Inspiration for writing comes in many shapes and forms. I’ve been writing and thinking about While I Was Waiting for a long time. Maybe much longer than I think. So, what made me write a book set during World War 1?
The 4th of August 1914 saw Britain declare war on Germany. It became one of the bloodiest conflicts in history, with an estimated 9.7 million dead. And was supposed to be the ‘war to end all wars.’
One of the war dead was my great-grandfather, David Batham.
He was killed in 1915. Too old to enlist, he volunteered anyway. His brother had been taken prisoner early in the war and it made David determined to serve his King and country. Fatally injured by an exploding shell, he left behind a widow and three young children.
My great-grandfather was often talked about. His son, accompanied by my father made the journey to his military grave in La Brique Cemetery in Belgium. His daughters, who I remember as old ladies, would reminisce but not just with pride. Their loss, even fifty or so years later, was clear to me, even as a young child.
As research, I scrolled through dedications left on military cemetery internet sites. It makes for moving reading.
‘I never knew you but learned about you from my dad,’ reads one.
‘Remembered with pride,’ reads another.
And, very poignantly this, ‘Widower, left four children orphaned.’
More moving still are the photographs and ages of those killed. Most are in their twenties or younger.
My childhood home was full of books. My father was a keen reader and historian. One of them was this.
It’s not for the faint-hearted and certainly not a book I would let children look at. However, when I was young, it held a morbid fascination for me. It’s a collection of photographs which depict the horrific realities of the Great War. Some photographs, once seen, stay with you.
I stayed fascinated with World War 1 as a teenager. In the late 70s two series hit the television screen. One was an adaptation of K M Peyton’s Flambards and one was Testament of Youth. I loved both, read the books and strongly identified with the heroines. Later, I gobbled up Sarah Harrison’s much underrated The Flowers of the Field and read Birdsong just as avidly.
More recently, when looking round a National Trust house, I was moved by seeing the bedroom of a son of the house. It was kept just as it was when he had left to go to war, never to return. And in another big house, I learned that not just one son went to war but all three. And all three died.
Looking back, it’s easy to see how all these things percolated down to make me want to write While I Was Waiting. A writer soaks up conflict, universal themes and big issues. The Great War offers all that and more.
It’s over 100 years since World War 1 began. It paved the way for a new Europe, another world war and changed the lives of everyone, be they serving soldier, munitions girl or fatherless child.
Its real tragedy? That it wasn’t ‘the war to end all wars.’
RIP Private David Batham, 3rd Battalion, Worcestershire Regiment.
Love,
Georgia x
PS Sarah Harrison’s Flowers of the Field has been re-released with a new cover. There’s also a third book in the series, The Wildflower Path, which I’ve just ordered and can’t wait to read.
