Elizabeth: Well, the book takes place in the industrial midlands during WWII, and I’m really not sure why I chose that setting. I didn’t have an idea in mind when I started the book. It was more a sense of examination of the times – A way of looking at something, or exploring a particular time and place, than a story which I was familiar with.
Maggie: Why the Dramatis Personae?
Elizabeth: I felt it would make it easier for the reader. I thought that they might be confused by the characters, and felt that a list of the people in the story; the characters, would give people something they could look back on.
Maggie: What about the Scottish voice. Where does that come from and what does it signify?
Elizabeth: The Scottish voice just signifies a different accent from the midlands. He is patient but insistent because he wanted to get on with the story. It is just a bit of humour really. It doesn’t signify anything in particular. . Maggie: Who is the narrator in the novel?
Elizabeth: In a sense one does have a narrator in mind, that voice who describes something about the salute, but I really wasn’t clear about this when I was writing the book. I would hope that the work would have worked its magic on a reader and that they would ascribe some character as the narrator, or develop some concept themselves. I don’t like to tell the reader what to do, or how to approach my books.
Maggie: Tell me about the structure of the novel. You repeat some passages, and change the way in which Henry and Muriel are referred from their Christian names to Mother and Father and Husband and Wife. Why is that?
Elizabeth: I don’t really know why. I guess it was part of the rhythm of the prose, but I’m not aware of exactly why I did it. I wanted to express things in the best way possible, to change the story to reflect the changing reader. A story has to have a point of view in the narrator at times, and I was hoping that the reader would change in outlook, and in examination throughout the book. You can read for pleasure and for the story on a first reading, and on a second or third reading, find other things in the book. I was hoping that the change in the way in which the narrator referred to the readers, would help point the reader in their own direction for interpretation. A book always points me in the right direction if I wait a bit.
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