How easily Vivi could break down; how easily she could demand that he admit their love was teetering on the edge, their marriage a sham. 

But all that was left in the world for her was Nathan, and she clung onto him as if he were a life raft in a burning sea.

 Between the lines

Discover the inspiration behind The Officer’s Wife

The art of forgiving

There’s a tale in our family, a story as old as time: a baby born out of wedlock, on the wrong side of the blanket. A young man from a prestigious and wealthy family in the mansion on the big estate had a child with a local girl. But, instead of being banished or ignored, the girl and her baby were taken care of, given a home of their own. The child, once grown, was set up in business and had, I hope, a contented and settled life.  

My mother’s family comes from this illegitimate line, and the story, whispered down the generations, has always intrigued me. I have often wondered how the people involved might have felt about it: the girl herself, her child, the family of the errant man, and, indeed, his own wife.  

When I decided to use the idea in a novel of my own, as is the magic of writing, the tale began to form the basis of a whole other narrative. And the story of Vivi, the officer’s wife, and her nemesis Elise, has taken on many incarnations since I first conjured it up.  

I set my novel in the era I’m inspired by the most: the Second World War, with all its trauma and disruption, the horror brought right onto ordinary people’s doorsteps. As I wrote, I navigated themes of appalling betrayal and fierce loyalty; the nature of memory and the perception of time.  

Peace in Europe ends in 1939. Into this setting arrives Vivi, my American heiress, who comes to London and falls in love with Nathan, only to discover life as an English naval officer’s wife is at first lonely and, when his secret is revealed, devastating. However, Vivi proves to be my favourite heroine yet. When she realises her love for Nathan and her instinct for survival is bigger than any regret, her strength is astonishing. 

While writing this book, I thought about my family’s own tale, and mused on what we are made up of – what we take from our ancestors and send on to our descendants. What have I inherited, what collective memory do I own, passed down from the ordinary girl and her wealthy lover? 

And what of Elise, my own ‘ordinary’ girl caught up in the whirlwind of chance and fate? Her story runs parallel to Vivi’s and seeps into the narrative throughout the novel. As a contrast to the unsettled and punishing times of war, I scattered the age-old lore and wisdom bequeathed by the curious Annie Drake, Elise’s mother, in her fascinating ‘book of spells’, the ancient remedies that continue to heal beyond the grave.