Jacqueline’s Comments (group member since Feb 25, 2013)

Jacqueline’s comments from the Ask Jacqueline Winspear - March 12, 2013 group.

Karen wrote: "Your portrayal of characters suffering from what we'd now call post-traumatic stress disorder is spot-on. Can you talk about how you incorporated this into your books (why you decided to make such ..."

Thank you for your question, Karen. If you are writing about war, then the effects of war become part of the writing - it just happens, because anyone impacted by war, directly or indirectly, bears some level of scarring. It was a decision made for me when the Great War became a backdrop to the experience of characters in the books.

Janet wrote: "Your Maisie Dobbs series shows so much skill and talent with setting -- both the visual and the psychological. In general it seems to me that many aspects of period setting beyond concrete visual d..."

Hi Janet, Thanks for your question. I will respond to just one part of the question - any history about spiritualism in the era that might be interesting. Well, you came across some of this in PARDONABLE LIES. In Britain, people have historically turned to the occult in troubled times. And when I say "occult" I mean "that which cannot be explained." Though there are many, many churches throughout the country, in England, especially, they were very much places to celebrate "hatch, match and dispatch" - baptisms, weddings and funerals. During the war many members of the clergy heartily supported sending men to into battle, which by the Spring Offensive of 1915 was becoming an almost adversarial message, and even the 3% faithful were losing faith. Sales of ouija boards soared in the war, hitting a peak in 1917 - and there were many cases of charlatan mediums making money from heartbroken bereaved parents, wives and sweethearts. And you can see how that might happen. Given the system of mailing from the front, it would be likely that a family would receive a telegram with news that a son had been killed in action, then a few days later they would receive letters from that son. In addition, there were so many listed as "missing" that it left big questions as to whether the son/husband/father was actually dead or alive somewhere. When the opportunity to communicate with the "other side" was given, perhaps feeding on the grief, it was grasped as if it were a lifeline to that other person.

Elaine wrote: "Hello! Like everyone else, I love the Maisie Dobb series and look forward eagerly to each book. I have heard a rumor that the Maisie series will be coming to an end soon. Can you confirm or deny?"

Elaine, that's a question with two answers - read the end of LEAVING EVERYTHING MOST LOVED, and you will have your answer.

Bev wrote: "Hello, I agree with so many of the comments about the Maisie Dobbs books. My question is what resources and how to do you research the time period and get so much detail to describe the time and t..."

Hi Bev, My research can be divided into Primary and Secondary Research. Primary research involves me walking the streets that my characters walk, but with a 1930's map in my hand, and with my head back so I can look up (the ground level of buildings change, but upper floors don't so much). The trouble with getting locations right, for example, is that much of London was effectively demolished by the Luftwaffe in WW2, and what the Luftwaffe didn't get, the London County Council demolished in the succeeding years. So, I try to get the geography right. I have a lot of information already to hand, but I also spend time at the Imperial War Museum in London, or the Transport Museum, or in conversation with specific archivists. However, the key here is not how I research, but using what I discover - and I believe that research must show only as much as an iceberg shows above the surface (about 7%). The research informs every word, but it must never, ever become more important than the story. It is there to support the story, to root the novel in its time and place. If it does more than that, I might as well be writing narrative non-fiction. I am first and foremost a storyteller, everything else I do is to support that role.

Deanne wrote: "Hello,
Thanks for taking the time to come and answer our questions. What a rare treat. I just read the first book a couple days ago. One character I found quite intriguing was Maurice. I loved,..."


Well Deanne, there are some big questions there. Apart from anything else, and apart from the writing, I believe compassion is the most important part of human interface.

Kathy wrote: "I agree with Susan Jo - there are great questions here. I can't wait to hear the answers. My question: do you have a writing mentor?
Thank you!
Kathy"


No, I don't have a mentor, writing or otherwise.

Margo wrote: "Messenger of Truth has been my favorite of the series, and like many others I appreciate the way you have so carefully depicted life in this era. I too wonder if Maisie will ever find someone with..."

Thank you for your message, Margo. I don't think I am particularly "courageous" but if anything, observing my grandfather when I was just a child - as he struggled to breathe sometimes, and as he suffered such pain in his legs - made me wonder, even then, about the ways that war lingers. I feel strongly that it's too easy, when looking back, to give war a beginning and an end (1914-18, 1939-45, etc), but as Lady Rowan says in Birds of a Feather, "That's the trouble with war, it's never over when it's over, it lives on inside the living." My mother still cannot bear to be in confined spaces - she was buried under rubble when a V2 rocket hitting the neighborhood brought down the family's house during WW2.

Katelyn wrote: "Hi all, I'm Kate. I'm a very big fan of the series and can't wait for the newest Maisie installment! Reading Maisie has definitely sparked my interest in the WWI/WWII time period. My question(s)..."

No, I didn't take inspiration from other books. My favorite book? I think ever since we studied it at school when I was 16, I have loved The Great Gatsby. I had been raised on a staple diet of the classics (Dickens, Austen, etc., etc), then we studied Modern American Literature, which at the time meant Scott Fitzgerald, Hemingway, etc., and I was hooked. Scott Fitzgerald went completely against the grain with that novel, not only in the subject-matter, but in the style of writing - consider that The Forsyte Saga was published only a few years before, and you get a sense of how the book impacted readers in those days. I loved USA by Dod Passos, which also remains one of my favorite books.

Wendy wrote: "Charlotte wrote: "I read the entire Maisie Dobbs series this fall and loved the mysteries, rhe historical details and the believable characters. I think the BBC should make this series into the nex..."


There are no plans for a TV series, though if you want you could pepper PBS with emails about it!! The truth is that it takes a fairly big budget to produce historical dramas, so it's not as easy to bring to either the big or small screen as you might think. I would not want to see the series on the screen unless it were a quality production (and by the way, Downton Abbey was not a BBC production - it was independent television in the UK).

Wendy wrote: "Hello my name is Wendy. I have enjoyed the Masie Dobbs series for a number of years. My question for Jacqueline is how did you decide that Maise should be an investigator? Was this based upon hi..."

Hi Wendy,

As with an earlier question, some things happen organically, and I knew straightaway that Maisie was an investigator, though a bit different in her approach. The experience of women in Britain at that time was somewhat different from women in America - they weren't just questioning their roles (they had been doing that for some time - suffragettes in the UK were particularly strident and eventually did not shy from violence to be heard), but during the Great War women moved into work and public life as never before. An additional 1.5 - 2 million women went into the workplace in highly visible roles, taking the jobs of men who were released to the battlefield - there was not a field of endeavor left untouched by a woman's hand, from construction, to driving trains, buses, police work etc. Over 55,000 women worked for the various branches of the Secret Service, which was built upon their endeavors, and they reached very senior positions. Maisie is very much a woman of her time. After the war life did not exactly go back to life as it was before the war given the fact that some 2 million women of marriageable age would never have a husband or children due to the great losses in the war - in 1921 a young woman stood a 1-in-10 chance of being married - so women had to take care of their financial security; they had to be part of community or be invisible, and they had to nurture relationships to sustain them as they grew old. Of course there were tragic stories of loneliness and want, but a dynamic generation of women went into 1920's Britain. Why do you think the 20's and 20's was the golden age of the British woman novelist - there's a job you can do at home, using your intellect and imagination and with no training! Oh, and there were several women who set up as private investigators at that time.

Georgia wrote: "I was introduced to Maisie Dobbs in one book club, and
we loved it so much that I recommended these books to my other book club and now many others are reading her
wonderful mysteries. Love it tha..."

Thanks for your comments, Georgia. To answer your question, I don't think secondary characters need to be in every book.

Mindy wrote: "Hello, I'm a stay-at-home mom of four, so reading is a precious commodity. A librarian friend suggested your books and I have really enjoyed them. My question is what do you read for enjoyment wh..."

Hi Mindy,

When I am writing, I generally do not read other fiction - it's not a good idea as I want my focus to remain on what I am writing, so I tend to read non-fiction related to my writing. Or I read completely different non-fiction. I love biography and memoir. Regarding fiction - I read as widely as I can. Having said that, I have just finished a couple of great books - Beautiful Ruins by Jess Harper, and Louise Erdrich's latest book, The Round House.

Marty wrote: "I have read 9 of the books and love them all. Will she ever marry? What will happen when WWII comes?"


Oh dear, if I answer these questions, I won't have to write the books to find out!

Robin wrote: "My name is Robin. I usually read mysteries not for the answer to "who done it" but for the setting and characters, which are wonderful in your books. I love that Maisie is a strong woman who sees h..."

Thank you for your comments, Robin! I'm always more interested in the "why" when I read a book, and I tend to go for strong character-driven books. When writing a novel, in my experience, some elements of character happen organically, and are completely unplanned - and the elements of psychology and eastern "mysticism" that are part of Maisie's character came about as I was writing. Having said that, there are historical underpinnings to this side of her history - Britain's "jewel in the crown" of Empire was the Indian subcontinent, but that influence went in both directions. Among certain elements of society - those that Maisie is exposed to via her mentor, Maurice Blanche - there was a real fascination with all aspects of eastern spiritual thought (there had been cases of British army officers and civil servants going awol in search of altered meditative states). I have books on yoga and eastern spirituality going back to the early 1900's. At the same time, modern psychology was born - Freud and Jung were at the forefront, and I think I am right in saying that Jung published his doctoral thesis around 1904. Maisie studied the Moral Sciences at Girton college - I have the prospectus for 1913 - and immersion into psychology represents a good one third of the course, so she would have been well exposed to modern thought on the subject, adding to the teaching she's had from Maurice and his associates.

Jacqueline wrote: "Oh, a question: will Maisie ever have a catalyst to let go of her career enough to have a true relationship with a life partner?"

Oh, now then, I can't tell you that .....

Barb wrote: "Hi, my name is Barb and I really enjoy the Maisie Dobbs series. I was introduced to it in a book club. Since then, I have read them all except the newest. I just wanted to compliment you, Ms. Win..."

Hi Barb,

That's a question I'm asked a lot! There are two answers - the first is that I did not "plan" to write the first book in the series, or those that came after. I was a writer of non-fiction (articles and essays, plus I had a day job, when the idea for the first novel in the series first came to me (while stuck in traffic, I might add). It was a bit like watching a movie as the story unfolded in my head. I call that my moment of "artistic grace" - however, those moments don't happen in a vacuum. I have been curious about the Great War since childhood, since first learning why my Grandfather suffered with painful leg wounds, with gas-damaged lungs and with some of the symptoms of shell shock. Childhood curiosity became adult inquiry, and in time I became more interested not only in how ordinary people were changed by the challenges of a war that impacted almost every family throughout Britain, but more especially, how dramatically women's lives were changed. I already had books and books on the subject before ever Maisie stepped into my life in that moment of artistic grace,