Fireweed by Richard Vaughan Davies
It’s Hamburg in 1947 and young British lawyer Adam is posted to the destroyed city to assist in the prosecution of Nazi war criminals — an exhausting, soul-destroying and demoralising task.
He starts to visit the Lion House brothel, where he falls in love with Rose, an aristocratic German girl forced to work as a prostitute during a time of strict anti-fraternisation rules.
Rose is beautiful, educated, clever and witty, and Adam becomes increasingly obsessed with her. He starts to plan their future but, with the world against them, is a future possible?
When a Nazi prisoner, responsible for the cold-blooded killing of hundreds of innocents, escapes Adam’s custody, there is only one place for the desperate man to hide: Hamburg’s forbidden Dead Zone. Adam’s career and reputation is on the line and he is desperate to find the dangerous fugitive, no matter the cost.
Guest Post
“Today I’d love to introduce my novel Fireweed, written over a three year period from 2016 to 2019.
“After attending many Creative Writing groups, it seemed high time I tried to put what I’d learnt into practice… I only turned to writing in retirement. Prior to this, I was a businessman for many years. On business trips to Germany, I was always horrified by the terrible destruction Allied bombers had wrought on almost every German city and town. I wondered what it would have been like for a young English officer posted to a ruined city like Hamburg, immediately after the war ended? Strict anti-fraternisation regulations forbade any contact between the occupying forces and the German population, but these measures were soon relaxed?
“What if our young officer fell in love with a German girl while working as a lawyer in the post-war trials?
“It felt as if the book was starting to write itself and I just had to act as typist. I started setting aside an hour a day to hammer away at my desktop and I’d edit the previous day’s work each morning.
“I knew what I wanted from the book…
“I wanted to try to emulate, however inadequately, the type of author I had always enjoyed – Nevil Shute, Nigel Balchin, Winston Graham and others. I also wanted to incorporate what I’d learnt on visits to the Normandy beaches and the trenches of WW1. I’d always been fascinated by the war and post-war period and I wanted to write the book I’d like to read…
“I had studied German at school so was acquainted with the language and a visit to Hamburg in my youth had stuck with me. I could envisage the setting perfectly and so. The writing began and it didn’t stop until the story was told.
“I decided to call the novel Fireweed. This is the name for the seed that lies dormant in the ground and germinates in intense heat. It sprang up across the bomb sites of Europe, representing the power of life in destruction. Like Fireweed, I wanted my characters to find life amongst the debris of war.
“I also hope that the characters will come to life in the minds of my readers and stay with them after they close the book.”
Many thanks to READ Media for inviting me to share a guest post from Fireweed.
About the Author
Richard Vaughan Davies is an author living in the Cotswolds. Formerly an entrepreneur with a successful business in men’s retail in Chester and North Wales, he wrote a regular business column in the Liverpool Daily and published a how-to-book named Let’s Talk Shop. Richard is the author of In the Shadow of Shakespeare. Fireweed is his latest work.
