It all started from one of those situations where truth was
stranger than fiction. In fact the truth was so strange that I eventually
decided to self—publish all of my books in the Schellberg Cycle. Most publishers thought it was just too
far-fetched: Renate Edler didn’t realise
that she was Jewish until a few days before she came to England on the
Kindertransport. “How could she not know she was Jewish?” they cried. Well, she
just didn’t.
Something else very odd happened at about that time. Her grandmother,
the Jewish connection, but long since converted to Lutheranism, sheltered a
school for the disabled children in her cellar. It survived there pretty well
undisturbed and after the war ended continued much as it had before the Nazi
regime arose. In fact it carried on in the house and only moved out when it got
too big for this residential property We know that the equivalent of Dad’s Army
were asked to destroy it. They refused and the Hitler Youth were charged with
the task. They too refused so it was left to the girls. But for some reason
they decided to let the children out first. Thank goodness.
Girl in a Smart
Uniform attempts to work out how that may have happened. It also looks at
what motivated young women to become good BDM members (the girls’ version of
the Hitler Youth).
It does contain some people who really lived. Yet they are
background figures here. This it to date the most fictional of my stories in The Schellberg Cycle. You can read more
about them here.
I find this an interesting process. It’s a little like
acting. You have to get into the characters’ heads and work out what they would
do in these circumstances. I suppose we might call it imagination. I found this
useful at many stages in this project. There are primary resources, repeated
experience and this very useful tool: the imagination. It’s as essential for writing
historical fiction as it is for fantasy.
