Caroline Scott is the author of the new novel The Poppy Wife. A freelance writer and historian, she was born in the UK and lives in France.
Q: How did you come up with the idea for
The Poppy Wife, and for your characters Edie and Harry?
A: Back in 2014, with the centenary of the
start of the First World War in my mind, I began to research my family’s own
experience of the conflict. I could only get so far, though; the historical
record was full of gaps and silences, and I was left with questions.
I’d been writing for a history publisher
for a while, but I’d always dabbled in fiction too, and now I found my
imagination being drawn into those gaps. Fiction allows you to shine a light
into the dark corners that you can’t always get at with historical research, to
test possibilities, and that’s interesting.
While I was researching a non-fiction
project, I’d come across the story of the grave photographers who were working
in France and Belgium after the First World War. Most of them were ex-servicemen,
and their employment would have obliged them to keep on returning to areas
where they’d fought.
That seemed like such an interesting job
to give to a character in a novel – and thus Harry came into being. He wants to
help other people cope with their bereavement, but is constantly forced to
return to his memories and his own unresolved grief.
As The Poppy Wife opens, Edie is having to
confront a lot of difficult questions, but she’s a strong young woman, with
spirit and a sense of humour.
So often in novels set during this period women
are wilting flowers, merely decorative and largely passive, but when I
researched female experiences of the First World War, I encountered so many
determined and courageous women, with ambitions and frustrations and fight. I
wanted to salute them, and also to create a character with whom today’s readers
could empathise.
Q: How did you research the novel, and did
you learn anything that particularly surprised you?
A: This book emerged from the process of
researching my great-grandfather’s experience of the conflict, so the wartime
sections of the story are closely based on the records of his battalion. The
chronology, the journey and the military engagements are all real.
I worked with the unit’s war diary (the
official daily register of events), but also found journals, letters, and
memoirs written by men serving in the same battalion. When you spend a long
time untangling the loops of a man’s handwriting, and hear him confessing his
fears to his mother, it brings you closer to that particular moment in time.
Although I’ve had an interest in the
aftermath of the First World War for many years, some of the photographs from
that period surprised me. It’s shocking to see just how completely devastated
regions of France and Belgium were, but these places were also so quickly
repopulated. Those pictures say much about how resilient people can be.
Q: The events in the novel take place a
century ago. Do you see parallels with the aftermaths of today's wars?
A: Although military technology has
changed considerably over the past century, the aftermath of war looks strikingly
similar then and now; when I see pictures from Aleppo on the news, I’m reminded
of photographs of Ypres and Arras in 1919.
That brings home how the experience of war
hasn’t changed that much for civilian populations – there’s still the
destruction of homes and infrastructure to cope with, displaced persons and
divided families.
Moreover, whatever the changes in weapons,
politics, medicine, and communications, the emotions that veterans and their families
have to process are still much the same as they were one hundred years ago.
Q: Did you know how the novel would end
before you started writing it?
A: Interesting question! I’d worked out
the trajectory of the three main characters’ stories, but the final dynamics
were refined over many drafts.
I
was lucky to have the opportunity to work with two editors and the great thing
about this process is that they ask you lots of questions. You have to really
think all the storylines through (even the parts that will never appear on a
page), and tie them up in a way that will be satisfying to readers – hopefully!
Going through that process changes your
perspective; I’d known my characters for a long time, but then I had to look at
them again as a reader might.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I’ve recently finished writing my
second novel. It’s the story of a soldier who returns from the First World War
with total amnesia – he has no recall of his own name, his family or where he’s
come from – and of three women who separately are absolutely convinced that
this man is respectively their son, their brother and their husband.
It’s such a fascinating period and it
keeps on drawing me back.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: Readers might be interested in the
photographs that I used while writing The Poppy Wife. I’ve gathered some of
them together on my Pinterest page
and you might well recognise locations, scenes and objects from the story.
For anyone who wants to learn more, I’d
direct your attention to the Imperial War Museum’s online photograph archive.
It’s a fascinating collection.
Thanks for your time and your questions!
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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