Letters from the Front - by Catherine Randall

For a writer of historical fiction, letters can be gold dust. 

Three years ago, I wrote a local community play, Letters from the Front, to mark the 100^th anniversary of the end of the First World War. The idea was to create a sense of continuity between the communities of 1918 and 2018 by dramatising stories of local people who had lived and died in the Great War.

I was extremely lucky that others had already done a great deal of research into the names on our town war memorial, so I had plenty of stories to work with, but the thing that really brought the past to life for us were the letters.

In those days, rather wonderfully, the local newspaper sometimes reprinted in full letters that had been written by the men who were away fighting, or in some cases letters from the nurses and other soldiers who had cared for them as they died. The result was that I was able to include the actual words written by ordinary people from our town over 100 years ago.

Teddington War Memorial

Private Fred Savage, for instance, wrote to the paper from the Gallipoli campaign (in what is now Turkey) in 1915. After describing his part in the fighting, his thoughts turned to home:

My best wishes to my old sporting chums in Teddington and district... I have just been thinking, but for this beastly war we should in all probability have been enjoying an all-day match at cricket in Bushy Park tomorrow, but it will be time for that sort of thing when this match is over.

Sadly, there was no time for ‘that sort of thing’ for Fred Savage. By the time they printed the letter, Fred was already dead, aged just 24.

Another poignant letter printed in the newspaper was all the more unusual because it was written by a German. Mr and Mrs Charles Mole had only learned in August 1918 that their 19-year-old son, also called Charles, had died while a Prisoner of War back in March, after being wounded in action. Generally, that would have been pretty much all the information they’d be given. However, they then received the most extraordinary letter. This was reprinted in the paper under the heading,  ‘A German Soldier’s Kind Action’:

Charles Mole's name on the school war memorial (middle column)

The following letter, written in a shell funnel on Good Friday, March 29, 1918 was recently received by Mrs Mole, 82 York Road, Teddington, whose son, Pte Charles Arthur Mole, died whilst a prisoner of war in Germany.

The article explains how the letter reached Mrs Mole, and goes on to print the letter in full. The letter is long, so I will just share with you a few extracts. The letter begins:

Dear Family Mole, - Love and a sense of duty compel me to communicate to you what will be of the greatest interest to you. I am a German soldier, whose name is H.Weingartner. When our forces were moving onwards over the battlefields, which had been evacuated by the English, some of my comrades hit upon three English soldiers, of whom two were dead already and one still alive.

Private Mole was the soldier still alive. The letter writer goes on to describe how they tried to help ‘our poor fellow soldier’ whose legs were badly wounded.

After we had bandaged him up and refreshed him a little by a cup of tea, we carried him on a tent bed to the main road... We attached a little flag to his bed to direct our sanitary soldiers’ attention to him when passing by…

H.Weingartner’s letter goes on to describe how he continued to visit Private Mole when he could over the next hours, taking tea to him, and saying prayers with him. Communication was difficult as Private Mole only spoke English, and Weingartner German, but it is clear that they managed to make themselves understood.  The tone of the letter is extremely compassionate. The next day Private Mole was removed to a field hospital, and the letter writer never saw him again. He concludes his letter:

This is all I can tell you about your son. I have asked God to keep and safeguard his young life and grant him a meeting again with you all. And my sincere and fervent wish is that this letter will safely reach you, especially in case your son should succumb to his wounds, and no news about him should ever reach you. …Should your son survive, which I do hope and pray for, I hope to hear from him later on. May the Lord soon grant us peace according to His everlasting mercy and grace.

Yours sincerely H.W.

We know that Private Mole didn’t survive but imagine the comfort that this letter must have given his poor parents, knowing that he had been kindly cared for in the last days of his life.

Charles Mole's name on the Hampton School war memorial. He was at school here from 1911-15.

Both these letters bring to life for us the soldiers of the First World War in a way that few other things can.

When writing historical novels, including letters as part of your story can create a sense of immediacy and help your reader get inside your characters’ heads. 

Today, letters have largely been replaced by emails, phone calls and the myriad of other ways we communicate with each other, but it’s important to remember that until thirty years ago, letters were an essential part of life. So not only can letters reveal character, you can also make them crucial to your plot.  

In my novel The White Phoenix, set in London in 1666, letters play an important role from the very first chapter. When Lizzie Hopper and her family arrive back at their family bookshop after the plague, expecting to find her father, the very first words uttered by Master Pedley, the bookbinder from next door, concern the letter he claims to have sent: 

‘Oh, Mistress Hopper, praise God you have come! Did you get my letter?’

Might things have been different if they had received his letter, if he’d written earlier?

Later, a letter that Master Pedley claims to have sent to the Hopper’s valued apprentice Kit also goes astray, but this time Lizzie takes matters into her own hands and writes to Kit herself. (This of course meant I had to research all about writing and sending letters in 1666, but luckily, as the novel is set in a bookseller’s, Lizzie’s letter writing was believable.)

Kit’s swift response to Lizzie’s letter is one of the first indications that Pedley may not be the helpful neighbour he is made out to be. In The White Phoenix, letters are a crucial part of the plot.

So, next time you are writing a story, don’t forget letters! Think about how you could use them, either as part of the plot or as a way of revealing more about your characters. Some authors have even written books entirely made up of letters! And remember how the letters I have shared above from the First World War create a strong sense of immediacy. This Remembrance Day, maybe you could take whatever you have learned about the First World War, and use it to write a soldier’s letter of your own.

Catherine Randall's debut novel, The White Phoenix, is a thrilling adventure story for 9-14 year olds set during the Great Fire of London. It has been shortlisted for the Historical Association’s Young Quills Award 2021. The White Phoenix is published by the Book Guild and is available from bookshops and online retailers including Waterstones, Bookshop.org and Amazon.

For more information visit www.catherinerandall.com.

Our book recommendations for Black History Month

This week on our blog, the Time Tunnellers are celebrating Black History Month by sharing some of our favourite historical reads by Black authors and/or featuring Black protagonists.

Jeannie Waudby

DIVER’S DAUGHTER by Patrice Lawrence
12 year old Eve and her mother scrape by in dangerous 16^th century Southwark. Eve’s mother Joan learnt to dive as a child in Mozambique, before she was kidnapped and taken to Portugal. Although she escaped, she and Eve are not safe from the greedy eyes of those who wish them harm.
When they travel to Southampton to dive for gold from a wreck, they find friends both false and true and dodge multiple dangers in their cruel and unstable country. The terror of the slave trade runs through this story like the dark London river, but Eve is brave and resourceful – a true adventurer.
I stayed up late to finish this gripping book.

100 GREAT BLACK BRITONS by Patrick Vernon and Angelina Osborne

This is an update of the 2003 campaign to find the most admired Black Britons: people who have overcome racial barriers to make an exceptional contribution. Although not specifically for children, I think many young people will enjoy this book. Each biography is 2 or 3 pages long and the style is vivid and engaging.
Entries from previous centuries include actor Ira Aldridge, nurse and war heroine Mary Seacole, anti-slavery campaigner and author Mary Prince, leader of the London Chartist movement William Cuffay and George III’s wife and consort Queen Charlotte – her cottage is featured in an earlier Timetunnellers video. It is a fascinating read.

Ally Sherrick

My first pick is a non-fiction book – Black Tudors – the Untold Story by the historian and academic, Miranda Kaufmann. It’s written for an adult audience, but many of the stories could also be used as prompts for discussions in the classroom too.
It shines a light on the lives of ten men and women of African descent who lived and worked in England during the reigns of the Tudor and Stuart monarchs. From Jacques Francis, salvage diver (see Jeannie’s picks for a fantastic fictional story inspired by him) at the wreck of the Mary Rose and Diego the circumnavigator, manservant to Sir Francis Drake to Cattelena of Almondsbury, a woman of independent means who sold milk and cheese from the cow she owned to her neighbours in her village in rural Gloucestershire. Each portrait combines to provide a vivid picture of Black lives lived free in Renaissance England, and the attitudes to race and slavery of the wider society in which they moved, before the English became heavily involved in the slave trade. My own personal favourite, is John Blanke, royal trumpeter, who played at King Henry VIII’s coronation and who received a wedding gift from the king when he married. 
For a brilliant article including a summary of each of the individuals featured visit: blackhistorymonth.org.uk        

The second book I’ve chosen is Empire’s End – A Roman Story by Leila Rasheed in the excellent ‘Voices’ series published by Scholastic. This is the story of Camilla who travels with her family to Britannica from her home on the coast of North Africa as part of the Emperor’s entourage. But when the journey goes terribly wrong, Camilla is forced to fall back on her own resources to survive in a world very different from the privileged one she was brought up in. A tense and thrilling read packed full of fascinating details about life in the Roman provinces when the Empire was still at its height.

Catherine Randall

Son of the Circus: A Victorian Story by E. L. Norry

Based on the life of Britain’s first Black circus owner, Pablo Fanque, Son of the Circus tells the story of Fanque’s son Ted as he struggles to adapt to circus life when he joins his father at the age of 12. Full of vivid, authentic details about the Victorian circus, the story highlights the bravery needed to survive and flourish in a society both fascinated by and scared of difference. Inspiring and empathetic. E. L. Norry has done a great job of resurrecting a Black hero of the Victorian age.

Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History, written and illustrated by Vashti Harrison

In Little Leaders, Vashti Harrison has brought together forty beautiful, stylised portraits of outstanding Black women in history, accompanied by text explaining why each woman is important. Starting with Mary Prince, born into slavery over 200 years ago and ending with Lorna Simpson, a ground-breaking photographer working today, Harrison explains each woman’s impact on the world, introducing us to many fascinating, lesser-known characters along the way. Because the book combines appealing illustrations with informative text, this is an excellent book for all ages.

Susan Brownrigg

A Nest of Vipers by Catherine Johnson

This is a thrilling adventure set in London during the Stuart era, for children aged 8+. The story bookends with a gripping first person narrative from Cato Hopkins a boy criminal.
Cato is locked up in Newgate Prison, a notoriously vile institution, awaiting his execution.
The story then rewinds a year and switches to third person. Where we learn that Cato is part of a team of con artists and pickpockets under the tuition of ‘Mother Hopkins.’
This time their target is a cruel slave owner.
The story has lots of twists and turns, and I was on the edge of my seat as I turned the pages to find out if Cato would escape prison.
Johnson brings the period vividly to life. I especially enjoyed the mention of the Frost Fair and the Russian with a bear and squirmed at the depictions of squalor. The book shows the contrast between those who have money and those who do not. I also really liked the characters, especially Cato and Prince Quarmy.

The Mighty Miss Malone by Christopher Paul Curtis.

I absolutely adored this wonderful award-winning book set in Gary, Indiana, in the U.S during the Great Depression.
The story is told by Deza Malone – a fabulously chatty, ambitious 12-year-old whose family is uprooted and torn apart after a terrible accident. The Malones face a run of bad luck and one character’s down spiral really brings home the mental health impact on families in the 30s. There are several very moving scenes, and the ending had me in tears.
I am in awe at Curtis's skill in creating voice, and Deza is a character you won't forget.

Barbara Henderson

The first book I would like to recommend is Windrush Child by Benjamin Zephaniah, a writer I have long admired for his poetry and his contemporary books for young people. The novel is about Leonard, a boy from Jamaica whose father sailed to Britain on the famous ship Empire Windrush after the end of the Second World War. Leonard and his mother reluctantly follow, leaving the boy’s beloved Grandma behind. Leonard is unprepared for the cold, both in the British weather and the hostile attitudes he encounters in so many aspects of everyday life. Leonard’s character gives us a real glimpse into the injustices faced by the Windrush generation and, unforgivably, their children, and I so admired their resilience. Historical fiction at its best, making us think about the country we were, the country we are, and the country we hope to be.

My second recommendation is Oliver Twisted by Jasmine Richards, written under her pen-name JD Sharpe. This one is a teen horror-mash-up of the classic Victorian novel Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens, which is both a lovely original idea, and perfect for Halloween – and it is October after all! Vampyres, ghastly orphans, a shadowy Dodger and a soul-eating Fagin – perfect if you like your fun a little scary.

Finding the story in old objects

Do you ever feel like writing a story, but don’t know where to start? Maybe you keep promising yourself you’re going to make time to write, but when you finally manage to sit down at the keyboard, or with a pen and paper, your mind suddenly goes as blank as the paper.

You need something to write about. But don’t worry, you don’t need to have a plot or a fully developed character to start writing. All you need is an object. And if you want to write historical fiction, then the most useful thing to start off with is an object from the past.

I have recently inherited some old things from my parents. My favourite is this little clockwork pig. 

 

When you wind up the key in its back, it starts to play its drum in a lovely rhythm – Ta Ta Ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta, Ta Ta Ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta – and turn round in a circle. As you can see from the photo, the pig’s clothes are badly in need of repair now, but that’s not surprising because he is nearly 100 years old. He belonged to my dad when he was a child, back in the 1930s. He must have been a very special toy because my father kept him safely all his life.

If you want to use the clockwork pig to inspire a story, you just start asking questions. Why was he so special? Who gave him to my dad? Imagine you were a child in the 1930s and the clockwork pig was yours. Where would you keep him? Would you keep him on display or would you hide him away because he was so precious? What if you took him to school and he got lost? Who would mend him if he was broken?

You could even write a story from the point of view of the clockwork pig. There’s a classic book by Russell Hoban called The Mouse and His Child, written from the point of view of a clockwork mouse, so you would be in good company if you decided to do this. 

The Mouse and his Child by Russall Hoban

 Another thing that my father left me is this model Spitfire.

 

This is a very special model because it is made from the same materials that were used to make real Spitfires. My grandpa worked in a Spitfire factory during World War II, and someone there must have made it for Dad. I imagine that this would also have been a very precious toy, maybe something that other children would have liked to own themselves. But the great thing is that you don’t need to know anything about my dad to use his model Spitfire to start building a story. You can completely make up the person it belonged to. How had they come by it? Why was it special to them? Maybe they had seen real Spitfires flying overhead? Maybe their dad was a pilot who flew Spitfires? Maybe their mum had an important job in an aircraft factory?

My mum also left me some treasures, including this box with her name on it. 

 

Inside the box I found some of her costume jewellery, but also this Victorian locket with a very old photograph in it. 

 

The sad thing is, I have no idea who it is! But this is another ideal starting point for a story. Who could this lady be? Why did a picture of her end up in Mum’s jewellery box? Of course, there could be a simple explanation, but as writers looking for a story we are not interested in simple explanations. She is quite hard to see, but if you look carefully you can see that she is very elegant and well dressed. I particularly like her hairstyle. Photographs were usually only taken on special occasions in those days, so I wonder what she is dressed up for?

So, this week’s writing challenge is simply to find an object – you can use either a real object or a picture of something – and start asking lots of questions about it. Before you know it, you will have the makings of a story. Don’t worry if the story turns out to be nothing to do with the original object – the point is to use it as inspiration and see where your imagination takes you.

And if you want to hear Dad’s clockwork pig drumming, go to the Time Tunnellers’ YouTube channel, where you can see him in action!

Catherine Randall's debut novel, The White Phoenix, is a thrilling adventure story set during the Great Fire of London for 9-12 year olds. It was shortlisted for the Historical Association’s Young Quills Award 2021. The White Phoenix is published by the Book Guild, it is available from bookshops and online retailers including Waterstones, Bookshop.org and Amazon.

For more information visit www.catherinerandall.com.

Finding stories in old places - tips from author Jeannie Waudby

For as long as I can remember, old buildings have filled me with a longing to know who lived there before. Very often, there is no way of knowing, and for me this meant trying to think up their story for myself.

I grew up on a little island in Hong Kong. It had been taken to be a leprosy treatment centre and most of the buildings were built in the 1950s. But the old ones, from hundreds of years ago, always fascinated me. As a child, I thought that the people had left long ago – whereas in fact they had to leave not long before the hospital was built.

Jetty valley

One of the oldest buildings was a little temple. It’s the tiniest building at the bottom of this picture in the middle, near the steps.

Then there were the graves. These were beautiful white tombs, shaped like the moon, always on a hillside. I wondered whose graves they were, and what their lives had been like on this island that was home to us now. The tombs made a deep impression on me so that years later, when I was studying art, they slipped into my pictures.

Moon grave

This woodcut shows a tomb with some burial pots. Most of the tombs were in the emptier part of the island where it was wild and grassy.

And in this watercolour the tomb is on the left, looking over the sea towards a neighbouring island.

Hillside tomb

Although we lived in Hong Kong, every few years we visited the UK, which to me was a huge exciting foreign land. On my first visit we travelled by ocean liner because planes were still very expensive. I remember the journey well even though I was little. It took one month, and one of the places we visited was Pompei. I recall arches, painted walls and the fact that life had stopped suddenly and tragically here because of a volcano.

When we went to the Highlands, where my mother came from, I felt at home straight away. To me, the mountains and sea felt just like the ones back home in Hong Kong. Even the rocks on the shore had the same yellow lichen and green seaweed, like hair. But I did get to see something I had never seen before: castles.

Eilean Donan

This aquatint shows Eilean Donan Castle and the Five Sisters of Kintail, with my impression of the light beaming onto the loch. A house where we often stayed had a cannon ball in the fireplace, from a battle long ago that left the castle in ruins.

Later, when I was older, my dad, who was English, would take us to visit famous historical places in England: the Tower of London, a Roman villa, the Victory warship and the wonderful Roman baths which you could still have a warm dip in if it was allowed. Inside the Victory, I smelt for the first time the sharp tang of centuries-old wood. To me it felt as if stories were humming just below the surface of the walls.

 

I started writing novels when I was a child, although I didn’t ever finish them. This is the first page of one I started when I was 11. It was set in England in the nineteenth century because we had just come back from the UK and while we were there, we stayed in a flat in a Victorian house.

For me, old places have always been doorways to stories.

Ickworth

Writing Prompt

When I am somewhere old, I can never shake off the possibility that it might turn out to be a time machine… and where would it take me? Think of an old building or place that you know. If it was a time machine, where would it take you? Who would you be? What would you be doing there? Would there be a hidden danger? 

 

One Of Us by Jeannie Waudby is a YA thriller/love story, published by Chicken House. It was shortlisted for the Bolton Children's Fiction Award and the Lancashire Book of the Year 2016 and has been adapted by Mike Kenny as a play in the Oxford Playscripts series.
One Of Us is published by Chicken House
The Oxford Playscripts play is published by Oxford University Press

 

For more information about Jeannie and her books visit her website.

 

How the Great Fire of London sparked my debut book! - Catherine Randall reveals the inspiration behind The White Phoenix

355 years ago today, on 2 September 1666, Londoners woke to the news that a fire was raging in the southeast of the City and spreading rapidly. In an early draft of my children’s novel, The White Phoenix, set in a London bookshop in 1666, I had my characters living by St Paul’s Cathedral, and finding out about the fire when hordes of people started streaming past them through the narrow streets, pushing handcarts piled high with children and furniture.

Londoners flee the burning City in September 1666

Then I realised that it would be far more exciting to put my characters slap bang in the middle of the action, so in the final version, 13-year-old Lizzie Hopper and her family are staying with their uncle in Pudding Lane when the fire breaks out. They witness first-hand the efforts of the firefighters to put out the flames, becoming part of the human chain passing leather buckets up and down the lane from where someone had pierced the water pipes running below the streets. They hear the bells of St Magnus’s church ringing backwards – the equivalent of an emergency siren sounding today - and experience the fierce heat and falling embers blowing around in the wind. They also witness the failure of the one person who might possibly have been able to stop the fire at this early stage and prevent it becoming the Great Fire of London – the Lord Mayor, Sir Thomas Bludworth.

Seventeenth-century firefighters using buckets and firehooks to fight a fire in Tiverton, Devon

The firefighters wanted Bludworth’s permission to use firehooks to pull down some of the unburnt houses nearest the blaze, creating a firebreak. The Lord Mayor said that he couldn’t do this without the permission of the owners, but as most of the houses were rented, the owners were not around to ask. Bludworth then famously declared that the fire wasn’t that bad anyway: ‘A woman could piss it out,’ he said and went home. Later that day, he did start to pull down houses but by then the fire was burning out of control. Who knows what would have happened if he had been more decisive?

In The White Phoenix, my character Lizzie experiences what actually happened next. Like thousands of other Londoners, she and her family flee east to Tower Hill, then an open green space near the Tower of London, on the outskirts of the City. Many others fled north to Moorfields, another wide open field. Remarkably, according to contemporary accounts, all the refugees had gone within four days – some leaving the City for good, others returning to see what they could salvage from their burnt homes, or moving to stay with family and friends in untouched neighbourhoods.

Nevertheless, the Great Fire was a deeply traumatic experience for Londoners. Samuel Pepys records in his diary on 2 September how he wept to see the City burn. In my book, Lizzie and her brother Ralph have tears streaming down their faces as they watch St Paul’s Cathedral engulfed in flames.

Near the end of my story, Lizzie goes back into the burnt City. She finds it almost impossible to work out where the streets had been because there is so much rubble and fallen timber everywhere. The ground was too hot to walk on for several days after the fire died out.

Of course today barely anything remains of the City that Lizzie knew - many of the buildings rebuilt after the Fire were destroyed in the Blitz during World War II. The exception is some of the City churches, many of which were rebuilt after 1666 by Sir Christopher Wren, and rebuilt again after the Blitz. You can still visit St Magnus, for instance, at the south end of Pudding Lane, where the bells first rang out to warn of the Fire. The street names and the line of the streets also remain broadly the same, so it is possible to trace Lizzie’s footsteps through the City, both during and after the Fire. The sketch map below shows the extent of the Fire, as well as Tower Hill and Moorfields where Lizzie and the real refugees fled. It also shows the fictional site of the White Phoenix, the bookshop that Lizzie Hopper fights so hard to save in my novel.

Discussion points for teachers/parents :

The people who lost their homes in the Great Fire of London often did not travel far from the City, but they were still refugees, relying on the goodwill of others to feed and house them. What places can you think of in the world today where people have been forced to become refugees in their own countries because of natural disasters?

For what other reasons, besides natural disasters, might people have to flee their homes?

In 1666, lots of towns across England sent money to Londoners to help them rebuild their homes. Often, money was collected at Sunday church services. Other people opened their homes to the refugees while they rebuilt their homes and businesses. In what ways can we help refugees today?

What possessions would you save if you had to leave your home very quickly? Do you think they would be the same sort of things that fleeing Londoners took with them in 1666?

The White Phoenix by Catherine Randall is an historical novel for 9-12 year olds set in London in 1666, and is shortlisted for the Historical Association’s Young Quills Award 2021.

Published by the Book Guild, it is available from bookshops and online retailers.

For more information, see www.catherinerandall.com.