Jennifer Ryan asked Jennifer Ryan:

The women of Chilbury are each very different and unique in their own ways. How did you go about writing for an ensemble cast and developing each distinct voice?

Jennifer Ryan The very first character was Mrs. Tilling, the middle-aged widow whose only son goes to war. As a mother myself, I wanted to investigate how she must have felt as he walked down the front path. How difficult it must have been to watch him go when he might not make it home. Mrs. Tilling’s character is at the heart of the book, demonstrating how women of the era had been brought up to be quiet and submissive, and the war gave them a chance to speak their own minds. The choir in many ways is a metaphor for the women finding their voices.

The other women and girls were created around her, forming a group of different ages, social classes, and personalities in order to fully flesh out how they responded to the war. Venetia, the beauty of the village, is based on my grandmother’s friend Letty, who took full advantage of the relaxed morals of the era, always playing the boys off against each other and landing herself in trouble. You know there’s mischief when Venetia’s around!

Silvie, the ten-year-old Jewish evacuee from Prague, is based on the children rescued by Nicholas Winton, a British banker, during 1938 and 1939. A friend had told him about the plight of the Jews in Prague, and he organized a way to bring Jewish children to the UK to be looked after by British families until the end of the war. He saved 669 lives in all, many of their parents, sadly, perishing in the Holocaust.

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