Tag: WW2

Blog Tour/Interview: The Girl in the Pink Raincoat by Alrene Hughes

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The Girl in the Pink Raincoat Banner 9th JulyI’m delighted to be hosting today’s stop on the blog tour for The Girl in the Pink Raincoat by Alrene Hughes.  My thanks to Florence and Blake at Head of Zeus for inviting me to participate in the tour.

I’m thrilled to bring you a Q&A with Alrene in which she discusses, amongst other things, the surprising facts that can turn up during research for her books and the importance of the right notebook!

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The Girl in the Pink RaincoatAbout the Book

When a factory girl and a Jewish businessman fall in love it seems that the whole world is against them.

Manchester, 1939. On the eve of war Gracie Earnshaw is working in Rosenberg’s Raincoat factory – a job she hates – but her life is about to be turned upside down when she falls in love with Jacob, the boss’s charismatic nephew.

Through Jacob, with his ambitions to be a writer, Gracie glimpses another world: theatre, music and prejudice. But their forbidden romance is cut short when Jacob is arrested and tragedy unfolds.

Gracie struggles with heartbreak, danger and old family secrets, but the love of her first sweetheart comes back to her in an unexpected way giving her the chance of a new life and happiness.

Format: Hardcover, ebook (368 pp.)    Publisher: Head of Zeus
Published: 12th July 2018                        Genre: Historical Fiction

Purchase Links*
Publisher | Amazon.co.uk  ǀ  Amazon.com  ǀ Hive.co.uk (supporting UK bookshops)*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

Find The Girl in the Pink Raincoat on Goodreads

Interview with Alrene Hughes, author of The Girl in the Pink Raincoat

Welcome, Alrene. Without giving too much away can you tell me a bit about The Girl in the Pink Raincoat?

It’s set in Manchester during WW2.  Gracie Earnshaw is working in Rosenberg’s Raincoat factory – a job she hates – but her life is about to be turned upside down when she falls in love with Jacob, the boss’s charismatic nephew.  Through Jacob, with his ambitions to be a writer, Gracie glimpses another world: theatre, music and prejudice. But their forbidden romance is cut short when Jacob is arrested and tragedy unfolds.  Gracie struggles with heartbreak, danger and old family secrets, but the love of her first sweetheart comes back to her in an unexpected way giving her the chance of a new life and happiness.

How did you get the idea for the story?

To begin with, I wanted to write about Manchester where I live and I like to write about WW2 because the period gives rise to a lot of drama that can change the characters’ lives. Gracie came to me very quickly, a factory girl who was good fun and loved telling stories, but there was something else about her… I knew she wouldn’t stay in the raincoat factory, but her journey had so many twists, none of which I could have envisaged when I set out to write her story.

How did you approach your research for the book? Do you enjoy the process of research?

I had already written three WW2 novels set in Belfast, where I grew up, and I learned then that thorough, well-written, non-fiction accounts of a city at war are a god-send to a novelist. Then there are the books about the home-front and cultural life in the city. Once the novel is underway the internet really comes into its own for the fine detail: what the interior of a particular dance hall looked like; what date a certain film or song came out.  Yes I do like researching, but in the end you just have to get on with writing the book!

What was the most surprising fact you came across during your research?

I came across an account of an internment camp housing enemy aliens – initially German and Austrian citizens and later Italians. The surprise was that the camp, in a disused cotton mill, was five minutes from my house! It is still standing and is now a business centre. The tragic story of the camp, and the subsequent sinking of the SS Arandora Star carrying the internees to Canada, is at the heart of the novel.

Your Martha’s Girls trilogy was also set in WW2. What attracts you to this period of history?

When I decided to write my first novel I searched for a story and took the usual advice – write about what you know. That led me to an old family scrapbook full of concert programmes, old photographs and mementoes. My mother and her sisters were talented singers in the style of the Andrews Sisters and as members of ENSA they entertained in military camps, concert and dance halls. I ended up writing a trilogy allowing the readers to see the entire war through the eyes of Martha and her daughters. What kept me going was the commitment to my family and the joy of recreating their lives, with several imaginative additions. And somewhere along the way I got hooked on the era.

When those books were finished it seemed the most natural thing to move the setting to Manchester and start again with new characters, completely fictional this time, in The Girl in the Pink Raincoat.

Do you have a favourite place to write or any writing rituals?

I’m lucky enough to have a room where I write overlooking the garden. Actually, that’s not quite true; I also spend a lot of time staring out the window wondering where on earth the story is going, then there’s the temptation to Google in the name of research, not to mention several other displacement activities. I also spend time in Greece and in the lazy afternoons I can usually write for 4-5 hours at a time with no interruptions or no internet.

I haven’t got any writing rituals, but I like to have an A4 notebook with a nice cover for each novel to work out planning, ideas for chapters, things to go back and change later, keep a daily record count…

What’s your favourite and least favourite thing about the writing process?

I love it when, in the course of writing, a sudden thought occurs to me that’s so much better than I originally intended. Often, as I write towards the end of a chapter there’s a real sense of achievement when it comes together and that full stop at the end is the time to smile and know it’s going to be fine.

Least favourite thing – when I could happily throw the laptop out of the window. That’s the time to shut it down and sleep on it. More often than not, it doesn’t look so bad in the morning.

Which authors do you admire and enjoy reading?

I read all sorts of books and don’t often go back to authors. But I would say that I’ve always liked Anita Shreve for her insight into the complexity of love. A critic described her as ‘a supremely elegant anatomist of the human heart.’ That’s the kind of book for me.

What are you working on next?

I’m working on another WW2 family saga/historical romance set in Manchester. It focuses on a young married woman who has led a sheltered life, but when her husband is killed in the blitz she has to face both grief and the need to earn a living. Circumstances lead her to join the police where she comes into contact with the harsh reality of life for women and her own longing to fall in love again.

Thank you, Alrene, for those fascinating answers to my questions.  Your many fans will be delighted to hear you’re already working on the next book.

Alrene Hughes
Photo credit: Tony Edwards

About the Author

Alrene Hughes grew up in Belfast and has lived in Manchester for most of her adult life.

She worked for British Telecom and the BBC before training as an English teacher. After teaching for twenty years, she retired and now writes full-time.

Connect with Alrene

Website  ǀ  Facebook ǀ  Twitter  ǀ  Goodreads

 

 

From Page to Screen: Darkest Hour by Anthony McCarten

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About the Book: Darkest Hour by Anthony McCarten

May, 1940. Britain is at war. The horrors of blitzkrieg have seen one western European democracy after another fall in rapid succession to Nazi boot and shell. Invasion seems mere hours away.   Just days after becoming Prime Minister, Winston Churchill must deal with this horror—as well as a sceptical King, a party plotting against him, and an unprepared public. Pen in hand and typist-secretary at the ready, how could he change the mood and shore up the will of a nervous people?

In this gripping day-by-day, often hour-by-hour account of how an often uncertain Churchill turned Britain around, the celebrated Bafta-winning writer Anthony McCarten exposes sides of the great man never seen before. He reveals how he practiced and re-wrote his key speeches, from ‘Blood, toil, tears and sweat’ to ‘We shall fight on the beaches’; his consideration of a peace treaty with Nazi Germany, and his underappreciated role in the Dunkirk evacuation; and, above all, how 25 days helped make one man an icon.

Using new archive material, McCarten reveals the crucial behind-the-scenes moments that changed the course of history. It’s a scarier—and more human—story than has ever been told.

Read my review of the book here.

About the Film: Darkest Hour (2017)

Darkest Hour is directed by Joe Wright from a screenplay by Anthony McCarten based on his own book, Darkest Hour: How Churchill Brought England Back from the Brink.  It stars Gary Oldman as Winston Churchill and Kristin Scott Thomas as Clementine Churchill with a supporting cast made up of the cream of British acting talent.  The film won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Actor and Makeup and Hairstyling as well as being nominated in three other categories.  Gary Oldman also won a Golden Globe, BAFTA and Screen Actors Guild Award for his performance.

More information about the film can be found here.

Book v Film

Like the book, the film concentrates on the few weeks in May 1940 when the British Government faced swift German advances into Belgium and the Netherlands, the prospect of the capitulation of France, the possible entry into the war of Italy as an ally of Germany and the loss of the British Expeditionary Force pinned down in Dunkirk.  It dramatizes some of Churchill’s most famous speeches both to the House of Commons and to the Nation and I’m sure I wasn’t alone in finding the emotional power of them still as great as they must have been to people who listened to them at the time.

The film uses the character, Elizabeth Layton (played by Lily James), who was one of Churchill’s personal secretaries between 1941–1945, to give the viewer a close-up view of Churchill, including idiosyncrasies such as emerging from his bath disrobed and breakfasting on whisky and soda.   We see her taking dictation from Churchill as he works on his speeches, constantly drafting and redrafting until he’s happy with them.

What I particularly liked about the film is the tender portrayal of the relationship between Winston and Clementine Churchill.    It left me with a real sense of the vital role Clementine played behind the scenes, providing moral support and encouragement to Winston when necessary, offering the family life that allowed him respite from the cares of state, as well as gently chiding him about his rudeness and lavish expenditure.

There were a couple of scenes that made me remember I was watching a feature film such as a scene where Churchill uses an unusual (for him) form of transport to get a sense of what the people of London feel about the calls from Halifax and others in the War Cabinet to consider a negotiated peace.  However, what it did show is the true courage and resilience displayed by Londoners during the War and, particularly, during the Blitz.

Across the board, the acting performances were terrific and the period detail seemed spot on from the costumes, to the hair and make-up, to the scenes in the War Rooms, Buckingham Palace and Chartwell, Churchill’s family home.  All these details give a visual sense of the wartime atmosphere that it is difficult for a book to recreate (although there are some fabulous photo’s in the book).

The Verdict

The book has fascinating detail drawn from contemporary sources – minutes of meetings, letters, diary entries – about the meetings of key players in the War Cabinet and the conversations that were taking place behind the scenes.   It also provides the reader with biographical detail about Winston Churchill and his chief opponent, Lord Halifax, which is absent from the film.  On the other hand, the film highlights the role of Clementine in supporting Winston during this difficult period whereas she is largely absent from the book.

Purely from an entertainment point of view, I would say the film wins, not least because of Gary Oldman’s superb Oscar winning performance.  However, for those interested in the period and wanting more background information, the book makes fascinating reading.  I liked the fact that some dialogue between Churchill and Halifax the author imagines at one point in the book made it into the screenplay and final film.

What do you think?  Have you read the book or seen the film?