional Yorkshire city heavily based on post-war Bradford. The case quickly pulls the detective into a wider mystery involving wartime secrets and the London Cage, a real-life British military interrogation unit from the Second World War.
Buckley drew directly on his own childhood growing up on Wibsey Park Avenue opposite Park View Mills during the 1950s and 1960s. Neighbourhoods around Scaley Hills, Brownroyd Hill, and Moore Avenue provided the backdrop for key scenes, with Wibsey reimagined as the fictional Chapel Heights.
Family history also played a major role in shaping the book. Buckley’s great-grandfather, James Buckley, was an Irish stonemason who worked on the statues at Bradford City Hall, the building that served as the model for the novel’s police headquarters. Meanwhile, his great-grandmother, Mary Bible, provided the protagonist’s unusual surname.
The author’s father, Fred Buckley, worked in television manufacturing on Beckside Road in Great Horton. His technical expertise inspired both the book’s fictional Providence Radio factory and one of its murder victims.
“When I think back to growing up in Wibsey, what strikes me is how different everyday life was,” said author David James Buckley. “The mills and factories were simply part of the landscape and I didn’t realise they were quickly disappearing. Years later those memories are still remarkably vivid, and writing the novel gave me an opportunity to return to that world.”
Surviving Angel is the sequel to Buckley’s debut novel Stone and Water. It’s now available in paperback and on Kindle via Amazon or davidjamesbuckley.com.
