Interview with Eliza Graham, Author of Jubilee

I'm so thrilled that Eliza Graham has agreed to take part in a Question and Answer session on my blog.

Her third novel, Jubilee, was published in June 2010 by Pan Macmillan and my review of her book is here

Eliza lives in the Vale of the White Horse in Oxfordshire with her husband, children and dogs.

When your 1st novel, Playing with the Moon, was published when and where did you first see it in a bookshop, and how did you feel and what did you do? I'd probably want to go round and tell everyone that that's my book!!

I first saw PWTM in the flesh at my book launch and I was rendered speechless by the sight of boxes of the book. I kept wanting to touch them. Part of me also feels a little alarmed when I see my books in 'real life'. I want to blurt out that it was only a story I made up! I always imagine people flicking through books to find bits that are wrong... People are often very kind about telling me where they've spotted my books. Sometimes they report back a few weeks later and say that the books are now 'gone' and then I wonder if they 'went' in customer bags or were simply sent back to the publisher because they didn't sell. These are questions best not considered in the early hours of the morning.

I love watching The Book Show on Sky Arts and one of my favourite parts is when we see authors in their writing area surrounded by all their little bits and bobs, and I wondered if you did your writing in a particular place and do you set yourself targets for the day?

It's not very glamorous, my writing space! I am typing these answers where I normally work: on the breakfast bar in our kitchen. I started off writing in a more bespoke writing area but then we had those two very cold winters and the kitchen was just warmer. We have also had a series of puppies, who live in the kitchen while they're being house-trained, and it's just easier to be here with them. One of them is curled up round my foot at the moment. Unfortunately being in the kitchen means I'm never far away from the digestive biscuits, too...

I don't usually have word count targets as that tends to encourage me to write words for the sake of words and often they aren't the right ones. Most often I challenge myself to get through a particular chapter or scene or transition. Even just a tricky hundred-word paragraph, if it's a bad day. More and more I think that, for me, a lot of the writing takes place in my head when I'm going for a walk or pottering around. If that part of the process is going well the words seem to get themselves written. If I'm struggling I often need to think a bit more about what I'm trying to do and perhaps bounce ideas off friends.

A recurring theme in your books seems to be the 2nd World War. Is that deliberate or it's just the way your stories have evolved?

I've always been fascinated by WW2. Where I grew up in London there were still air raid shelters and my grandmother used to tell us stories about the Blitz. It's such a rich repository of stories and themes and there's so much material available now that I've found myself drawn back again and again.

My latest novel and the one I'm planning next probably won't have that part of history in them, though.

You must have done a lot of research, particularly about the prisoner of war camps, in Jubilee. Do you enjoy that side of your work?

I love research and have to be careful that I don't get carried away and let it take over. It's much easier to look things up these days and the internet is my best friend. But I also love libraries, museums and archives. I often get the urge to visit small museums in small towns--you find interesting little details in them. I'm still trying to think of a use for some little boots I saw in an agricultural museum that were designed for sheep to wear.

What sort of authors do you read and what book are you reading now?

At the moment I am reading the last Lee Child book and then I'm going to move on to Hans Fallada's Alone in Berlin. I tend to have reading obsessions and need to read a whole series at a time. I read almost every kind of book, from Anita Brookner to Trollope to Len Deighton. The only books I don't enjoy are westerns and romances. I think I am drawn to thrillers and crime because there's such a lot of good plotting in those books and you can very enjoyably learn a lot as a writer.

Can you give us some idea of your next book and when it's going to be published?

I am touching wood as I type this answer... My fourth book is set in an apparently idyllic boarding school in Oxfordshire where the apparently serene and charismatic head has some disturbing personal secrets that start to come out. It also involves reborn dolls: particularly life-like dolls that are often mistaken for real babies. I am touching wood because you never really know what will happen with a book until you get the go-ahead from the editor. Or the cheque.

Ooh that story sounds a little scary, but intriguing! Can't wait to read the book.

A huge thank you to Eliza Graham for taking the time and trouble to give me such brilliant answers.

Jubilee is out now and is published by Pan Books.

BOOK REVIEW: JUBILEE BY ELIZA GRAHAM

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Published by: Pan Books (June 2010)

Pages: 327 (Paperback)

My Rating: 8.5/10

JUBILEE BY ELIZA GRAHAM

About the Book:

It's the Queen's Golden Jubilee, and Rachel and her aunt Evie are celebrating with the crowds on the village green. The scene is tranquil, but Rachel and her aunt can never forget what happened exactly twenty-five years ago. On that day, Evie's young daughter Jessamy vanished. She hasn't been seen since. Soon after, news comes of Evie's sudden death, and Rachel must return to the village to deal with her aunt's estate. The extraordinary story she uncovers there will change everything. It is a story of departure and return, of atrocity and betrayal, of unrequited love and the dreadful legacy of war.

My Thoughts:

First Line

By the time the kitchen clock struck seven I knew that my cousin wouldn't be coming back

After reading and loving the first two Eliza Graham novels -- Playing with the Moon and Restitution -- I was eagerly looking forward to another mystery with the backdrop of the War and I think she has once again come up with another excellent and compelling story!

The story starts with the now grown up Rachel reminiscing about the day of the Queen's Silver Jubilee in 1977 when she was aged 9 and her 10 year old cousin Jessamy seemingly vanished off the face of the earth, there were no signs of a struggle, no reports of a child being dragged off, she was happy and had no problems, so what could possibly have happened to her?

We are taken back and forth in time throughout the book, from the prison camps of the second World War , the Queen's Coronation in 1953, the Queen's Silver and Golden Jubilees, through to the present day, as we are slowly building up a picture of Jessamy and her family and of the secrets they hold. Indeed, on the day Jessamy vanished she said to Rachel that she hated keeping secrets.

Evie (Jessamy's mother) and her twin brother were evacuated to the Winters family farm in the country during WWII and I loved how we were given snippets of the letters that Robert Winter wrote, but never sent, to a young Evie while he was in a prisoner of war camp. It gave us an insight into not only the terrible conditions but also of the slowly deteriorating mind of a young man who struggles to live a normal life after the War has ended and he comes back to work on the family farm.

I enjoyed this book and was engrossed in the story from start to finish, I thought the prisoner of war camp was handled sensitively and knowledgeably, the characters both main and on the periphery were strong and believable, and overall a thoroughly good mystery.

Eliza Graham's website is here -- to whom I must thank for sending me her book to review.

Book Review: Restitution by Eliza Graham

Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Pan Macmillan (2009)
Pages: 391 (Paperback edition)
ISBN-10: 0230741886
ISBN-13: 978-0230741881









Synopsis: (From Eliza Graham's blog)

February 1945. Europe is in ruins and the Red Army is searing its way across Germany's eastern marches, revenging itself upon a petrified population. The war is over, but for some the fight for survival is only just beginning. Alix, the aristocratic daughter of a German resistance fighter, is desperate to flee before the Reds come. But when a ferocious snowstorm descends she is left alone and terrified.

First Line:

"Even now I don't like leaving the house on foggy days, though soldiers are unlikely to jump on me in Richmond."

These are the thoughts of Alix, an elderly lady who is nervously awaiting the arrival of her son who she hasn't seen since his adoption as a baby. During the visit, the inevitable question of who his father was sparks memories for Alix and we are then taken back to 1945 in Pomerania and the Red Army is advancing.............

This passage relates to Alix trapped in her house during the snowstorm (page 45):

The shutters rattled. The snow was blowing itself into a storm. Good. It would cover her footprints and slow down the Red Army. On the other hand, it might bring others here seeking shelter. She shouldn't be in this warm kitchen with its blue and white Dutch tiles above the stove, and the pots and pans hanging from the ceiling and reflecting the light of the gas lamp. She'd been a fool to come back, she should have obeyed Mami and kept on going west, no matter what. She'd promised and promises mattered, Papi had always told her that. Then, about a year ago, he'd shaken his head and said that therein lay the officer's dilemma. If you'd promised a monster that you'd serve him it was still a promise.

My Thoughts:

This was one of the most absorbing and thought-provoking books that I've read for a long time. Eliza Graham's simple and easy writing style kept me hooked throughout all the turbulant lives of all the characters - from South Tyrol in 1919 to London, England in 2002.

I felt emotionally drained at the end of it, having been every step of the way with Alix (a Baron's daughter) while her life and everything she knew and loved crumbled around her.

It was a love story, an heroic story, a sad story, also a story of hope and resilience.

I kept thinking how lucky we were (in England) that we didn't go through such a traumatic time and wondering how I would cope if I had to leave everything behind and start again. Truly a frightening thought! I marvelled at peoples ability to go on living and re-building their shattered lives in the face of such cruelty, but also some kindness still shone through.

The only minor negative that I would mention is of how the characters were introduced and how I was taken back and forth in time, I was quite confused by so many people, so many places and eras that it took me quite a while to really get into the book. But when it all 'clicked' I was hooked.

I would recommend it to anyone looking for a storyline that will draw you in and leave you breathless at the end.

Restitution is Eliza Graham's second novel - her debut novel Playing with the Moon was released in 2007 - my review here.

Special Thanks to Eliza Graham.

Comments and discussion welcome.

Also check out Juxtabooks review here

Book Review: Playing with the Moon by Eliza Graham

Genre: Fiction
Published by: Macmillan New Writing (2007)
Pages: 276











Synopsis:
Shattered by a recent bereavement, Minna and husband Tom retreat to an isolated village on the Dorset coast, hoping to find the solitude that will allow them to mourn and rebuild their foundering marriage. Walking on the beach one day, they unearth a human skeleton. It is a discovery which will plunge Minna into a mystery which will consume her for months.
The remains are soon identified as those of Private Lew Campbell, a black American GI who, it seems, drowned during a wartime exercise in the area 50 years before. Growing increasingly preoccupied with the dead soldier’s fate, Minna befriends a melancholy elderly woman, Felix, who lived in the village during the war. As Minna coaxes Felix’s story from her, it becomes clear that the old woman knows more about the dead GI than she initially let on.

First Line: " Our second wedding anniversary. I'm about to tell Tom our marriage is over when he spots something in the sand."

The story is narrated by Minna, and I really liked her character. She was suffering so much and didn't know how to make things better as she had withdrawn into herself a great deal. I felt that this is where her friendship with Felix helps her so much to come to terms with her loss, as she realises that she's not the only one to lose someone she loved. In a way, Minna becomes quite obsessed with Felix's story and finding out exactly what happened to Lew.
Their friendship is a healing process for both of them.

This is an excerpt from early in the story when Felix comes back to the village, after the discovery of Lew's body in 2006, and wanders round the utility room in her old home that she was evacuated from in 1943 when she was 14.

Her fingers touch paper jammed up against the wall in the far corner. She pulls out a small yellowed sheet. She blows on it and the dust disperses to expose a cormorant, poised to dive, head slightly tilted, eyes intent on its prey. Seeing the bird is like receiving an electric shock; she remembers Lew drawing it as though it was yesterday.

Felix slides the drawing back onto the shelf. It belongs in Rosebank House, with the girl she once was. Away from the valley, it would disintegrate. After all, she did.

The writing throughout the book was pacey, it never drags, it was never boring. Eliza Graham kept me interested and I really wanted to know more of what happened in Felix's life in the village in 1943 and after she left. I wanted her to find happiness.
I loved the way the story easily went back and forth in time.

This is another excerpt with Felix, Lew and Felix's friend David talking on the beach

'Just look at that moon' Lew pointed up through the cave entrance at the big yellow circle. 'You could just reach out and squeeze it like a lemon.' He began to sing in a low voice. 'Do you want the moon to play with, the stars to run away with?'

This is such an engaging and simple story, delighfully told, of guilt and loss and how it affects lives. It will probably never win any awards but I do hope it will win plenty of readers. This is Eliza Graham's debut novel.

Why Did I Pick This Book: I was instantly attracted to the book title and I loved the picture on the cover. I just had a good feeling from those that I would enjoy the book and I'm pleased that my instincts were right.

Any Negatives?: There were a couple of coincidences near the end of the story that I did find hard to believe, but I don't want to spoil any of the story for anyone so I won't say what they were!

Would I Recommend It?: Yes, definitely.