Jennifer Ryan asked Jennifer Ryan:

Aside from piecing together your grandmother’s stories, what kind of research did you conduct for this novel?

Jennifer Ryan The best part of my research was talking to old ladies about their memories of the war. Their eyes would light up when I asked them questions, and if there were more than one—I was often in an old people’s community—they’d all start talking on top of each other. They’d tell me about the dances, the affairs, the unwanted pregnancies, the gossip, the American boys, and then they’d remember the bombs and how they all pulled together, making cups of tea and singing, there was always a lot of singing and dancing. We’d invariably end up having a few choruses of popular songs from the day, Roll Out the Barrel, and It’s a Long Way to Tipperary. One old lady, who must have been over ninety, insisted on showing me how to do the dance to Knees Up, Mother Brown, and I clasped her elbow hoping she’d be okay as she got up out of her wheelchair and began kicking her legs in the air.
Shockingly, most of them told me that the war was the best time of their lives. This was because of the camaraderie and the fun, the relaxed attitudes, and the new jobs. One of them became an engineer and designed plane parts, and another became a senior nurse and then was sent to study medicine, which was very unusual for a woman in those days. They told me that they had more control over their lives, that the men had gone and they could do a better job without them, thank you very much.
Of course, the war wasn’t all fun, and there were plenty of horrific stories too, and very sad stories of people losing loved ones. I remember tears coming to the eyes of one old lady as she told me that she lost both her sons, that she was left with no children, no family.
There are also a great many memoirs, diaries, and letters from the era, which make for very interesting reads. The Second World War has been a fascination to me since my childhood, and I had already read a great many of these books before I even thought about writing a novel, although it gave me the perfect excuse to read them all over again.

flag