DEBORAH CROMBIE: Missing Downton Abbey? Need the perfect Christmas book? Well, today we have a special treat for you on Jungle Red. With us are Caroline and Charles Todd, the mother and son writing team. As Charles Todd they are the authors of two acclaimed mystery series--the Inspector Rutledge novels and the Bess Crawford novels--set during and after World War I.
But the Todds (who are among the hardest working and most prolific authors I know) have departed from suspense to give us an unexpected gift, THE WALNUT TREE, a bittersweet love story set at Christmas during the dangerous opening months of World War I.
Elspeth—daughter of a Highland aristocrat whose distinguished family can trace its roots back to the court of Mary, Queen of Scots—decides to make herself useful, carrying water to weary soldiers near the Front. It is an act of charity that almost gets her killed when enemy shells begin to explode around her. To her rescue comes Captain Peter Gilchrist, who pulls her away from the battle and leads her to safety.
Back in London, surrounded by familiar comforts, Elspeth is haunted by the horrors she witnessed in France. She enrolls in a nursing course, where she meets a fellow nurse in training, Bess Crawford. It is a daring move, made without the consent of Elspeth's guardian, her cousin Kenneth, a high-handed man with rigid notions of class and femininity.
Yet Elspeth Douglas is a woman with a mind of her own, which—as she herself says—is a blessing and a curse. She is determined to return to the battlefields of France to do her part . . . and to find the man she has no right to love. In a world full of terror and uncertainty, can the sweetness of love survive or will Elspeth's troubled heart become another casualty of this terrible war?
Now the Todds tell us more.
DEBS: With two strong suspense series--the Inspector
Rutledge novels, set just after WWI, and the Bess Crawford books, set during
the war, THE WALNUT TREE is quite a departure for you. Why a love story?
TODDS: We had
never tried a holiday tale, and we thought it would be an interesting thing to
do. We hadn’t tackled the first days of
the war, those frantic events of late summer 1914 when the Germans
marched. So that was the time frame, and
we‘d already decided on a character who was quite different from Bess
Crawford. That gave us the personal
touch. And how better to see those early
battles than through the eyes of a young woman who loved two men, one in the
French army and one in the British? Some
of the greatest love stories have centered around war time. Gone with the Wind and Casablanca, just to
name two.
DEBS: The heroine,
Lady Elspeth Douglas, is of the same class and background as Lady Mary Crawley of Downton Abbey.
Reading about Elspeth really brought home to me just how different were the
lives of aristocratic young women from not only middle and working-class women
of their time, but from our modern experience.
On the one hand, they had everything done for them. But on the other,
they had no freedom to make decisions about their own lives. Was this one of
the things that interested you?
TODDS: Yes, from
the beginning we realized that to have a heroine from the aristocracy, we had
to see the world through her eyes. To
watch her struggle with the ordinary life of someone like Bess. Lady Elspeth had been well educated—she could
converse with bishops or take dancing with the Prince of Wales in stride,
almost as her due. But title and
influence couldn’t make her a Sister.
She had to train for that like everyone else, making her own bed,
washing her own uniforms, scrubbing hospital floors on her hands and
knees. And she did this knowing that
her family would disapprove, quite a step toward independence. It’s a measure of her determination that she
finished her training and not only that, took pride in her accomplishment.
DEBS: THE WALNUT TREE takes place right at the beginning of the war. Why this period in particular?
TODDS: People
weren’t prepared for what lay ahead.
Most of them believed that the war would be over by Christmas, which
gave us the holiday theme we were after.
Sadly, the fighting was intense from the start, and by the new year,
1915, France, Germany, and Britain had reached the stalemate that Rutledge knew
so well as trench warfare. It’s a
prelude to Rutledge, in a way. At the
same time, it reflects what was happening to so many young people—hasty
engagements, new relationships, the tumult of change, and meeting people who
might or might not have been in one’s circle before August, 1914. Lady Elspeth hadn’t seen Peter Gilchrist
since she was a girl. If the war hadn’t
come along, she might never have known what sort of man he’d become. Or had the chance to fall in love with him.
She might have married the excellent young man her guardian chose for her and
never known true happiness.
DEBS: Was it hard
to resist the temptation to sneak a little mystery into the story (although
there is the incident of the man on the train...)?
TODDS: Not too
hard, because in the chaos of war there are all sorts of things going. We chose a mystery that we felt best showed
what such upheaval really meant. The same thing happened in World War II, by the
way, and with the Nazis, on an even grander scale. Linda, Charles’s sister, happened to mention
one day that such and such a thing interested her, and we thought, Perfect, just
what we were looking for. We won’t
spoil it by saying more.
DEBS: Did you feel restricted by the novella length?
TODDS: In the
beginning we didn’t notice it. But about
halfway through, we realized that we could easily have told Lady Elspeth’s
story in a full length novel. THE WALNUT
TREE is nearly two hundred and fifty pages as it is, so we came close! There was so much to explore, both in Lady
Elspeth’s background and in the lives of the two men who were so important to
her. We liked her cousins too, and could
see lots of material there. We’d decided
on a novella to begin with to make it a great holiday read. But it could be equally exciting any time of
the year.
DEBS: While I could tell
there could have been more story, I really enjoyed the novella. It was a treat
to have a story that could be read in a couple of evenings, and as much as I
like series novels, it was refreshing to read a story that was complete in
itself. (Although maybe Bess could run
across the characters in her next outing-)
TODDS: This is one
of the glories of stand-alones like THE WALNUT TREE—you can tell an entire
story and see the beginning and the ending between page one and page
whatever. And that’s something we enjoy,
as readers, so we like it as writers too.
At a signing recently someone mentioned that TREE would make a lovely movie. And we think they could be right, because
it’s a whole.
DEBS: Oh, it would make a wonderful movie! (Thinking of casting now...) And the cover of the book is
absolutely beautiful. I've kept it on my nightstand just because I've
enjoyed looking at it. Did you have any input?
TODDS: Actually we
did. The art department came up with a
brilliant cover, but it didn’t really have a holiday mystery look about
it. More a regular mystery. So we suggested some possibilities, and the
art department was enthusiastic, even to inserting that tree with the bare
branches, which is the walnut tree of the title. The result was just spectacular, and every
time we see it, we feel the same sense of wonder that it turned out so
beautifully. Many reviews have featured
the jacket, too, and I think for the same reason.
DEBS: And what's up next for the prolific TODDS?
TODDS: We’re in
the midst of the line edits for the next Bess, which is A QUESTION OF HONOR,
and should be out in June. The next
Rutledge is coming out at the end of January, and that’s PROOF OF GUILT. We had a short story in STRAND Magazine this summer, another one in THE BEST AMERICAN
MYSTERY STORIES OF 2012, edited by Robert Crais, , and we’ll be in the MWA
anthology out next April. We have three
more short stories to do. And while all this is going on, we’re starting the
Rutledge for 2014. And that’s going to
be exciting.
DEBS: So looking forward to both the Rutledge and the Bess!
Readers, the Todds will be checking in today to say "hi" and answer questions, so be sure to post your comments. Oh, and one more thing. Caroline, I think you recently had an adventure with an owl. Will you tell us about it?
CAROLINE: Ah, the owl It’s name
is Raleigh, it’s a barred owl, and he (we think it’s a he, with owls it’s not
always easy to tell) is a resident of The
Ruth Patrick Science Center, University of South Carolina at Aiken SC.
Deborah McMurtry, who teaches teachers and schoolchildren about predators
in her lab at the Center, was kind enough to allow us to visit Raleigh and let
me hold him on my wrist like a falcon
and talk to him for nearly an hour. It’s an experience I will
never forget. He has an injured wing and can’t be released to the wild, but he
has given hundreds of school children a chance to look at a bird they have read
about but probably have never seen in real life.
PSS: A late edition--the Todds will give away a copy of The Walnut Tree to a lucky commenter!!!
AND ANOTHER NEWS FLASH! THE WASHINGTON POST PICKS THE WALNUT TREE AS ONE OF THE BEST CHRISTMAS BOOKS OF 2012!
PSS: A late edition--the Todds will give away a copy of The Walnut Tree to a lucky commenter!!!
AND ANOTHER NEWS FLASH! THE WASHINGTON POST PICKS THE WALNUT TREE AS ONE OF THE BEST CHRISTMAS BOOKS OF 2012!
