I am happy to welcome LP Fergusson to the blog today to talk about some of the issues in the background of her latest historical novel, A Dangerous Act of Kindness.
What would you risk for a complete
stranger?
When widow Millie Sanger finds injured
enemy pilot Lukas Schiller on her farm, the distant war is suddenly at her
doorstep. Compassionate Millie knows he’ll be killed if discovered, and makes
the dangerous decision to offer him shelter from the storm.
On opposite sides of the inescapable
conflict, the two strangers forge an unexpected and passionate bond. But as the
snow thaws, the relentless fury of World War Two forces them apart, leaving
only the haunting memories of what they shared, and an understanding that their
secret must never see light.
As Millie’s dangerous act of kindness sets
them on paths they never could have expected, those closest to them become
their greatest threats, and the consequences of compassion prove deadly…
A Dangerous Act of Kindness is a beautiful,
harrowing love story, perfect for fans of Rachel Hore and Santa Montefiore
Welcome to the blog!
What would you risk for a complete
stranger? by L P Ferguson
A Dangerous Act of Kindness is the story of
a lonely young widow who finds an injured German pilot on her remote farm in
England at the beginning of the Second World War. She makes the fateful
decision to help him. At the planning stage, I wanted to test how plausible my story
was. I asked a number of people, ‘Would you have helped an injured German
during the war?’ The men usually said no. The women invariably said yes.
During my research I noticed a great
difference in attitudes to collaboration in England compared to the Continent.
At the end of the war, women accused of collaboration with the Germans had
their heads brutally shaved in public. They were beaten and mocked. Some
prostitutes in Paris were kicked to death for taking German soldiers as
clients. Interestingly, the head-shavers were not generally resistance
fighters; often they were petty collaborators themselves. ‘Collaboration
horizontale’ was not the only crime. One woman was shaved and beaten for
working as a cleaner in a German military establishment.
The British had a very different attitude,
most significantly because England was never invaded during WW2. Churchill’s
private secretary, sickened by what he saw in France as the end of the war,
said, ‘While disgusted by this cruelty, I reflected that we British had known
no invasion or occupation for some 900 years. So we were not the best judges.’
In Britain it was against the law to
fraternize with an enemy soldier. At first, German prisoners excited no
sympathy from the public. Most were sent to Canada or Australia to prevent the
rise of a ‘fifth column’, should the country be invaded. When that threat
lessened, the Germans were kept in Britain and worked on the land.
Slowly they earned the respect of the
farmers. They had a strong work ethic, and were trustworthy and courteous. One
Land Army girl noticed the young Germans cleaning their hands on the wet grass
before they ate their lunch and reflected that an ordinary farm worker would
not have done that.
Tensions still existed – in 1944, German
prisoners at Crewe Hall made beautiful and ingenious toys for distribution to
the local children at Christmas but the War Office had them burned. When the
war ended, there was a dramatic rise in public hostility.
But gradually people began to switch from
wishing the POWs ill because they were enemies to wishing them well because
they were men. Individual acts of kindness from both sides started to heal the
deeper wounds of war.
Non-fraternization ended just before
Christmas in 1946. Queues of cars formed outside the camps to take home an
unknown guest to share Christmas round the family table. At a vicarage in
Nottinghamshire, four German prisoners were invited. One of them, a father of
five, broke down and sobbed when he saw the white tablecloth. He was almost too
overcome to eat.
There is little doubt from all I’ve read
that women were at the vanguard of reconciliation between the countries. How
could a woman see another mother’s son, lonely, miserable and far from home and
not want to make contact? And how could a young widow, finding an injured pilot
in her barn, not reach out a hand of kindness and help him?
My Thoughts
This novel drips with authenticity and you feel that all the period details are spot on. With the exception of Hugh, I felt that all the characters were sympathetic and credible. In particular, you feel for Millie and Lukas and appreciate their loneliness. It is interesting to see the conflict through the eyes people from different sides and to realise that they are not that different at all.
Millie's farm seems to be the focus for people who are displaced and it offers a degree of security to the evacuees and the farm workers. It really does feel like a separate bubble. I can thoroughly recommend this book if you enjoy reading stories set in the Second World War and there is a depth to the emotions which carries you along.
In short: An emotional read which captures the spirit of the era.
About the Author
LP Fergusson grew up on the borders of
Wales in a Tudor house on the banks of
the River Wye. As a child she longed to go back in history. Now she
does, through her writing. She has an MA in Creative Writing from Oxford
Brookes University and won the Blackwell’s Prize for MA Creative Writing. Her
stories have made a number of shortlists for competitions run by the Orwell
Society, Oxfordshire Libraries and Flash500. Her psychological thriller reached
the final three of Quercus/Psychologies Thriller competition and her wartime
novel A Dangerous Act of Kindness was Highly Commended in the Caledonia Novel
Award 2018. She edits the historical blog With Love from Graz which was
featured on BBC Radio Wales, Radio 2 and BBC4’s A Very British Romance with
Lucy Worsley. She now lives in an Oxfordshire village beneath the chalk downs
where her debut novel is set.
Thanks to LP Fergusson and Ellie Pilcher of Canelo for a copy of the book and a place on the tour.
Check out the rest of the tour!
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