This past Monday was the fifth anniversary of the publication of the book that changed my life.
The Light Over London was a book of firsts. It was my first foray into historical fiction, my first hardcover release, and my first World War 2-set novel. It was the first time a reader has had a quote from one of my books tattooed onto them, a fact which still blows my mind to this day. And although The Light Over London wasn’t my first book—it’s actually my eighth traditionally published novel if you can believe it—it was without a doubt the book that gave me the writing career I have now.
If you haven’t read it yet, The Light Over London is a dual timeline historical novel that follows a young woman named Louise who joins the ATS during World War 2 and finds herself assigned to an anti-aircraft gunning unit as one of the “Ack-Ack Girls.” In the contemporary timeline, Cara is trying to put the pieces of her life back together after a divorce and personal tragedy. When she finds Louise’s diary from the war, it throws up questions about who Louise was and prompts her to look into her own family’s mysterious past.
I’m planning to share the story of how I made the transition from writing historical romance—remember those seven books that I mentioned came before?—to historical novels like The Light Over London soon, but the quick summary is that I had lunch with my agent and my editor in New York while visiting shortly after moving to the UK. During that lunch, my editor told me that she’d put me forward at an editorial meeting to potentially write a historical novel, preferably British- and World War 2-set because the publisher wanted to fill a gap in their list. I was thrilled and eagerly said yes.
As soon as I was back in London, I got to work. Before my trip, I had read a book that wove the oral histories of three women who served in the British women’s auxiliary forces during the war. I was particularly drawn to the story of an Ack-Ack Girl with the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS), which was the women’s branch of the British army. From that casual bit of research came the seed of an idea and the pitch that became The Light Over London.
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