RHYS BOWEN: I met Julia Child once, at an upscale eatery in San Francisco. My publishers had taken me there but when Julia and Paul sat at the next table they lost all interest in me, only fascinated by what she was going to eat next. I saw her as a tall, gawky, middle aged woman, one who dropped her chicken during her TV cooking classes. Loveable but clumsy. Imagine then my surprise when my friend Diana Chambers told me she was writing a book about Julia as a WWII spy.
"Are you crazy?" I said. But she shook her head. "It's all true. I've checked all the sources. She really was a spy in Asia during the war."
Holy cow! What a scoop! What a story! I gave Diana my input as she was writing it and cheered with her when it was finally sold. And now I'm happy to have her as my guest to tell you about the birth of THE SECRET WAR OF JULIA CHILD.
RHYS: Welcome, dear Diana. Where did the idea for this book come from? Have you always been fascinated with Julia Child? How did you hear about her wartime adventures?
DIANA: About ten years ago, I read that during World War Two, Julia Child had served in the OSS, America’s first espionage agency. I blinked and sat up straight. The Julia Child? The matronly TV chef?
But SPIES? And in India and China?! Something sparked inside me. I felt electrified. Somehow I KNEW...This was it...MY STORY...I had to investigate...but I knew...
However first, I’d have to get to know Julia McWilliams Child. I was not a Julia fangirl—and not a cook. In fact, I try to keep as far from the kitchen as possible! So I knew her mainly as this quirky woman with an upraised spoon, frumpy wardrobe, and problematic hairdo.
RHYS: How much of the story is fact? How much did you make up?
DIANA: The wartime experiences of Julia McWilliams on the front lines of Asia is based closely on the available historical record. That was my scaffolding. Still, it wasn’t Julia who first drew me to the story, but its espionage setting in India and China—where I have long ties. At university, I studied India art and history. I first traveled there around 30, the same age Julia, as I would learn, arrived on a Navy troopship! At that time, I began an export business and have returned often over the years. I’ve also traveled around China and SE Asia. Penguin Random House India published my post-WWII novel, The Star of India, a few years ago. An honor that was especially meaningful when my Indian agent, editor, and several journalists told me they had to keep reminding themselves that I was a “foreigner.”
Even with this background, I had a LOT to learn! Fortunately I love research.
I read everything I could get my hands on...but especially for the day-to-day life, I had to fill in the gaps. By now I’d come to admire Julia—LOVE her—and wanted to tell a story I believed was honest to her truth. This is historical fiction, a product of my educated imagination.
One thing I can say is true: That twinkle in Julia’s eye you see on television? She had that twinkle her entire life! She’d always been bubblng with creativity, humor, and zest for life. As a girl, she directed, wrote and acted in plays she produced in her family’s Pasadena attic. Around this time, she confided to her diary and mother her goal of becoming a “famous woman writer.” But she was also tall, gawky, insecure. She had a lot to overcome.
RHYS: Have you been to the places you write about? How hard is it to write about places you haven’t been? What sort of research did you do?
DIANA: As part of telling Julia’s story, I wanted to walk in her size 12A shoes, journeying through the touchstones of her life. I visited all of the locations in the book, except Chabua, the Indian airbase at the foot of the Himalayas...from which she flies a cargo plane “over the Hump” to China. But I’d been in Kashmir and the Karakoram mountains of China and Pakistan. So I had a good “feel” for the location. As far as my book research, I read wide and deep...biographies, memoirs, military, political, cultural accounts...Books on espionage and cryptography. Narratives from the local perspectives.
It’s also important to remember that much of the Office of Strategic Services’ archives were classified until the 21st C so scholars have had less time to study and write about them. Also Western eyes have been more focused on Europe/Pacific. No wonder it’s called, The Forgotten War in Asia.
RHYS: It’s been a complicated publishing journey to bring this book to birth. Tell us a little about it.
DIANA: Very complicated...very long. It’s been hard work along the way, many heartbreaks. Agents have retired or disappointed me. Queries have been rejected—or ignored. Also there was work on The Star of India. But I had a deep belief in this novel—I knew readers would want to read Julia’s story.
RHYS: And after all that struggle good things started finally happening. Tell us more.
After getting off the plane in Nashville for August’s Bouchercon, I opened an email to learn THE SECRET WAR OF JULIA CHILD was being featured in People magazine as a Best Book of the Fall, a Must Read! Everyones love Julia.
RHYS: What did Julia take from her wartime days that laid the groundwork for her later success?
DIANA: That's a fascinating questions! Promoted to serve in India, Julia has sensory experiences she could have never imagined—sights, sounds, colors, smells...flavors that blast open her taste buds. Then she meets mapmaker Paul, a true foodie. She opens to the world. As she would say in later years, “The war made me.”
Have you seen the YouTube clip of Julia’s oven door taped shut to protect her soufflé? Anyone who dares enter, she proclaims, will be COURTMARTIALED.
Then there’s the one of Julia and her BATTLE PLAN for baking a chocolate cake...her ingredients and implements lined-up on the counter...
During war, equipment must be deployed in a specific manner, like an order of battle in the field. Procedures matter—just like a written recipe. Remember, her dream of becoming a “famous woman writer”? Now, Julia set out to document France’s precious culinary traditions!
In the OSS, Julia learned to keep her ears open and head down…absorb info through her senses. In Paris, she worked hard chopping onions at the Cordon Bleu (as she had at the OSS), so she’d be respected enough to move up to next level. She was accepted into the local cooking community—now able to ferret out recipes, techniques, SECRETS of French cuisine.
RHYS: I know you'll all be absolutely fascinated by this book. I see MOVIE written all over it. It is now in stores. So feel free to ask Diana any questions. She will give away a signed copy of the book to one lucky commenter!
