As part of my ongoing tribute during this centenary of WW1, I am delighted to feature the work of some excellent authors who have written about The Great War.
Today I am delighted to introduce historical fiction writer
Hi Terri and a very warm welcome to Jaffareadstoo...
Researching a
Woman’s War
Many thanks for
inviting me onto your blog today. I’d like to talk a little bit about the
research that goes into writing the war from a working woman’s point of view.
My character’s
chosen path through the conflict was never in doubt; even when she was a
secondary character in book one (Maid of
Oaklands Manor) Evie had already shown a most unladylike fondness for fast
cars, and a family friend had insisted on making sure she knew how to fix them
under any conditions.
In
the second book, A Rose in Flanders
Fields, we pick up Evie’s story. When war breaks out, and Evie’s new
husband joins up, aristocratic Evie sets off to become an ambulance driver with
the Red Cross. But she soon falls foul of the strict regime, and she and her
friend Boxy (Barbara) decide to set up their own, independent ambulance
station, funded by any means at their disposal, and as close to the lines as
they could get away with.
The
research required for a life such as this was something that I’d woefully
underestimated before I began. I’d read Vera Brittain’s Testament of Youth, and gleaned a basic understanding of the
conditions of a well-run Red Cross field hospital from that, but it wasn’t
until I then picked up Lady Dorothie Feilding’s amazing book: Lady Under Fire on the Western Front
that the real research glanced up, saw me looking, and yanked me in. Her courage,
humour, and her brisk, no-nonsense tone,
all awed and fascinated me, and I read it through twice more without a break.
An incredible woman with an astonishing story to tell.
From
Lady Dorothie I moved on to Elsie and
Mairi Go to War, by Diane Atkinson. Here’s where I learned more about the
independent side of things; these two women (Elsie Knocker and Mairi Chisholm)
raised money themselves to fund the ambulances they took back to the Front with
them, and everything else they needed. They had their own station and worked to
their own strengths. Their personal stories were fascinating too, and although
it would be nice to see it as a story of everlasting friendship, there was real
conflict between the women who worked in such close confines, beneath the
ever-present canopy of extreme danger.
Although
my research was focused as much on ambulance drivers as possible, I read voraciously
throughout this time, from every female point of view I could find. Lyn McDonald’s
The Roses of No Man’s Land was
another treasure trove, and I understand this was the inspiration behind Sarah
Phelps’s highly popular BBC drama: The
Crimson Field. Packed to the rafters with first-hand accounts from all
angles; home life, hospital procedure, high-ranked medical staff, and their
attitudes to the VADs sent to do menial tasks under them… Any one of these
books, or the others I read during this time, would have provided me with the
conditions under which Evie and Boxy worked, so I could give their life an
authentic feel.
Thanks
to the wealth of available information, more than ever before, as the centenary
commemorations continue, I could draw on actual battles and the layouts of field
hospitals for when the action took place in the trenches, and real military
maneouvres provided the perfect situation in which to place Evie’s husband. I
was able to ensure as early on as halfway through book one that I’d enlisted
him in the correct battalion to place him where I needed him to be by the end
of book two.
But
it wasn’t until I found one particular book, one that left me even more wrung
out and emotionally drained than all the rest, that I realised what I’d been
missing. Not the detail, not the facts, or even the good, solid story (it’s
published as fiction, but that’s a thin veneer) but the bitter taste of
honesty. A book that I found by chance, tucked away somewhere in a dusty corner
of a market stall: Not So Quiet, by
Helen Zenna Smith.
By
the time I’d finished reading this harsh, not to say brutal story, I finally
understood Evie’s confused attitude to her work, and how and why it was hidden,
only semi-successfully, beneath the old gung-ho attitude of many of her class.
I understood both her desperation to be out of the war, and her hopeless need
to be back in the thick of it. I understood her grief, and her revulsion, and
how it conflicted with her desire to ease pain wherever she saw it. I finally
knew why she had chosen that path, and I wanted her to guide me down it.
Although
I came to know Evie through the absorption of another character, I felt her
grow into an altogether more hopeful figure than that of ‘Nellie,’ in Not So Quiet . There are so many
positive – I hesitate to say “uplifting,”–
stories, and so many times when someone seemingly insignificant has made a huge
difference to one or several lives. These people deserve to have their stories,
not only remembered, and honoured, but most importantly understood. And now I
think I understand.
Reading List:
Testament of Youth – Vera Brittain.
Lady Under Fire on the Western Front – Lady Dorothie Feilding.
Elsie and Mairi Go to War – Diane Atkinson
The Roses of No Man’s Land – Lyn McDonald
Not So Quiet – Helen Zenna Smith.
Huge thanks to Terri for this fascinating guest post today.
It's been really interesting to learn more about Women at War. You have certainly given us much to consider and lots of lovely books to discover.
~***~
Lovely blog post. DaisyJ.
ReplyDeleteGlad you enjoyed it Daisy and thanks for visiting :)
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