Lucy Strange
About Author
Lucy Strange worked as an actor, singer and storyteller before becoming a secondary school English teacher. She lives in the Kent countryside with her partner James, their baby boy and a tortoiseshell cat known as the Moo.
Our Castle by the Sea is Lucy's second novel for Chicken House, following her critically acclaimed debut, The Secret of Nightingale Wood.
Interview
OUR CASTLE BY THE SEA
CHICKEN HOUSE PUBLISHING
JANUARY 2019
OUR CASTLE BY THE SEA is an evocative story set during the Second World War, a time when being foreign attracted suspicion and communities lived in fear of invasion.
The story follows Petra whose family lives in a lighthouse overlooking the Channel. After a spate of acts of sabotage, community suspicion falls on Petra's German-born mother and the family is torn apart. Petra will need to draw on all her inner strength and beliefs to help set things right.
We asked LUCY STRANGE, author of THE SECRET OF NIGHTINGALE WOOD, to tell us more about her latest novel:
Q: What brought you into writing for children, and particularly historical fiction? What other careers have you had apart from being an author?
A: I had a lot of other jobs before I became a writer, including polishing motorbikes and selling hotdogs! I've worked as an actor and a singer - both of which I feel are connected to my career as an author, as they are also about telling stories.
It was my work as a secondary school English teacher that helped to spark my first book for young readers, The Secret of Nightingale Wood. Working with my target audience every day has really helped me to understand what they appreciate in a story.
I enjoy the challenge of historical fiction: real events can help to inspire the plot in so many exciting ways, and you always have a colourful 'backdrop' for your characters' story.
Q: Our Castle by the Sea, is set in the early days of World War II, why did you want to cover this period?
A: When I found out about the treatment of 'enemy aliens' in this country and the Second World War internment camps, I felt that it was a story that needed to be told - an aspect of the war that many younger readers would not know about.
I was keen to explore the feelings of anger and fear that so many British people would have experienced at this time - terrified of a Nazi invasion - and what that meant for people such as Mutti - my protagonist's mother, who happens to be German.
Q: How much research did you need to do before you could start writing - or while you were writing?
A: I did a great deal of research on the first two years of the Second World War and lighthouses on the English coast. Stories have their own life-force, and it can be tricky when a story pulls you away from the historical truths of the period: as a writer, you have to try to be true to your characters at the same time as keeping faith with the historical context.
Q: Were you drawn especially to the rescue of British soldiers off Dunkirk, which features strongly in the book and whose 75th Anniversary will be remembered this summer?
A: I think the evacuation of Dunkirk is one of the most inspiring stories from the Second World War as so many 'normal' people - civilians rather than the military - were involved, risking their lives to save the Allied troops.
Coming at a point in the war when things were looking very bleak indeed, the evacuation of Dunkirk was described by Churchill as "a miracle". I am very moved by the idea that, even if we think we are unimportant or ordinary, we can still be capable of extraordinary courage. We can all be heroes.
Q: What is the most effective way to bring a period in history alive when you're writing historical fiction and and how do you make it feel so authentic?
A: I think it's very important to do all the research and then, when you are writing, you have to try to forget it all again! You don't want to include so many historical details that it feels clunky or false.
I always try to remember that my character wouldn't necessarily feel moved to mention all those details - for them it would just be normal, everyday life. It's a balance between keeping the narrative fresh and vivid, and subtly dropping in selective historical references to give a sense of time and place.
Q: The story follows Petra, or Pet, the narrator, and her half-German family, through which you explore how non British-born people were treated during the war. Why did you decide to highlight this issue and what can we learn from it today?
A: It was important to me to explore the feelings of prejudice and xenophobia that are of course so heightened by conflict. When a nation becomes 'the enemy', it is all too easy to dehumanise the individual human beings who happen to belong to that nation. It would be nice to think that in the last seventy-five years, we have developed a more sophisticated and compassionate approach, but I think we've still got a little way to go....
Q: Petra and her family live in a lighthouse - is this something you would like to experience?
A: I think there's a sort of romance about lighthouses - those isolated, weather-battered outposts - castles of the sea. And of course they are also beacons of hope or symbols of safety, saving countless lives around treacherous coastlines.
I visited lots of lighthouses during my research for the book, and stayed at the wonderful Belle Tout lighthouse in Eastbourne. It was actually a beautiful, luminious Eric Ravilious painting of the view from the lantern room of this lighthouse that was my original inspiration for the book. The South Foreland lighthouse at St Margaret's in Kent was also a key influence, and I had a fantastic time being shown around this important landmark by some very knowledgeable National Trust volunteers.
Q: You also bring a supernatural element into the story through the Wyrme and Petra's dreams, and the standing stones that Petra connects with - the Daughters of Stone. Are there particular stones or stories that inspired this?
A: I love creating those weird, shimmering moments when a supernatural element creeps into what has otherwise been a very real-feeling story. In The Secret of Nightingale Wood, Henry's favourite fairy tales are woven through the story, and in Our Castle by the Sea, I wanted to play with a different sort of story - the myths and legends that are attached to the places we know so well.
The Wyrm is inspired by Goodwin Sands near Dover - a sandbank which has indeed sunk and swallowed up hundreds of ships over the centuries. And the Daughters of Stone were inspired by real megaliths such as the Merry Maidens in Cornwall, and Long Meg and her Daughters in Cumbria. According to legend, The Merry Maidens were girls who were cursed and turned to stone for dancing on a Sunday, and Long Meg was said to be a witch!
It was important to me that the Daughters of Stone were heroic characters, though - after all, our protagonist, Petra, knows deep down in her bones that she will - some day, somehow - become one of them...
Q: Through Petra and Mags's stories, you also explore how strong girls can be. How important is it for you that children have these representations in what they read?
A: When I was a little bookworm, most of the really brave and adventurous characters in books were boys, so I think young readers today are very lucky, as we have so many different sorts of stories to choose from and so many diverse and inspiring protagonists!
I think young readers like to see themselves reflected in the books they read, and characters such as Petra can be quite important, as we all know what it is like to feel small, unimportant and overshadowed by others, but Petra shows that we can all be heroic, even if we are afraid.
Q: How closely do you connect with your characters - and especially the protagonist - while you are writing, and do your characters dictate what happens or do you follow a plan?
A: I tend to plan quite carefully (and then plan again when it all changes!). Every now and then a character will want to do or say something unexpected (particularly unpredictable characters such as Petra's sister Mags!). Sometimes this can help to take the story in exciting new directions (and SOMETIMES it can be quite frustrating, but that's all part of the fun of being an author).
Q: Can you tell us about the Arts Council England funding you received to write this and how that came about?
A: Our Castle by the Sea was a project supported by Arts Council England. The grant they gave me allowed me to go from teaching full-time to teaching part-time, so that I could write this book. I'm hugely grateful to them for their support, and particularly as it meant we could get Our Castle by the Sea edited, finished and ready to be published in 2019 - the 80th anniversary of the beginning of the Second World War.
Q: What kinds of events are you planning for Our Castle by the Sea?
A: I'll be doing lots of bookshop and school events to celebrate the launch of Our Castle by the Sea - most of them in Kent (where I live), but a few in London too. I'd love to travel a bit more widely, but I had a baby last year and it's a bit tricky going further afield at the moment. There will be lots happening online too though, and I'm always delighted when teachers or librarians get in touch via my official Facebook or Twitter accounts - @TheLucyStrange
Q: What are you writing now?
A: I've just started work on my third book for Chicken House. I don't want to give too much away at the moment, but it is set in the Lake District at the very end of the 19th Century, and it might have a slightly more Gothic atmosphere than my first two books...
Q: Where is your favourite place to write and how does your writing day go?
A: I tend to do my best writing first thing in the morning, but since I had Baby Strange last year, I have to take my writing time wherever and whenever I can get it! I'm probably most happy writing in bed or on the sofa, nice and snug and warm, with a good, hot cup of Earl Grey tea steaming beside me.
The Secret of Nightingale Wood
