“By April, the era of trench warfare and stalemate was over. The newspapers did not seem to know where the front line was any more, and all the headlines looked ominous. General Haig had issued an order, saying it was ‘Backs to the Wall’ as the Kaiser’s troops smashed through the exhausted British army and […]Read Post ›
It is the evening of June 1st, 1917. The Great War has been raging for nearly three years and for the first time in history a Guernsey-badged regiment is about to leave the island. This extract from Glint of Light on Broken Glass contains ‘spoilers’ “Henry Bazin, George, Jack and Edith found themselves a good […]Read Post ›
The setting of a novel can be almost a character in itself, such as Cephalonia in Captain Corelli’s Mandolin. Intimate knowledge becomes essential, which is why I worked so hard at getting the feel of Guernsey right in Glint of Light on Broken Glass. You have to live in a place to really ‘get’ it, […]Read Post ›
For a small community, language is part of its identity that sets it apart from the global monoculture. Over 100 novels have been set on the island of Guernsey but most of them miss one of the key features of the island – its language. Glint of Light on Broken Glass is set at a […]Read Post ›
Glint of Light on Broken Glass is set in the Great War, but I did not want to write a ‘war story’. At the Guernsey Literary Festival on 12th May I will be talking about how the war forms the background of the novel. Guernseymen were by long tradition exempt from conscription into the […]Read Post ›
