AUTHORS INTERVIEWING THEIR CHARACTERS: Eliza Graham author of The Lines We Leave Behind
AUTHORS INTERVIEWING THEIR CHARACTERS: Eliza Graham author of The Lines We Leave Behind
Interview with Maud Knight on board a Halifax bomber heading for Yugoslavia, March 1944.
Why are you shivering, Maud?
I’m flying out to carry out an operation with the Partisans. It’s cold in this Halifax — it’s a military aircraft with no heating. But I’m also scared I’m going to muck up my parachute drop: break a leg or land somewhere the Germans will pick me up. More than that I’m terrified that I’ll fail to carry out my objectives. That I’ll let people down. My earlier life wasn’t filled with glory.
In what way?
I drifted through life.
Tell us more about your operation?
Sorry, I signed the Official Secrets Act.
But can you say why you were chosen for this work? It’s unusual to parachute women into Yugoslavia, isn’t it?
I haven’t come across anyone female who’s been dropped in like this, apart from Naomi, my companion here. [NODS AT YOUNG WOMAN NEXT TO HER]. She’s a paratrooper, Jewish-Hungarian by birth. Very tough. Generally, though, Special Operations think Yugoslavia is too dangerous for females.
I think my knowledge of Serbo-Croat was what brought me to their notice. There are other reasons, but they relate to my eccentricity of character and I’d rather not think about that, if you don’t mind. Not while I’m trying to buck myself up.
What’s that you’re looking at?
A silver cigarette case.
Did someone special give it to you?
That’s classified, too.
Do you smoke?
It’s the 1940s. Almost everyone smokes. It takes our mind off food rationing. In the field, cigarettes are also useful for trading for information or food or for bribing people who might need it. We’ve packed cartons of them in the canisters.
Still on the subject of cigarettes, your name is Maud, but the initial on that case is an… Oh, you’ve stuffed it away.
I had a field name while I was training. Not strictly necessary as I’m not going into enemy territory as a spy, rather as a combatant. But my alternative identity stuck.
So you’re two people, really?
No wonder I sometimes feel confused about myself.
It’s going to be strange going back to normal life after all this.
If I do go back to normal life. If I’m caught either by the Germans or by their puppet regime in Croatia, things could get very nasty. But yes, worrying about rations and blackouts would seem strange things to worry about in comparison.
A puppet regime?
The Ustashe government — Fascists. Some of their actions against Jews and Serbs shock even the Nazis. Then there are the Chetniks. They used to be the Allies’ preferred partners against the Germans in Yugoslavia before we switched to the Partisans. The Chetniks and Partisans are at war with one another as they have competing views about what Yugoslavia should be and disagree on how to fight the Germans. Whether to actually fight the Germans, in the case of some, not all, of the Chetniks.
So there are the Germans, the Ustashe and the Chetniks to watch out for?
And Bulgarians and Hungarians in some parts of Yugoslavia.
My knowledge of Balkan geography is coming under strain.
Yugoslavia’s always been carved up by various empires and external powers. They were given autonomy after the First World War, but strains between the Serbs, traditionally Orthodox Christians, and the Catholic Croats existed years before the Germans and Italians invaded.
Italians? They’re involved too?
Yes, but the bits along the coast that Mussolini grabbed have now been snatched by the Germans.
How on earth does anyone understand what’s going on in Yugoslavia?
Someone I know once ordered a cake to be baked in the shape of Yugoslavia and cut it up into pieces to demonstrate the reality.
Was that helpful?
The cake collapsed.
Why didn’t you stay in London?
When we weren’t being bombed it was boring working in a doctor’s surgery. I never got round to joining one of the women’s services, I wasn’t really a team player.
Really?
I’ve had to work on those qualities since I started training for this operation. It wasn’t easy. I hope I’m better at it now. My life and the lives of others depend on it. Perhaps I’m finally growing up. And I have a good friend with me on this mission, so perhaps I’m doing better at relationships now.
Why’s that man standing up?
He’s the despatcher and he’s going to open the hatch. We must be nearing our parachute drop zone.
How does the drop work?
The despatcher checks for lights below that mark the zone. We clip our parachute lines to that rail up there [POINTS] so that when we jump the lines pull open the parachutes.
Then we try hard not to land in trees or on rocks. And hope for friendly faces waiting down there. A glug of something alcoholic would be a nice welcome, too, but these people have lived and fought in the rough for years now, so we’re grateful for anything.
Well, good luck.
Thank you. As I said, this is my chance to show what I’m made of — that other people, my country and its allies can rely on me when it really matters.
[DESPATCHER NODS AT MAUD, WHO STANDS UP AND STRAPS HER PARACHUTE LINE TO THE RAIL.
RED LIGHT SWITCHES ON, MAUD SITS AT THE HATCH, LEGS DANGLING.]
[GREEN LIGHT SWITCHES ON.]
She’s gone…
ENDS
The Lines We Leave Behind by Eliza Graham is published by Lake Union on 1st November.
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Eliza Graham has always been a bookworm with a passionate interest in literature and history. She grew up in Kingston-upon-Thames and went on to read English Language and Literature at Oxford University, which sparked a love of Victorian novels.
Eliza was inspired to write The Lines We Leave Behind on a trip to the Dalmation Islands with her husband, where they hired kayaks and planned an idyllic picnic on a small, uninhabited island – only to be met with a sense of unease and a plaque commemorating the Croat and German victims of a massacare from 1945. They had their picnic elsewhere!
Eliza is a fan of long walks, museums and, in addition to reading, has a penchant for beautiful handbags. She lives in village in the Oxfordshire countryside with her family and two dogs. She is available for interview and to write features.
Find out more about her on her website https://www.elizagrahamauthor.com/
About THE LINES WE LEAVE BEHIND
“The Lines We Leave Behind is mesmerizing; a deeply affecting story of treachery, deception, sacrifice, and loss. Beautifully written and completely absorbing…” —Karen Dionne, author of the internationally bestselling The Marsh King’s Daughter
England, 1947: A young woman finds herself under close observation in an insane asylum, charged with a violent crime she has no memory of committing. As she tries to make sense of her recent past, she recalls very little.
But she still remembers wartime in Yugoslavia. There she and her lover risked everything to carry out dangerous work resisting the Germans—a heroic campaign in which many brave comrades were lost. After that, the trail disappears into confusion. How did she come to be trapped in a living nightmare?
As she struggles to piece together the missing years of her life, she will have to confront the harrowing experiences of her special-operations work and peacetime marriage. Only then can she hope to regain the vital memories that will uncover the truth: is she really a violent criminal…or was she betrayed?
Category: Interviews, On Writing
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