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Why Add The Bad Stuff?

April 26, 2018 | By Bronwen Griffiths | Reply More

My second published novel, Here Casts No Shadow, explores a number of quite dark themes – war, death, revenge, mental illness and forced displacement. People sometimes ask me – why, when there’s so much sadness in the world, do you have to add to all the bad stuff? We have enough awful news thrown at us each day. Why can’t you give us romance, or comedy?

I love comedy and non-slushy love stories and I really admire writers who can write laugh-aloud comedy but that’s not me, although I hope my writing is not without some humour – or love, for that matter! All writing needs light and shade. But the truth is, we writers are often drawn to particular themes, which we explore again and again in our work. I grew up hearing about ‘the War’ (World War 11) from both my parents.

My father had been a conscientious objector and worked down the mines, while my mother, too young to join the women’s auxiliary services, endured the Manchester Blitz and lost both her brother and father within eighteen months of each other. My mother-in-law (a little older than my own mother) worked in the ATS (the Auxiliary Territorial Service) and she too had many stories to tell. There was also the old neighbour of ours who’d been in a cavalry charge in the First World War and who’d witnessed two young soldiers shot for desertion. Those soldiers may well have been suffering from PTSD, or what was once known as ‘shell-shock.’

Learning first-hand some of the horrors – and also the camaraderie – of those wars definitely affected my view of the world. I was also influenced, as were many of my generation, by the Vietnam War, which filled our TV screens – and later our movie screens.

Creating the character of Mira in Here Casts No Shadow, gave me a vehicle through which to write about some of the issues I care about, such as the treatment of civilians in war and the current refugee crisis. But Here Casts No Shadow is a work of fiction and a successful work of fiction should never attempt to preach to the reader. In any case, fiction is not ‘real’ life. It must function as a story, with a beginning and an end, and it must be a satisfying story, with strong, interesting and complex characters.

For those caught up in war, there often is no happy ending – no resolution. When we read a book, or watch a film, we don’t necessarily want a frothy and they lived happily ever after ending but we do require an ending and, at the least, some kind of resolution. Otherwise we, as viewers or readers, will feel cheated. We want – we need – the bad guy to face justice; we want the under-dog to succeed, even if in ‘real’ life this is not always the case.

War is a messy business, and people often talk about the ‘fog of war’. Often, at the beginning of an uprising, there is huge optimism and it is, perhaps, easier to sort out the ‘good’ guys from the ‘bad’ guys. But as conflict intensifies and becomes militarised, people are often forced into compromises, and into making decisions they would not make in normal life. In Here Casts No Shadow, I explore some of these moral dilemmas. What happens to a person who steps over the boundary of what we consider is morally acceptable? How do they cope? What about justice? Mira herself is a full of flaws and self-doubt, but she also has inner reserves and strength which enable her to pull through the most difficult circumstances.

Here Casts No Shadow could not have been written without my knowledge of the conflict in Syria, or without the friendships I have made with Syrian refugees. I am sure readers will see echoes of that conflict within the novel. But, I stress, the book is not Syria. It is fiction – the story of a woman caught up in circumstances beyond her imagining.

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Bronwen was born in Birmingham, UK, and grew up in a village in North Worcestershire. She now lives in East Sussex. Here Casts No Shadow is her second published novel. A Bird in the House came out in 2014, and a book of flash fiction and short stories about Syria, in 2016. Before becoming a full-time writer she worked in galleries and museums as an arts educator.

About Here Casts No Shadow

The novel is narrated by Mira, both in the past and the present. At the age of fifteen, Mira had to feel with her family when war came to her small town. The family ended up in a refugee camp on the border, finally moving a thousand miles away from their homeland. Years later, older brother, Kaz, re-enters her life. Now Mira must confront the long-buried and terrible secret that threatens to rip her new world apart.