NWS Foreshadowing Interview

The Foreshadowing Marcus Sedgwick The Foreshadowing I know you have been interested in the Cassandra myth for some time; can you tell us how it came to form the basis of The Foreshadowing? Cassandra has about four one-line mentions in Homer’s Iliad. Most of her story is in Aeschylus’ Agamemnon, which was my main source, though I did read some of the things that have been written about her as well. Apollo gave Cassandra the gift of the prophecy but then cursed her so that so no one would believe that her visions were true – at least that’s one version of the story. It’s interesting because although people are aware of her story, she’s not a central character in the Trojan Wars. I think that’s because of her curse which I think is a powerful story and one that I have wanted to use for a while. In the end I didn’t need much of the original myth and quickly moved into my own story. By setting the book in the First World War, I was able to give it more layers, whereas a straight retelling of Greek myth would have been more limited. I used the parallels with the original story where they fitted my purpose; for example, their sea journeys and the war. However, I tried not to swamp my story with original source material. And there is a point of departure from the original when Alexandra eventually frees herself with her belief that she can’t make her own future. That’s a big theme of the book whether a person’s future is determined by freewill, fate or destiny. Were you able to find evidence that premonitions are a genuine phenomenon? Originally I had intended to write more about premonition. I wanted to find a serious academic approach as a starting point and tried to contact authors and psychologists who had written about the subject, but that didn’t come to anything. I quickly discovered that the ‘Mind Body, Spirit’ shelves in bookshops are full of mumbo jumbo, so I arrived at the conclusion that while premonition was a central theme of the book, it was probably an area where I needed to do least research as the ideas could be drawn from my imagination. I did find recorded instances of premonitions occurring in soldiers on the battlefields. I came across several references to characters like Hoodoo Bill who would accurately predict the names of soldiers that would be killed. I based Jack on material in those reports. How did you eventually decide that your ‘Cassandra’ story would be set at the time of the First World War? I knew I wanted to update the story. It needed to be set in a period when people didn’t generally believe in the ability to foretell the future. For instance, 1 Author interview © Harcourt Education Limited, 2007 The Foreshadowing if I had set it in the Middle Ages the story wouldn’t work because of contemporary belief premonition. The unusual thing about Cassandra in the original context is not that she could see into the future (the Greeks did have the Oracle and other future-telling devices) but the fact that no one believed in her prophecies. The First World War struck me as an ideal and powerful choice: there was a big crisis emerging so Alexandra’s premonitions would have real significance. You’ve previously written about the First World War; are there any connections between that book and this one? A few years ago I wrote a non-fiction book called Cowards. It took about nine months of research in the Imperial War Museum as well as background reading and online searching. During that research I became very interested in the friendship between Sassoon and Graves and the 19th Brigade which included the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the Welch Fusiliers as well as the Public Schools’ Battalion that Tom enlists in. I only used about 5% of my research for Cowards and felt there were other things that could be said in a new book. How important was the timing? The story opens in 1915 but then there’s a blank where nothing happens and then a leap forwards in time. I had to start the story before the introduction of conscription, which began on March 2nd 1916. It was important for me that it was the huge social pressure Tom was living with rather than conscription that made him change his mind about enlisting. I also needed the main action to take place in the summer of 1916 with the order for the ‘big push’ on the Somme. Bridging the time gap was one of the challenges in writing the novel. I used Edgar’s death followed by a silent period of mourning to account for the gap. There are six months when Alexandra doesn’t write in her diary, which allows the story to advance more quickly. The following chapters are short and broken to reflect her grief. I prefer to keep the writing of emotionally charged events understated. One of the effects of handling time like this is that I then needed to set up Part Two almost like the beginning of a new book. Although the First World War has been the subject of some recent children’s books, women’s experiences have not been written about more than a handful of times. The First World War was a catalyst for the women’s movement simply because the men were away fighting and women had to take on traditional male roles like driving buses. After the war, the suffragette movement was able to capitalise on the changes that had taken place during wartime. Alexandra is from a very traditional family but she wants to be able to do something positive outside the home. She’s a symbol of the early women’s movement. The Cassandra myth speaks to her: she thinks she can free herself from tradition and act to 2 save her brothers. Author interview © Harcourt Education Limited, 2007 The Foreshadowing How did you find the site for your final suspense? With regard to the final suspense, I spent a long time thinking about how the ending would play out and where it would happen. I knew that I wanted Alexandra to get as close to the frontline as was logistically possible and that she had to be based fairly close to Boulogne so that led me to the Somme action. I followed a long line of research to establish the location of field hospitals and how close nurses were to the war zone. Then I had to identify an actual battle to set the ending against. It involved working out authentic ways that both of Alexandra’s brothers could have joined up and what regiments they might have enlisted in. I settled on High Wood because it was where the Public School Boys’ Battalion were heading in July 1916. How important is research when writing historical fiction? Research is essential in historical writing because the details need to be accurate. On a visit to the reading room at the Red Cross Museum I discovered that passports were not needed for international travel before the First World War but they became required documents during the war. Things were looking dicey because Alexandra passes herself off as a nurse who has been given the authority to go abroad. I needed to find out whether a nurse going to the field hospitals would have been able to travel without a passport. Then I read about a document that could stand in place of a passport and didn’t have a photograph. It was a great relief because I wanted the details to be authentic and the only other alternative would have been to gloss over it which wouldn’t have been satisfactory. Was it important to visit places as well as read original source material? Yes, one of the things in visiting the scene is that you discover things out that you didn’t anticipate when starting out. I knew that I wanted to find out about the geography and terrain but I discovered a lot of unexpected detail. For instance, I was struck by the colour of the mud which was grey and pasty because of the chalky soil. It’s that sort of accurate colour that brings a story to life. Emotionally it was important to visit as well. There are trenches that are still visible and it all feels more recent than 90 years ago. The Somme Valley, that long, narrow strip of land, must have had more deaths per square meter than any other place. It is very strange and eerie and almost voyeuristic to be there. So your research took you to France, did it take you to Brighton as well? My family come from Brighton and I had conversations with an aunt who did some research to help me find out where to set Alexandra’s house. We had to find the right kind of house that reflected the status of her family, where a surgeon might have lived and near enough to the Dyke Road Hospital. The hospital was built as a school in 1913 and my grandfather went there for a 3 Author interview © Harcourt Education Limited, 2007 The Foreshadowing year but it was converted into a 520-bed Military hospital to receive Dominion troops in February 1915. I also wanted a house with a sea view, which is important to Alexandra. I chose Clifton Terrace and was fortunate to be able to visit the inside of one of the houses in the road during Brighton’s Open Studio event.

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