Home » Launching Living Legacy: The Love – and the Gift – of a Lifetime

Launching Living Legacy: The Love – and the Gift – of a Lifetime

December 8, 2023 | By Women Writers Women Books | Reply More

Bestselling Historical Fiction author Ellen Alpsten on Launching Living Legacy: The Love – and the Gift – of a Lifetime

As an author of Historical Fiction – the only genre that offers the ‘triple E’ of entertainment, education, and escapism – I believe that life is larger than art, even if its fascinating feats can lead to great fiction.

Why? One rainy afternoon, when aged 13, I ransacked my parents’ library and found a book entitled ‘Germans and Russians’, started to read – and was hooked. One chapter was devoted to Catherine I. of Russia, who lived the world’s most astonishing Cinderella story: an illiterate serf, becomes the first woman to ever rule Russia. When I had matured enough to REALLY write, I realised that, incredibly, there was no book about her: no thesis, no biography, no novel. Nothing!

What a dream for a budding author. Here was my subject! A real, VERY red-blooded person, who had lived, loved, and lost, who had known sorrow and success, tragedy, and triumph. It was all there: her-story was recorded in history. But this comes with huge responsibility. We deal with a REAL person, which means that writing a brilliant book about them is like baking a layer cake of events and emotions. If you want to get it right, you must know what REALLY happened. How she felt, thought, and acted. I used my imagination to make ‘Tsarina’ feel real, and human – as flawed and fabulous as any of us. The novel sold in 25 languages.

At heart, I longed to speak to my heroine: one reviewer notes ‘ the author’s ridiculous obsession for her subject.’ When launching ‘Living Legacy’, it was clear that I cannot write myself – I am too busy with my beloved historical fiction. But everything happens under my watchful eye. Our team hones the art of the question – listening, latching on, asking for more. And also letting things be, if necessary, giving a sensitive subject time, and space. A life is unique. That’s why our world-class writers are both authors and journalists.

Another reason to launch ‘Living Legacy’ is even closer to home: I never met my grandmother, Edda, who stemmed from Königsberg, today’s Kaliningrad. Just this sentence says so much about history, the passing of time and why I, as a bestselling novelist of historical fiction, launch ‘Living Legacy’. Edda fell in love with the son of a wealthy Pharmacist. She was only 16, but after a whirlwind romance, they married, and had a daughter, Karla. However, her husband turned out to be an Opium addict, who regularly raided his father’s shelves. He was dis-inherited and over-dosed, leaving my grandmother as a young widow. She moved away and worked as a Kindergarten-teacher. In the evening, she followed her passion: writing. Her debut was published in 1925, in those days a HUGE feat. Brava, Edda!

After she met and married my grandfather, a throat surgeon, they brought a host of refugees – friends, family, strangers – through the war, and had five more children, only to see two of them die before their time. When they finally fled the GDR – they covered gold coins in cloth to replace the buttons on a jacket – they started a second life in an age when others retire. Throughout that time, she continued to write and draft novels, but never published anything again. I wish I could have her memoir, getting to know her better and receive an answer to all my questions. And, last but not least, I would love to hold her hand and say: THANK YOU for passing your passion for writing on to me. That, too, is a gift of a lifetime.

It’s this medley of experiences that inspires ‘Living Legacy’. Writing a book about a real person is a task we cherish and honour. A writer owes their subject gratitude and respect. We are allowed to listen to their story. It’s a fabulous endeavour. This is true for any stage of life: perhaps you have a story you’d like to see written as a book when aged 25. At Living Legacy, your personal project is as easy as 1-2-3. Your writer interviews you for forty hours, or one month. Then, for four months, they make magic: they write your book. During the last month, an experienced editor polishes the final draft to perfection.

We are all excited about the stories we will hear: the more, the better. It’s today that we think about tomorrow, hearing about the past. What a privilege it is to say: Tell me what happened. Take your time. And start from the beginning, please.

—

About the Author

Ellen was born and raised in the Kenyan highlands, where her father worked as a Veterinary Surgeon. Once a month, the local cinema showed a Bollywood movie and their magic was inspiring: while her elder brothers attended boarding school, she dressed up their many pets (cats, dogs, chicken, geese, a stroppy Polo pony, a wounded Serval cat and at times a baby crocodile) and forced them to listen to her stories.

After her very mediocre A-levels Ellen moved to Paris and studied at the ‘Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris’, where she won the Grande Ecole’s short story competition with her novella ‘Meeting Mr. Gandhi’. Following her MSc in PPE, she moved to London and worked first as a TV-Producer and then as a News-Anchor for Bloomberg TV London, doing gruesome night shifts on breakfast TV. Her downstairs neighbour thought Ellen worked as an escort as she cantered down the stairs at any godforsaken hour. She also started to write in earnest, every day, after work, a nap, and a run.

Today, she works as an author and as a journalist for international publications such as the German ‘FAZ’, Vogue, Standpoint, and CN Traveller. Ellen also runs Creative Writing for charities like ‘Refugee Action’, showing how writing helps to overcome trauma, and lectures in the MA Programme of St. Mary’s University. She lives in Richmond with her Swedish entrepreneur husband, her three sons, and Honey, a moody fox red Labrador-Lady.

Her debut novel ‘Tsarina’ and its sequel ‘The Tsarina’s Daughter’ – both – published by Bloomsbury – were widely translated and shortlisted for numerous awards.

Ellen is represented by Caroline Michel and is writing her next Historical Fiction series. Once more, she has fallen for one of history’s hidden heroines – stay tuned!