Author of The World War Two Series

I've written a novel for each of the seven years of World War Two, plus a sort of intro in 1938. To me, it’s an inexhaustible subject for many reasons, some of which are the moral issues it confronts, its parallels to today’s wars, and the ever-present possibility of dictator-driven genocide. The novels are not connected; their commonality being ordinary people whose lives and destinies are distorted by war. Each takes place in a fictional town, itself a character, and each has an underlying theme: one art, one sport, one music, one food, one science. (The theme of the last, is, appropriately, writing itself.) They’re fast-paced, evocative and historically grounded in the very real events that characterized each year of the global conflict.

The World War One series has just begun, with Charentin, 1918 and Denderbeck, 1915 already published. As with the World War Two series, the novels are independent and unconnected. They feature not famous figures from the period, but 'ordinary' people caught up in the conflict and showing their own brand of heroism.

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Behind the Book: Denderbeck, 1915


I'm pleased to announce that my second book in the WWI Series, "Denderbeck, 1915," has just been published, and is now available on Amazon and B&N. 

Several people have asked me why I write what I do.  Not the clichéd "where do you get your ideas?" but more of a "what made you want to write about that?"  So I've decided to post descriptions of how each book came about that go a step beyond the usual publishing blurb.

"Denderbeck, 1915" came to me in pieces, after several months of research about the Great War in general, and Munitionettes and Zeppelins in specific.  I'm from London, and the blitz of WWII is very well remembered -- in fact I grew up playing in its bombsites -- but it would come as a surprise to most Londoners that the city was bombed by airships in the First World War.  It's just too far away in time -- four or five generations, depending on how you measure them. We have now, sadly, lost all those who lived through WWI, though there were still many around when I was small.  Gassed, maimed, limping around the streets they and their chums fought to protect.

I was curious about the Zeppelins -- a strange idea by any standard -- and I wanted to see what it would be like to pilot one.  The Zeppelin corporation is still in business, but I'm in no position to dash off to Friedrichshafen and buy myself a stint at the controls of one of their newest Zeppelin NTs. Instead, I read the memoirs of captains of the time, fascinating stuff.

I knew of the "canaries," the women who worked in the munitions factories, and of the illnesses they suffered from the toxins they handled.  I wondered what it was like to be one, to work those long shifts, to be paid well, for once.

Somewhere I had heard of the Ludlow Massacre of 1914, and wanted to work that into the book, though for a long time I couldn't see how.  Until I came up with the character of Clayton, that is, who flies as a surveyor for the mining company.

And eventually the story came together.  Lily, the munitions worker and later a dispatch rider, Clayton the pilot, and Wernher the Zeppelin captain.  It was an exhilarating ride with them all, and I miss them already.
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