Winner of the Richard and Judy Search for a Bestseller Prize in 2018
Born and brought up in Romsey, Claire is a successful historical fiction writer. She has had three novels published so far – a crime series set in Romsey during WW2. This follows her former career as a nurse. She is a founder member of Chandlers Ford Writers and studied at the University of Winchester to gain her degree (“The rest of my family had degrees and I wanted to catch up with them.”). She then continued at the university gaining a PhD. For this, she focused on creating contemporary fiction that was set in the past. She is here today to talk to us about what happens in the writing process when fact and fiction meet. This, she tells us, occurs with all historical fiction. Claire has researched her books using old maps and local history, as well as real-life stories.
Claire first explains what historical fiction is. She says “…it’s fiction that is set thirty to fifty years before the current date.” Adding that with this definition, she too is “pretty historical.” Claire tells us that whilst she was not born until after the Second World War (“…despite what I might look like.”), she grew up at a time where her parents and others had many memories of that time, and so she knew many first-hand stories which she uses in her writing. Historical fiction, Claire tells, us can be a mix of real people in fiction events, or fictional people in real events or a combination. She explains that her stories tend to be fictional people and fictional happenings set against a backdrop of real places and events. Each of her stories is set against what Claire considers crucial points in the war.
Claire has always been interested in history – both fiction and non-fiction, especially local and English history. However, the first book she wrote was set in 17th Century America. She admits that she “…knew absolutely nothing,” about 17th Century America and when she wrote this – the mid-1980s, research was far more complicated than it is today with the advent of online archives and internet research. “These days,” she says, “I would never do a story set in a place I didn’t know,” even though researching would be far easier.
Claire says that researching is now “…one of my great pleasures.” She loves to study an era and find “…the little tiny details.” One of the scenes in her book for example, involves a bike ride from Oliver’s Battery to Brashfield, and Claire enjoys finding out details such as how long that journey would take, or how much a bus fare would have been.
One advantage of Claire writing crime stories that are set in the past is that she does not have to write about technology (“I am pretty poor with technology,” she admits). Therefore, by setting her work when there was no CCTV or mobile phones etc., Claire has eliminated the need to address this.
Claire was an avid reader of crime fiction growing up, telling us that by the age of ten, she had read all the books in the children’s library and so moved on to the ones in the adult section. She adds that Sherlock Holmes was her “…first brush with crime fiction.” She loves whom she refers to as “Golden Age crime fighters” such as Dorothy Sayers. Crime fiction has a very clear structure, and this is what Claire likes about it.
When Claire first sent her novel set in 17th Century America to publishers, one of the comments she received was that “people don’t read historical fiction anymore.” However, she says, thanks to people like Hilary Mantel it has seen an increase in popularity. Claire explains that when she was deciding what type of stories to write for her PhD, she knew that “…historical crime fiction is a seller.”
Claire had already spent time researching her family history for her father several years previously. She later researched her husband’s family history, inspired by her new married surname of Gradidge (“… sort of unusual unless you live in Hampshire.”).
This lead to further research into Romsey – the place where she grew up. She tells us about the family smallholding and her hardworking parents. Claire says, “Nobody ever told me that we were poor until I look back at it.” She goes on explain her growing nostalgia for Romsey and its town, after the smallholding was sold and they moved to Chandlers Ford. Claire shows us some images of 1930s Romsey compared to photographs from similar angles taken more recently, to demonstrate how little the centre of Romsey has changed.
Claire’s first published book was The Unexpected Return of Josephine Fox – the result of her PhD. She entered it into the Richard and Judy Search for a Bestseller prize in 2018. She explains the process of entering the competition and being shortlisted, and then subsequently winning – telling us that she still cannot believe that it happened – despite its publication in August 2019!
Claire goes on to talk to us about how real stories can blend with fiction. She gives us the example of Bram – one of her main characters, who due to his age and the time the story is set, must have fought in the First World War or had a reason not to have done so. She shows us a photograph of a real mask used for soldiers from WW1 who had facial injuries. These were often made with copper plate and then had features painted on by artists. Here, Claire demonstrates the importance of research. The most common injuries from soldiers during the war were facial injuries, and cosmetic surgery was in its infancy. “There is a wonderful archive if you’ve got a strong stomach, of pastel drawings of men that had been … injured in this way in the First World War.” She goes on to tell us that many of these men never left their houses or went outside again, such was the severity of their disfigurements. With this in mind, and Claire not being aware of many other literary characters in her genre with facial disfigurements, she gave Bram a mask worn due to a facial injury he received during the war. So, whilst Bram is fictional, the story behind him is based on real life. Just as the hospital in which Bram stays in is also real, and the subject of much research by Claire.
Claire tells us of other fascinating stories she discovered whilst researching her books and explains how these influenced or shaped her characters and stories – the point at which the real stories blend with fiction. Her second book for example, is set against the backdrop of the Battle of El Alamein and Churchill’s End of the beginning speech. The story Claire has written is fictional, but the setting needs to be historically accurate and the impact upon the characters needs to be considered.
Claire is currently working on the fourth book of her series. She says, “I’m out of contract now, but I am writing Book Four because I said I was going to write four and I’m stubborn.” This one is set towards the end of the war, in September 1945 shortly after Japan had surrendered and “… things got more difficult in Britain than they had been all through the war.” Her story, she tells us, has characters coming home from the war and not finding what they expected upon their return.
It has been fascinating to hear Claire remind us of the importance of research for any book – but to understand where fact and fiction meet – how true stories and local histories have influenced her writing. We wish her success with her fourth book.
Report by Sarah Noon
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