Our Evening with Clare Harvey

At our last meeting on 5^th October we were delighted to welcome Clare Harvey and hear her give a talk on her experiences of writing historical fiction. She has had three novels published, the latest of which, The Night Raid, was recently released in hardback by Simon & Schuster.

She explained that she came to writing late; the concept of being an author didn’t occur to her until her late 20s when some friends landed book deals. She started writing seriously when she was pregnant, but by the time her first book was published her baby son had just turned 13. Years, not months. She’d also written four full length novels, but the turning point came whilst taking a Masters in Creative Writing at Nottingham University. She had become intrigued by the true story of her husband’s mother who had been an anti-aircraft gunner in World War Two. By using this theme for various project pieces on her MA, Clare was able to write around a third of the novel which became The Gunner Girl. Once it was finished she was surprised at the pace with which things happened, getting an agent and a two-book deal within months.

The English Agent, Clare’s second book, is based around the exploits of a female Special Operations Executive agent working in occupied France. Apparently, one of the perks of being a published author is the fact that research trips to Paris are a tax-deductible expense! Clare was asked if she was involved in any of the marketing for her books and she explained how, as a relative small fry, she was given some assistance with social media marketing and so on but she felt it was up to her to engage with local shops and media, doing a few signings and interviews off her own bat.

Her third book, The Night Raid, brings the reader back to the home front, being mostly set in Nottingham and twists fiction with reality by focusing on the artist, Dame Laura Knight. Clare read a passage from her book and pointed out how she had made use of Laura’s own phrases from her autobiography, Oil Paint and Grease Paint. The section Clare read involved a trip from Gregory Boulevard up Noel Street and down Waverley Street to the edge of the city centre (following what is now the tram line from Hyson Green to Trent University on Shakespeare Street). When asked if she had walked that journey herself she readily acknowledged that she did and how useful it was to try and imagine what it would have been like in the early Forties.

This lead to an exercise where we had to put ourselves into a scenario from World War Two. Clare handed out a photograph of the aftermath of the bombing of Newark’s Ransome and Marles bearing factory in March 1941, along with prompts for what our senses are experiencing and what we are thinking, feeling and saying. Throwing these elements together into our own pieces of instant historical flash fiction was very interesting and rewarding. We all came up with different angles but the sense of drama and death was apparent. One of the most interesting insights into the exercise came from Jean who was a schoolgirl at the time and remembered the raid quite clearly, pointing out that it was a sunny day – a fact that Nick utilised in his piece!

Clare was a wonderful guest speaker and we thoroughly enjoyed her evening with us. We look forward to seeing her again soon.