We Had a Great Time at West Barnes Library... By Joy Kluver

 We had a great time on 20th October at West Barnes Library with our first in-person author event since January 2020. It was so nice to have an audience! David Young and Amanda Lees came to talk about their new WW2 books. Death in Blitz City is set in David Young's hometown of Hull. After London, it was one of the cities most badly bombed during the war. The Silence Before Dawn is based in France, in particular, near Lyon. Amanda Lees wanted to focus on the female spies from the SOE who were sent to France to work with the Resistance.

I wish I could tell you everything that David and Amanda said but my brain is like a sieve these days. So, I'll give you some of my personal highlights from the evening. One question I asked was about research and if there had been any surprises. David Young includes American GIs in his book and he was amazed to discover that the Americans had their own prison in the UK during the war. More than that, they dispensed their own justice against their soldiers and even borrowed the British executioner from that time - Albert Pierrepoint - to carry out executions.

I also wanted to know if our authors had any personal connections to the topics they were writing about. Amanda told us that her father had worked in the intelligence service but as he died when she was young, she doesn't have many stories about him. However, when she was older, one of her first acting jobs was in 'Allo 'Allo, where she played a French Communist. Perhaps not the most realistic way to experience WW2 but an experience nonetheless!

Another question was about how careful an author needs to be when writing about real events and people from history. For David, the main bombing of Hull took place in 1941 but the American soldiers didn't arrive until 1942. So, he had to think carefully about when to set his story. He also features two real people from that time (can't say any more about that) but was careful in how they were portrayed. Amanda's book is set later in 1944 and there were lots of events happening that she needs to fit her stories round. Although she's looking at the female spies from SOE, her characters aren't based on anyone specifically. However, she does include Klaus Barbie, the infamous Butcher of Lyon.

The last thing we did was a WW2 TV theme quiz. I was kind this time and gave the authors advanced notice. I did my best to give clues where they were needed but the audience gave much better ones! Huge thanks to David and Amanda for being such good guests.