In September 1940, an unknown number of German spies parachuted into England, or arrived on beaches by rowing boat under cover of darkness. They were a part of ‘Operation Lena’, a Nazi mission so ill-planned and disastrous that historians have started to ask whether high-ranking German officials intended it to fail. The job of these spies was to prepare the way for a land invasion, but they were so unprepared it was almost laughable. One spy was captured when he cycled the wrong way down a road. Another wandered into a pub in the early morning and asked for a pint, showing no knowledge of war-time opening hours. A third actually carried a German sausage in his pocket! One spy apparently left his pack inside a locker at a railway station, and it was swiftly discovered as sea water leaked out of the bottom of the locker and across the floor.
It was after stumbling upon an archived newspaper article about Operation Lena that I first had the idea for the story that would become Her Secret Soldier. In my novel – to be released by Bookouture on 12 September 2024 – a shy and lonely 18-year-old girl finds an injured German spy hanging by the end of his parachute in an oak tree behind her house. She should report him to the Home Guard, but Britain’s new Treachery Act means he will most likely be executed. The spy claims he is acting under duress and had intended to turn himself in – a detail taken from factual records. Rose must decide whether to believe him: if she alerts the authorities, she could be sentencing him to death, but if she hides him, she will be a traitor to her country. It doesn’t help that Rose is attracted to the injured man, and nor does it help that as time passes, the two fall in love. According to one Net Galley reviewer, Her Secret Soldier explores “why we tend to reject things we can’t understand, why we make judgments about people we don’t know, and why we’re unwilling to take risks to prevent stagnation.”
Finding an unusual historical event or fact is a great starting point for a historical novel. If something intrigues you as a writer, it’s likely it will intrigue potential readers, as well. Choosing a lesser-known detail also increases the chances your novel will have an original angle, which is always important. But having settled on a starting point for your book, where do you go from there?
As a writer, I find John Yorke’s book, Into the Woods, an invaluable resource. He explores five-act structure and examines the way it plays out in full length novels and movies. I didn’t use his book when I first started to plan my novel, but it was enormously helpful as a way to test the structure of it, encouraging me to look critically at each part of the story to ensure it was unfolding the way it should. Was my inciting incident clear? How did the character transform as events unfolded? Where was my midpoint action? Did events move towards a compelling climax?
One challenge unique to historical fiction writers is how we incorporate facts, and how we make use of our research. My protagonist is an 18-year-old girl living in rural England in September 1940. Her knowledge is limited by her perspective. Rose is terrified the Germans are going to invade, just as so many people were at that time. She cannot know that Hitler will cancel his plans for invasion, and she cannot know the war will last for years before ending in Nazi defeat. When writers write a novel set in present day, readers may know only as much as the characters do, but this isn’t the case for historical fiction writers. My readers may be familiar enough with history to know what took place in 1941-5, but my characters know nothing of this. If Rose is terrified of the coming invasion, I have to work extra hard to convey the reality of this to readers who are aware the invasion never took place.
Another challenge faced by historical fiction writers is that small, every-day domestic realities can often be more important than national and global events. These details require special attention because they bring to life the microcosmic experience of the characters. This is where historical fiction differs vastly from reading a history book: what matters isn’t the big picture so much as the experiences of one or more people caught within them. In a later draft of Her Secret Soldier, I decided to add a half-page scene in which the coalman visits my main character’s home, sharing important gossip during the delivery. This led me into several hours of research as I attempted to make the scene as credible as possible. How would coal be delivered to a rural home in England, in 1940? By horse and cart as in the past (because of wartime petrol rationing) or on an open truck bed? Would the coalman be young (because this was physically demanding work), or would the delivery be made by a struggling older man since younger ones had already been conscripted? How would the coal sack be carried by the merchant, and what would he wear? For a writer of historical fiction, authenticity depends on getting such details right.
The procway we research historical novels has changed greatly over the years. A generation ago, writers might have spend a year or more on background research before even beginning to write, since their research could involve endless trips to library collections far and wide. The internet changed all that, and made research an on-going process that can be interspliced with writing. But the challenge still remains to decide how much of your research belongs in the final manuscript. Include too little, and the story lacks authenticity. Become too bogged down in facts and the story suffers. These days, AI is changing the way we research, all over again. I made use of Microsoft’s Co-Pilot while researching Her Secret Soldier, because it was possible to pose very specific questions. However, AI cannot always be trusted, and facts must be checked. One day, I asked Co-Pilot a question about Vera Atkins, Secretary of French-Section in Britain’s SOE. When I double-checked the responses it gave, I discovered the source used was an article which laid out myths about this fascinating historical figure. The article presented incorrect ‘facts’ about her, and then explained why each one could not be trusted. Co-Pilot presented the ‘facts’ in the article as if they were ture, with no awareness of their context in the article. So, in writing historical fiction, never rely on AI for your research!
Operation Lena was the starting point for Her Secret Soldier – but the characters are all fictional, as are the events in the novel – including a mission by a particularly heinous German spy that has the potential to alter the course of the war. Adding a dose of ‘what if’ to our historical research is essential – after all, we’re in the business of writing fiction. Operation Lena actually happened. It is possible that spies parachuting into England may have gone undetected, and it is equally possible that one of them could have been hidden from sight by a caring but naïve 18-year-old girl. Ultimately, this is what matters most when we write historical fiction that aims to be both compelling and believeable.
If it could have happened, then we can make it so.
Julie Hartley is the director of Centauri Arts, which runs creative writing courses and retreats for teens and adults. She has published three previous books and her fourth – a historical fiction novel entitled Her Secret Soldier – will be released by Bookouture this September.
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