Sunday WW1 Remembered... Guest Author, Linda Gillard

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 novels set during The Great War.

I am delighted to welcome the author

Linda Gillard

Linda - welcome back to Jaffareadstoo

and thank you for sharing with us this fascinating feature about the fate of gardens during WW1

DEFIANT GARDENS by Linda Gillard

In a hostile parliamentary encounter with Siegfried Sassoon, war hero, poet and - by 1917 - anti-war campaigner, Winston Churchill claimed, “War is the normal occupation of man. War and gardening”. 

I cited that quotation at the beginning of my latest novel, THE TRYSTING TREE. Its two heroes live in different centuries. Both are gardeners with military connections. William Hatherwick enlists in 1914 and Connor Grenville, from a military family, is a staunch pacifist in 2014. William works as a gardener at Beechgrave House in Somerset. Connor runs his own landscape gardening business and is restoring an old walled garden on the Beechgrave estate. 

The genesis of THE TRYSTING TREE was a question that had occurred to me when I was researching the fate of old country houses for another novel, UNTYING THE KNOT. What happened to their gardens when the staff went off to fight in World War One?

I discovered croquet lawns and flower beds were dug up and turned over to vegetable production. Gardens were managed with increasing difficulty by a skeleton staff consisting of those who were too old or too young to enlist. Elsewhere, women took on work men had to abandon, but this was rarely the case with gardens. When women were employed, they were only allowed to perform the most menial of tasks, such as weeding the gravel drive.

It soon became apparent the war was not going to be “over by Christmas” and that many men would return unfit for work or might not return at all. Since female domestic staff were leaving to take on better paid, easier and more sociable work in factories, owners of country estates had to accept they were facing the end of an era.

It was this dying world that interested me, plus the strange juxtaposition of war and gardening. The loss of life occasioned by WWI is well documented, as is the subsequent social upheaval that led to “the servant problem”, but the decline of the great Victorian and Edwardian gardens is less well-known, with the exception of the “lost” gardens of Heligan in Cornwall which have been lovingly restored.

When I began researching THE TRYSTING TREE I knew the war had destroyed much of the French countryside, including entire villages and I was aware of the slow death of so many beautiful gardens in Britain, but I didn’t know about trench gardens. Churchill was apparently right: even in war zones, then and now, people will try to grow food and flowers. One of the books I used for research was DEFIANT GARDENS: Making Gardens in Wartime by Kenneth I. Helphand. He described these gardens as “an attempt to create a kind of peace in the midst of madness and order in the prevailing chaos." 

William Hatherwick goes off to fight in France where he creates a garden at the Front using seeds sent by Hester Mordaunt, the daughter of the family who owns Beechgrave. With her brothers and many of the garden staff away fighting in France, Hester longs to be allowed to work in the garden and contribute to the war effort. Here’s an excerpt from the diary she keeps, which forms a large part of the novel…

May 2nd, 1915

Some good news at last. When I saw Violet today, she invited me in to her little parlour to listen to the latest news from William. He has started to create a garden! He and some of the other men found some tulips and wallflowers in the ruined gardens of a French village that had been destroyed by shells. They dug them up and transplanted them to make a little garden behind a wall of sandbags. William had sent a charming little sketch. I had no idea he was such an accomplished artist, but Violet said he has filled many sketchbooks over the years.

William has asked Violet to send him some seeds. I begged her to give me the list as I should like to buy the seeds myself and send them. She did so willingly.

I shall venture into Bristol to find a seed merchant where I shall buy William all the seeds he needs, then I shall make up a parcel and enclose a little letter.

I could weep with happiness to think that somewhere, someone is trying to grow something; that in the midst of unimaginable slaughter and destruction, something new will live!

Ultimately Hester’s seed packets hold the key to unlocking a century of secrets. When a storm fells an ancient beech tree revealing a century-old love hidden in its hollow heart, Connor begins to sift through the family archive his grandmother tried to destroy before her death. Who was she trying to protect? And why?... 

Kindle Edition
May2016

A bit of blurb..

A century of secrets...

Four women live in the shadow of the Trysting Tree.

All have something to hide. 

1916 

A man without a memory walks away from the Somme battlefield, while a young woman grieves beneath the tree that will guard her secret for a hundred years. 

2015 

Ann de Freitas doesn’t remember what she witnessed when she was five. The truth lies buried in the beech wood, forgotten for forty years. Can love unlock Ann’s heart and mind? 

Connor Grenville is restoring the walled garden where his grandmother, Ivy used to play. Before her death, she tried to destroy the family archive. Who was Ivy trying to protect? And why? 

When a storm fells the Trysting Tree, revealing a century-old love hidden in its hollow heart, Ann and Connor begin to sift through the past in search of answers. What they discover changes everything. 

LINKS..

Amazon UK link to THE TRYSTING TREE

Amazon US link to THE TRYSTING TREE 

Find Linda Gillard on her Website 

Or visit her on Facebook

My thanks to Linda for this fascinating guest post.

It's been a real pleasure to have you as our guest today.

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Review ~ CAULDSTANE by Linda Gillard

A Gothic novel in the romantic suspense tradition of Daphne du Maurier and Victoria Holt.

....If you live in fear, you fear to live....

Synopsis

When ghostwriter Jenny Ryan is summoned to the Scottish Highlands by Sholto MacNab – retired adventurer and Laird of Cauldstane Castle – she’s prepared for travellers’ tales, but not the MacNabs’ violent and tragic history.
Lust, betrayal and murder have blighted family fortunes for generations, together with an ancient curse. As members of the family confide their sins and their secrets, Jenny learns why Cauldstane’s uncertain future divides father and sons.
But someone resents Jenny’s presence. Someone thinks she’s getting too close to Alec MacNab – swordsmith, widower and heir to Cauldstane. Someone will stop at nothing until Jenny has been driven away. Or driven mad.

“Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.” Especially a dead woman.

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 My thoughts on CAULDSTANE

When Jenny Ryan travels to Cauldstane Castle in the Scottish Highlands to meet with the enigmatic explorer, Sholto MacNab, she expects that his aversion towards female writers will prove something of a stumbling block; however, Sholto needs someone to ghost write his memoirs and Jenny is the best there is in the business. With some trepidation on both their parts, Jenny and Sholto begin the daunting task of fleshing out the glorious details of Sholto’s life and yet malevolent forces at work within the castle are set to make sure that Jenny’s task is far from straightforward.

Running throughout the narrative like a shadowy thread is a story of a spiteful spirit whose unpleasant interference threatens the very safety of those people whose affinity for Cauldstane runs deep. But where there is darkness there is also light and a delicious assortment of characters whose very personalities infuse the story with warmth and charm. From the enigmatic and tenacious Sholto, through to the mesmerising charm of Alec, the armourer whose skill at swordplay leaves Jenny, and no doubt a few other female readers, quite breathless, this story of ancient curses, malevolent mischief and illicit desire has all the ingredients of an outstanding Gothic novel.

As a reader I have devoured books by Daphne du Maurier and Victoria Holt and there is no doubt that Linda Gillard’s rare gift for storytelling has been influenced by her own passion for this type of Gothic romance. Her uncanny ability to create pictures with words takes you on a journey into the very heart and soul of the Scottish Highlands and as the cold stone of Cauldstane Castle trembles under your fingertips, you sense the fear and feel the ingrained majesty and loneliness of this place of ancient secrets, curses and sadness.

To lose yourself in a Linda Gillard novel is like curling up on the sofa with your best friend whose secrets are infinitely more exciting than your own and in whose company you never fail to be mesmerised.

CAULDSTANE is available as an ebook and paperback on Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com

Author Website 

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CAWDOR CASTLE

SCOTLAND

The inspiration for CAULDSTANE

The author in my spotlight is ....Linda Gillard

I am delighted to welcome back to my blog

Linda Gillard

as she chats about her inspiration for her

 latest book

CAULDSTANE

Linda ~ welcome back to Jaffareadstoo 

What inspired you to write Cauldstane?

At one level the inspiration was a visit to Cawdor Castle which, although ancient, is still family-owned and inhabited. As I was touring the castle, I had the idea of writing about a family who are struggling to hold on to their home and heritage. 

At another level the inspiration for CAULDSTANE was being treated for breast cancer. Many people suggested I write about my experience, but it was bad enough living it, I didn’t want to write about it. But I felt I had to find a way to assimilate it, so I decided to write an allegorical novel, about my experience, but not describing it. Cancer haunts me still, even though my treatment ended in 2012.

You don’t need to know any of this background to enjoy the novel, which is basically a gothic romance and a book about fear.

CAWDOR CASTLE
Photo courtesy of the author

What can you tell us about the story which will pique the reader’s interest?

Cauldstane is a decaying 16^th century castle in the Highlands. It’s been the home of the MacNabs for generations, but in the 21^st century they’re finding it hard to hold on. The family is divided. Should they just sell up or try to use the castle and estate as the basis of a business? Cauldstane is blessed with quirky architecture, red kites and a riverside location, but there’s also an ancient MacNab curse and a malevolent ghost who poisons lives and relationships and wants to drive the family out.

Cauldstane is a money pit, but the real damage is caused by fear – fear of what might happen – and, as one of the characters says, “If you live in fear, you fear to live”. Fear is a kind of wasting disease that affects each of the MacNabs in different ways. (No prizes for guessing that my ghost is how I personified cancer.)

How many rough drafts did it take before you were happy with the story?

I don’t do drafts, not complete ones. I draft a few pages, maybe as much as half a chapter, then I edit it thoroughly before moving on. When I’ve completed the chapter, I edit again. I’ll edit many times until I’m happy. Progress is slow, but by the time I get to the end of the book, it’s almost ready to publish. I edit again, but I never change much.

I don’t think I could face re-drafting a novel. I think if I knew how a book was going to turn out, I’d have little interest in writing it. For me writing fiction is about investigation and discovery. I like to be surprised!

Although your books are difficult to categorise, you do have a penchant for strong heroines and slightly damaged heroes – is there anything of Linda Gillard in any of the characters?

Oddly enough, I think you’ll find me in my heroes, rather than my heroines, but I don’t think I've ever put myself into a book, only aspects of myself.

I suppose the most “autobiographical” books are EMOTIONAL GEOLOGY and UNTYING THE KNOT. In those books I used aspects of myself to create both heroes and heroines. Calum, the hero of EMOTIONAL GEOLOGY is a teacher and I used to be a teacher. There’s a lot of me-as-a-teacher in him.

Your writing is very atmospheric – how do you ‘set the scene’ in your novels and how much research did you need to do in order to bring Cauldstane to life?

I always write about places I know or I’ve invented, but I do quite a bit of research, especially studying photos. You can absorb so much detail and atmosphere from photos.

I’d already visited a lot of castles as research for a previous novel, UNTYING THE KNOT (yes, I have a thing about castles!) but my main sources of inspiration were Cawdor, Crathes and Craigievar Castles, all of which were local for me, living in the Highlands.

Readers often comment on the atmosphere and settings in my books but I don’t make a special effort to create them – rather the reverse. I don’t like writing description, so I always try to keep it brief. I tend to select telling details and focus on those. If you give readers a few vivid details, they’ll “fill in” and visualize the rest of the setting.

Perhaps my books are strong on atmosphere because everything seems very real to me. I see it all in my head, like watching a film. Stephen King said writing is telepathy. An author sits at her desk and visualizes the scene. A hundred years later, someone reads the book and sees the same scene. It’s a kind of magic.

Cauldstane has a malevolent spirit – do you believe in ghosts?

I think perhaps I do. I’ve written two paranormal novels featuring ghosts. (THE GLASS GUARDIAN is the other one.) When I was researching ghosts, I came to the conclusion that it’s very difficult to dismiss all the eyewitness accounts. There’s a substantial body of evidence, some of it quite convincing. I read two books by journalists who started out as ghost-sceptics and ended up converts. As a scientist explains in CAULDSTANE, physicists are beginning to come up with theories that could explain some paranormal experiences.

I’ve never seen a ghost, but I’ve often sensed a “presence”. There was one room in my old house on Skye where I really wasn’t comfortable. I sensed it immediately when I went to view the house before I bought it. Even though I lived there for six years, I never felt OK in that room. Neither did my daughter. We both sensed something.

Scotland is very much a character in your novels – what enchants you about the place, its people and its history?

I love the light, the accents, the wildlife, the emptiness of the landscape, the energy. I even like the awful weather! Although I'm English, Scotland is the only place I've ever felt at home. When I was a student I visited Edinburgh and fell in love with the place. Then over the years, as I saw more of Scotland, I became determined to live there one day. There’s not much of Scotland I haven’t seen and I've lived in a lot of different locations, including on a couple of islands.

I wrote my first novel (EMOTIONAL GEOLOGY, set on a Hebridean island) when I was living in a Norfolk suburb, pining for the Hebrides. That book allowed me to live there “in my head”.

Cauldstane is book number seven for you – do you have a favourite, and will there be a book 8?

I think my best book is A LIFETIME BURNING, but I wouldn't describe it as my favourite. At the moment my favourite is probably UNTYING THE KNOT. It was the very devil to write and I gave up on it twice, but I've since grown fond and rather proud of it.

I have an idea for an eighth novel, but I'm just at the daydreaming stage, gathering books together for research. But if the novel gets written, the main character might be a garden.

You can find Linda on her website and also on her author page on Facebook 

http://www.lindagillard.co.uk/

https://www.facebook.com/LindaGillardAuthor

Linda ~ It's been a real pleasure to have you spend some time on Jaffareadstoo.

Thank you so much for sharing with us your inspiration for

CAULDSTANE

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