by Mara Timon
I created Elisabeth in a previous story, and as bonkers as it sounds, she wouldn’t leave me alone. I love Elisabeth. She’s strong, determined, and fights for what she believes in, and in trying to do the right thing, often finds herself in trouble. She also – to quote Eduard Graf – ‘drinks too much, smokes too much, and keeps very bad company.’ She’s a lot of fun to write about because I genuinely have no idea what she’s going to do next.
As to why I decided to tell her story? Well, that was her doing. I’d created Elisabeth in an earlier book and noticed that she kept cropping up. By halfway through that story, I could feel her tapping my shoulder, telling me to hurry up. That I was going to write her story next.
6. Are you planning to continue Elisabeth’s story?
I don’t think she’d have it any other way! In the next book, we’ll see Elisabeth joined by two other Special Operations Executive agents as a (fictional) all-female Jedburgh team, paving the way for the Normandy landings.
7. Why set the book in Lisbon and not Berlin or Paris?
I was on the Eurostar, with two colleagues, heading to Paris for a meeting. One of my colleagues, knowing that I was working on a book, asked me how much research I’d be doing while we were there. The other colleague – a Portuguese man – suggested that I base my next book in Lisbon. It was a gentle nudge in the right direction, and my research drew a portrait of a country with split loyalties, precariously neutral, with a capital that, partly based on its geography, became a magnet for spies and espionage.
It was the perfect place for Elisabeth to get into mischief, but don’t be surprised if I do set a future story in Paris or Berlin!
8. Do you have a favourite character in the novel?
Isn’t that like asking a mum which child is their favourite? Elisabeth is my favourite, of course, but I suspect the question is really ‘who is my favourite after Elisabeth’, and the answer to that is Hubert Jones. Bertie started off with a big personality that just kept growing, and I loved writing his banter with Elisabeth, and the way he verbally fenced with Eduard. I’m not going to rule out having him show up in another story!
9. If the SOE still existed, it would have just celebrated its 80th anniversary. Why do you think there is still such interest in the work that the SOE did during the war?
I think people have always been interested in the exploits of spies – it’s wonderful escapism – and the SOE were the bad boys and girls of the spy world. They didn’t play by any established rules, and their agents were more than just spies – their remit was sabotage and subversion. They blew up trains, bridges and factories, while fostering revolt (often working with local resistance groups). They were Churchill’s Department of Dirty Tricks. He told them to ‘set Europe ablaze!’ and they did. Their real-life exploits still read better than a lot of commercial thrillers.
Fun fact: Anne-Marie Walters’s autobiography Moondrop to Gascony won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize in 1947.
10. Do you feel that more should be done to celebrate and promote the work that female agents did during World War II? What, do you think, would be a fitting tribute that hasn’t already been done?
Yes, of course. People don’t seem that surprised when I tell them I write about fictional female spies during WW2, but they are usually shocked when I mention that there really were 39 female SOE agents who operated in France, and that 13 didn’t make it back.
That being said, there’s a lot of work going on now to promote the female agents. There are several new biographies out now, and I believe a movie is in the works about Nancy Wake (‘the white mouse’). The advocacy group Hope Not Hate has produced Heroes of the Resistance podcasts, some of which relate to female SOE agents, and this year two female SOE agents have had blue plaques raised at their former residences: Christine Granville (born Krystyna Skarbek, and the longest serving female agent of WW2) and Noor Inyat Khan (who was killed in ’44 and was posthumously awarded the George Cross).
Is it enough? No, but it’s several steps in the right direction.
11. Do you think you would have made a good spy?
I’d love to say ‘Yes!’ but the truth is closer to ‘probably not’. I’m far too what-you-see-is-what-you-get!
12. What was your favourite part of the writing process? And what did you find most challenging?
Favourite: When the story is in full swing and my characters are ‘speaking’ to me. I’m racing with them into action, and I can barely write fast enough to keep up.
Most challenging? When my invisible friends aren’t talking to me. It usually means that I’ve made a mistake somewhere and have to go back and figure out what it is, and fix it. Sometimes it’s not an obvious error, and sometimes it’s an error that has already rippled through a fair part of the story. Re-work isn’t so much fun, but the end result is always better.
13. What does an average writing day look like for you?
In the ‘new normal’ of working from home, I’ve repurposed the time I used to spend on the morning commute for writing. I normally get up around 6:30 and brew a large pot of flavoured coffee (chocolate raspberry, pecan praline, or whatever I can find) and trundle into my writing room. Don’t get excited – it’s only the spare bedroom, and these days doubles (or is it triples?) as my home office. I’ll work until about 8, before I switch hats for the day job.
Lunchtime provides an opportunity to retreat outside and do a bit of plotting while I walk or run along the canals and, once I finish work, I go back to working on the story for another couple of hours.
When I’m editing, I print the story out and edit on paper as well as on screen. I’m sure there’s a scientific reason behind it, but often I’ll pick up mistakes on paper that I won’t when I’m reading it digitally.
14. Do you listen to music while you write?
Sometimes, but not always. The music will often depend on who I’m writing about and what they’re doing. I’ve got wide-ranging (and eclectic) taste in music and probably confuse my neighbours.
15. Which books or authors are you inspired by?
Where do I begin? I’m inspired by the real women of SOE: Violette Szabo, Krystyna Skarbek (Christine Granville), Virginia Hall, Nancy Wake, Anne-Marie Walters, Noor Inyat Khan, the Nearne sisters, Odette Sansom, to name a few. I started binge-reading their biographies and autobiographies, fascinated by the way their stories read like thrillers. There are a lot of great books to choose from, but new readers might want to start with: Clare Mulley’s The Spy Who Loved (about Krystyna Skarbek), Sonia Purnell’s A Woman of No Importance (about Virginia Hall), and Imogen Kealey’s Liberation (about Nancy Wake).
I love Ben MacIntyre’s books, in particular Double Cross, which told of the spies involved in tricking the Germans into believing that the Allies would attack Calais and Norway, instead of Normandy.
I’m also a big fan of Jack Higgins, especially the early books. He’s a master at making the reader feel sympathetic to his baddies, who aren’t really bad at all, just fighting on ‘the wrong side’ of the war, which makes for a much more interesting read.
16. Do you have any advice for new writers working on novels set in the past?
Do your research. It’s a pet peeve of mine when I pick up a book and read about characters that don’t act believably within the confines of the period, where the story doesn’t align with the history. There will probably be points where you consciously veer from fact, but that shouldn’t detract from the storyline.
17. What’s next on your to-be-read list?
JOSEPHINE: Singer, Dancer, Soldier, Spy by Eilidh McGinness.
It’s a biography of Josephine Baker, a black American-born entertainer, who was recruited by France’s Deuxième Bureau (military intelligence), to collect information on German troop locations from high-ranking officials. She used her work as an entertainer to carry information for transmission to England (written in invisible ink on her sheet music or hidden in her knickers). After the war, she was awarded the Croix de Guerre, t
he Rosette de la Résistance, and was made a Chevalier of the Légion d’honneur by General Charles de Gaulle.
While still in France in the ’50s, she became a civil rights activist, using her ever-growing platform to speak out against racism. In ’63, she spoke at the March on Washington – the only official female speaker – at the side of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr, and after his assassination was offered unofficial leadership of the movement by his widow. She declined.
Josephine Baker was a real-life action hero, and I’m really looking forward to learning more about her.
18. What’s the best piece of writing advice that you have been given?
The first piece of advice I ever got was ‘write about things you know’. That probably works for a lot of people, but I like to use my writing to tell a story while also learning about a place or a period in history.
The best advice I received, or rather the advice that worked best for me, was to ‘write the book you’d like to read’. The corollary to that is ‘listen to your agent and editor’, because they’ll definitely take your story to the next level!
19. Has there been any part of the publishing process that you found surprising?
I was initially surprised when I realised how long the publishing process takes. I’d signed with Bonnier Zaffre in August 2018, with City of Spies being published in September 2020, although when you break down all the steps along the way, it does make sense. And while patience is not really a Timon trait, the team are great to work with and the time has gone by very quickly!
20. Describe your next book in 15 words, or less!
Three female SOE agents work to destabilise German operations ahead of the Normandy landings.
About the Author
Mara Timon is a native New Yorker and self-proclaimed citizen of the world who began a love affair with London about 20 years ago. She started writing short stories as a teenager, and when a programme on the BBC caught her interest, she followed the “what ifs” until a novel began to appear. Mara lives in London and is working on her next book. She loves reading, writing, running, Pilates, red wine, and spending time with friends and family – not necessarily in that order.
First published in the UK in 2020 by Zaffre
This ebook edition published in 2020 by
ZAFFRE
An imprint of Bonnier Books UK
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Copyright © Mara Timon, 2020
Cover photographs © Susan Fox/Trevillion Images (figures);
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The moral right of Mara Timon to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act, 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organisations, places and events are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: 978–1–83877–071–6
Paperback ISBN: 978–1–83877–070–9
This ebook was produced by IDSUK (Data Connection) Ltd
Zaffre is an imprint of Bonnier Books UK
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