Goodreads asked David Dunham:

Where did you get the idea for your most recent book?

David Dunham For The Silent Land, the original book was called The Catesby Committee and was set in 1939 England around the relationship between two young men, James and Sebastian, and how one became compromised in his patriotism. I began to write the novel, but after a chapter or two I suddenly became more interested in their mother and what her story was so I took the story back many years to when she was a young woman.

The chronology of her life couldn’t ignore the First World War, hence my involvement of a relatively unknown battle in the narrative; a battle I had once researched as a reporter.

The story ends in 1919, leaving James and Sebastian awaiting their turn (in my head) for their tale to be told.

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