The Truth Behind Bartondale

I chose the location for the Deroy estate when I was writing Heart in the Clouds and modeled the house of Belton Estate in Grantham. But the story that captured my imagination was that of Hughenden in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, once the country house of Victorian-era politician Benjamin Disraeli. Renamed “Hillside” during the war, the house was used as a place to make maps for RAF Bomber Command. The purpose of the work was so secret that it wasn’t until the 1990s, when a National Trust tour guide overheard a grandfather telling the story of his war work to his grandchildren, that the story became widely known.

While Grace’s home is inspired by Belton House near Grantham, the institution “Bartondale” is inspired by Hillside. I did borrow details from the accounts of people who worked there, including the idea that very few knew the entire story of the work. I also borrowed details from accounts of workers in other photographic intelligence units like RAF Medmenham (including the fact that they had both RAF and US Army personnel)  to create the world within Bartondale’s walls.

The Firestorm in Hamburg

Operation Gomorrah was the official name of the seven days and nights of bombings by Allied forces on the city of Hamburg in July 1943. This was a military victory for the Allies, more or less concluding the ‘Battle of the Ruhr’ that began with the operation over Essen after which Alec crash lands in Heart in the Clouds. As I mentioned in the book, everything went right for the Allies. From the new radar-jamming technology called window (literally aluminum foil strips dumped out the window of the aircraft) to coordinated nighttime bombings by the RAF and daylight bombings by the USAAF.

The results were devastating. Incendiary bombs caused a blaze that needed a new word to describe it: Firestorm. Around 40,000 Germans died, and hundreds and thousands of non-combatants were injured. But the raid crippled the industrial heartland of Germany.

My grandfather was part of this operation and it lived in his memory. I don’t think he thought he could ever be forgiven for his role in it, which was what I wanted to explore with Teddy’s character.

The Savoy Hotel

Ok, I just adore The Savoy, and any time I can get it into a book I will. It was one of Chruchill’s favourite wartime haunts and it really did pull out all the stops to cater to its exclusive clientele. The Savoy’s American Bar is the longest-running cocktail bar in the world. The famous 1930 Savoy Cocktail Book, written by one-time head bartender Harry Craddock is still in print today. Head bartender Eddie Clarke really did invent a cocktail for each branch of the British armed forces during WWII, before joining the navy. I never found the recipes for the RAF cocktail called “Wings” but I reimagined it as the version of the aviation in the Savoy Cocktail Book which doesn’t have the creme de violette. Instead, the bartender drops in an inky food colouring … which may or may not be booze what with rations and all that!

Have you got any questions about the history in The Mapmaker’s Secret? I love talking about the history behind the book! So feel free to reach out via the contact page and ask. 

Behind the pages: The Warsaw Sisters by Amanda Barratt

Tell us a bit about who you are and how you write?

What is your book about? 

Why this story and why now?

Though the Second World War has been written about extensively, Poland’s wartime history remains relatively unknown, especially in North America. In the midst of one of the most brutal occupation regimes faced by any European country during the war, extraordinary resistance was born. As I researched the women who risked their lives to rescue Jewish children and the women who suffered and sacrificed as soldiers during the Warsaw Uprising, their dauntless courage left me in awe and their stories begged to be explored through a narrative format.

Where did you go to research this story?

Tell us a story you came across in research that didn’t make it into the book.

Is there a WWII book that you would like to peek behind the pages of? It can be fiction or non-fiction. Feel free to send your suggestion to me via the contact page. 

Behind the pages: The Bravest Soldiers by Elaine Schroller

Tell us a bit about who you are and how you write?

I was a long-time technical writer who read historical fiction and mysteries to escape to other places and times. At a certain point I wondered whether I could write too! I became fascinated by the historical and cultural relationships between Australia, France, and the US during WWI and WWII and simply had to explore the possibilities!

What is your book about?

Set in Sydney, Australia, The Bravest Soldiers is about how two women, one a mother who experienced WWI as a nurse in France and the other a daughter who was conceived during WWI and grew up amid its ruins, cope (or not in some cases) when WWII separates them from people they love. In the course of following their personal and emotional journeys, I’ve written how the Australian home front dealt with the effects of a threat of invasion by the Japanese and a very real invasion by hundreds of thousands of US service personnel, most of whom had never been more than fifty miles from home!

Why this story and why now?

While writing my debut novel Dare Not Tell, which does a deep dive into the long-term effects of WWI on an Australian soldier and an American nurse, I knew I wanted to continue their stories and explore how WWII would affect them. Despite a glut of WWII novels that were published in and around 2020, I had to tell the story I’d dreamed up! Luckily, Australia and the Pacific are less well-known venues than those set in Europe involving the French and Nazis.

Where did you go to research this story?

Abroad, I spent eight days in Sydney, visiting numerous museums, churches, memorials, and suburbs, plus two days in the Blue Mountains, to place the characters firmly where I wanted them on the home front – sitting next to the bronze soldier memorial in St. Mary’s cathedral, standing at what is now the Dudley Page Reserve in Dover Heights and taking in the ocean and harbor views, trying to compare everything I saw in 2019 with photos of 1940s Sydney. I also drew upon several trips to France (including the Somme battlefields and the Australian National Memorial in Villers-Bretonneux) and living in Lebanon for the locations outside Australia and the sphere of the South West Pacific Area.

At home in Bellaire, Texas, I read dozens of WWII-era novels by Australian authors, including the classics Come In Spinner by Dymphna Cusack and Florence James and Climate of Courage by Jon Cleary, multiple academic publications, and spent innumerable hours on the Australian War Memorial and Trove/Sydney Morning Herald websites. 

Tell us a story you came across in research that didn’t make it into the book.

One of the Australian ladies I interviewed worked as a WAAF assigned to General Douglas McArthur’s headquarters in Brisbane. She was twenty-ish at the time and desperate to escape the confines of conventional female plus family expectations and participate in the war effort. I wanted to include her and her experiences but simply couldn’t find a way to work her in except as a brief mention as the sister of one of the secondary characters.

Is there a WWII book that you would like to peek behind the pages of? It can be fiction or non-fiction. Feel free to send your suggestion to me via the contact page.