Monday 3 September 2018

Yesterday Uncovered - 1940s with Kathryn Gauci




This month on Yesterday Uncovered we slip back to the 1940s

Sitting, in the shade, on a recliner at the side of my pool is Kathryn Gauci, the author of Conspiracy of Lies so please help yourself to a glass of chilled bubbly, a plate of tapas, then make yourself comfortable and enjoy slipping back to the 1940s.



Tell us a little about yourself

Hi, Pauline, thank you for inviting me to chat by your lovely pool with a glass of bubbly. It’s great to be here. I was born in the UK. After studying textile and carpet design at Art College, I embarked upon a career as a designer. I lived and worked as a carpet designer in Vienna for one year, and Athens for six years. After a brief spell in New Zealand, I eventually settled in Melbourne, Australia, where I established my own home textiles design studio. After almost thirty enjoyable years, I decided I needed a sea-change and became a writer. Drawing on my background has been invaluable for me.


What inspired you to write about the 1940s?

I’ve always had a fascination with WWII. Maybe that’s due to being born not long after the war. I grew up with WWII stories, the music of Glenn Miller and other big band musicians, and of course, the films of that era. This interest was further fuelled when I lived in Vienna.  After the war, Austria was under Allied Occupation for ten years, and the village and factory where I worked, had been under in the Russian Sector. The melancholic mood of the film “The Third Man” was still very much in evidence, and one of my designer associates had fought at Stalingrad. In Athens, I discovered that I lived a few streets away from one of the most famous heroines of the Greek Resistance in WWII – Lela Karagiannis, whose famous descendant was Bouboulina, the first female to be given the title of Admiral after using her fleet of ships to fight the Turks in The Greek War of Independence in 1821. Unfortunately, Lela was betrayed and executed by the Germans.




Tell us little about the story and its plot without giving too much away

The story begins in 2001 when a letter from France causes Claire Bradshaw to suffer a heart attack. Her recently divorced daughter, Sarah, decides not to let sleeping dogs lie and starts investigating Claire’s past. Mother and daughter eventually go on holiday to France together where Claire tells her story within the French resistance from 1939 onwards
Part historical, part romance and part thriller, Conspiracy of Lies takes us on a journey through occupied France, from the picturesque villages of rural Brittany to the glittering dinner parties of the Nazi Elite, in a story of courage, heartbreak and secrecy.
In 1940, With the Germans about to enter Paris, Claire Bouchard flees France for England. Two years later she is recruited by the Special Operations Executive and sent back into occupied France to work alongside the Resistance. Working undercover as a teacher in Brittany, Claire accidentally befriends the wife of the German Commandant of Rennes and the blossoming friendship is about to become a dangerous mission.
Knowing that thousands of lives depended on her actions, Claire begins a double life as a Gestapo Commandant’s mistress in order to retrieve vital information for the Allied Invasion of France, but ghosts from her past make the deception more painful than she could have imagined.


Is any part of the story based on facts / real events?

The story is based on actual events and only in the plot do I take creative license.


Are any of the characters based on someone real or are they pure fiction?

The protagonists are composites of real women whose biographies I read, especially those who worked for the Special Operations Executives or the Free French. Apart from these larger than life figures, life itself throws up an assortment of personalities and with a little tweak here and there, they often find their way into the book.


If research was necessary what did this involve?

I don’t think anything can substitute visiting the settings in your book. Breathing in that same air seeps into your soul and for me, gives authenticity. Of course this is not always possible and you have to read everything you can lay your hands on. Combined with the internet, this covers most of my research. I have walked through many a street and countryside via satellite. Thank goodness for technology. But you still can’t smell those distinct smells, or taste the food through the internet.

Thank you for asking me to drop by. It’s been great to chat with you, and the bubbly was most enjoyable.


You can find Kathryn at all these places…












Thank you for stopping by and meeting Kathryn.

Next Tuesday, Wendy Percival talks about




You can also read...

A Snap Shot from the1940's

 Please call back again very soon as we revisit the 1940's


Pauline

3 comments:

Allegretto said...

Wonderful interview! My compliments!

Michelle Cox said...

Great post, Kathryn!

Wendy Percival said...

I’ve read CONSPIRACY of LIES and it’s excellent. It had me gripped all the way through!