Jennifer Ryan asked Jennifer Ryan:

I see that by profession you’re a nonfiction book editor. What inspired you to write fiction?

Jennifer Ryan I loved editing nonfiction, especially narrative nonfiction and memoir. One day about five years ago, as I was rewriting the stark and beautiful memoir of a statesman in Afghanistan, I suddenly knew that I had more in me: more metaphor, more intrigue, more inspiration for life. It was time that I wrote a book, rather than simply editing them.

Immediately, as if the thought had already been there in my subconscious, I knew exactly what I would write about: women in the Second World War.

For many years I’ve had a passion for reading memoirs from the war, and along with my grandmother’s stories, these formed the backdrop to my longing to uncover women’s changing lives throughout the war. To bring their stories back to life.

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