 Hello!
I hope you’re all having a lovely summer and are either weathering the heat or bearing up under the onslaught of summer storms. My dad is a great Nat King Cole fan, and on a hot summer’s day you could hear the record player belting out Nat singing, “Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer.” You remember record players, those big old clunky things we had before hi-fi’s and cd players.
As you know, the paperback edition of Pardonable Lies, my third novel in the series featuring “psychologist and investigator” Maisie Dobbs, was published at the end of June, and now summer is rolling on towards the August publication of Messenger of Truth -- and that 14-city book tour. Full details will be on the website soon, so continue to check out the appearances page for full details and updates.
June 30th was a day of reflection for me. On that very day 90 years ago, my grandfather, Jack Winspear, was among a column of men that snaked for miles as they marched towards the Somme Valley in France. He would likely have passed the extra-large trenches dug out in readiness for mass burials following what was expected to be the decisive battle in a war that had already claimed far too many lives. And Jack would also have seen the new casualty clearing stations being set up, and hospital trains at the ready. The land around was scarred after almost two years of incessant fighting, and I expect that Jack just wanted to be home as he stood with his comrades and listened to the Divisional Commander give a rousing speech, telling the lads that they should be proud to be doing their bit, now that the “big show” was about to start.
My grandfather came home from that war, put away his medals and barely spoke of what he had seen and done, shunning any questions by leaving the room. But my father managed to weasel a few quickly-recounted memories from him. Those stories were branded into me young by a curiosity that matched my father’s when he was a boy. Grandad told my father about waiting his turn to step onto the ladder that led from the trench and onto the battlefield. With a ration of rum still warm on his breath, along with his mates he was waiting for the whistle, the signal to go “over the top’ before running towards the enemy with bayonets fixed. How he was supposed to run, I don’t know, because he would have had a pack on his back weighing at least 68lbs. But run he did, and on that day, in the early hours of the Battle of the Somme, it was straight into hell. Within minutes he was hit, the shell knocking him up into the air and onto the bodies of fallen comrades. With the screams of dying men around him, after hours and hours of waiting for the stretcher-bearers to come, he eventually listed into unconsciousness and woke up days later in a military hospital.
The Battle of the Somme, which began on July 1st, 1916, will be discussed and debated by military minds, historians and social scientists for decades to come, not least because of its continuing relevance. Winston Churchill said that with the Great War came humankind’s realization that it could obliterate itself completely. This was never more true than at the Battle of the Somme. A short excerpt on the flyleaf of a new book about the battle by the distinguished historian, Martin Gilbert, speaks volumes: “In just 138 days of fighting, an average of more than 2,000 men per day were killed, 310,000 in all. The Allied forces lost nearly 150,000 men. And not one of the Allied objectives of the first day was reached.” (The Somme by Martin Gilbert, published by Henry Holt).
In Messenger of Truth, along with Maisie Dobbs, you’ll learn about wartime artist, Nick Bassington-Hope, a man who exorcized the terrifying experiences of the war in his work -- work that drew as many criticisms as accolades, and won him enemies among a cadre of admirers. The police are convinced that Nick’s death on the eve of a major exhibition is the result of an accident, though his sister, Georgina, believes otherwise, and goes to Maisie for help.
I’ll be checking in with you again soon, however, in the meantime look forward to seeing many of you during the book tour.
All the best,
Jacqueline |
