I’m so excited to introduce the first book in my new saga series which will be published by Penguin on April 11th 2024. It is written as Kirsty Dougal (and can already be pre-ordered here if you are so inclined: https://amzn.to/3GnKNn3.)
By way of introduction, I thought I would reproduce an interview I have just completed and which tells you all about the book and my inspiration to write it. I hope you enjoy it
1. In your words, what is the book about? Who are the central characters and what makes them compelling to read about?
A cross between All Creatures Great and Small and Call the Midwife, Wartime on Sanctuary Lane is the first in a series set in East London in WW1. It follows the fortunes of munitions worker Ruby Archer who is increasingly struck by the appalling plight of the neglected and stray animals in the East End. Against all odds – and there are many odds! – she is determined to open an animal clinic where the poor can bring their sick animals and where strays can be nursed back to health and rehoused. Ruby is helped by an unlikely friendship with her supervisor Leah and by Jack, a young soldier who has been invalided out of the army and to whom she finds herself increasingly attracted. Above all, however, the story is about Ruby discovering exactly who she is and where she fits into a rapidly changing world.
2. Why did you choose to write in this given period and place? What makes it interesting or special?
I am fascinated by the idea of ordinary people living through extraordinary times and, for me, there is nothing more extraordinary than WW1. Whilst the ‘war to end all wars’ was obviously horrific in very many ways, it was also a time of great social and economic change; new horizons opened and women, in particular, were given opportunities that they could previously only have dreamed of. Throw patriarchy and class division into the mix – and there is no more exciting time to write about. I’ve set the story in the East End as, in many ways, the working class had both the most to gain and the most to lose from the war, and I’ve tried to reflect that in Ruby’s story.
3. Similarly, why are you writing this book – did anything in particular inspire it?
Two things.
My paternal grandfather, Joseph ‘George’ Biggs served in the First World War. He never talked about his experiences but, at the end his life, he was right back in those trenches, hiding from the shells. That haunted me and taught me, more than anything, what the men in the Great War endured and how the whole period must never, ever be forgotten.
On the other hand, my maternal grandmother, Maria Wildermuth, was brought up in the East End of London and was a teenager during the First World War. Her tales of hardship and loss and her general stoicism and ‘make do and mend’ attitude helped to inspire this story as did her German surname and the challenges and difficulties that that presented.
4. What is the message of the story and/or is anything you particularly wanted to convey to readers throughout?
As well as being an enjoyable story, I hope that the main message in Wartime on Sanctuary Lane is that, if you want something badly enough, you should just go for it, whatever the opposition and obstacles. Never settle for the easy. (Rather like getting published! )
4. What are you writing next, if anything?
I’m working on the second book in the series, A Christmas Miracle on Sanctuary Lane.
5. How long did it take you to write the book? How much did you write a day/week, and/or what was your schedule like?
The first draft will have taken about six months to complete. I would love to say that I kept to a strict schedule but sadly I did not. In the early days, I wrote around my family and my work obligations, but – as deadline day draws ever closer – I’m starting to write day and night and to ignore everything else!
6. Did you have to research anything while you were writing? How did you research it? What did you find out that made it into the book, and what was the most interesting thing you found?
I had to do loads of research! I had undertaken a lot of the more general First World War research when I was writing an early saga series under my pen name, Poppy Cooper (The Post Office Girls) and one of the most interesting facts was that it was possible to send heroin and cocaine through the post in early WW1. (A department story even marketed a giftset with the inscription ‘A welcome gift for friends at the front’!) For Wartime on Sanctuary Lane, I specifically researched life in the munitions factories and one interesting fact that’s made it into the book was that new female recruits had to lift their skirts to prove that they were not men attempting to avoid compulsory conscription
7. What advice would you give to any aspiring writers?
Keep the faith, but buckle up for the ride – it’s a real rollercoaster!
Kirsten Hesketh 