Peter, you describe yourself as an accidental author, but I know you have had considerable success, so how did you start writing?

 

 "I probably should have described myself as an unlikely author because I’m dyslexic, and until I started writing I had never read a novel! Until my novel writing career took off, I had never questioned my situation. My reading was almost exclusively confined to non-fiction, with various aspects of science being my go-to read. It is perhaps strange that my interest in science and the scientific approach didn’t provoke me to look at the reasons why I didn’t read novels. Probably like a lot of us, I just accepted that my slow pace of reading simply didn’t lend itself to the novel format.

This all changed a few years ago when I snapped my Achilles tendon! Faced with months of inactivity, I resolved to find a project I could pursue from a seated position. I decided to write a novel which, for a dyslexic who doesn’t read novels, was obviously a ridiculous idea. It was the absurdity of the idea that appealed to me; it was an open-ended endeavour that required neither success nor failure in order to occupy my time. I knew nothing about writing a novel. I was simply playing with words, and not necessarily in the right order! The art of creative writing is a craft which takes considerable time to learn. As a dyslexic, I was starting from a position way behind the start line.

To my profound surprise, I became thoroughly absorbed by it. Technology, namely my laptop and the wonders of spell-check were the key to it. But, and there is an enormous but, I found I had something. I was encouraged to seek advice from a professional Editor. He was quite blunt in his appraisal -  grammatically, and in terms of structure and format, what I had produced was total rubbish! However, he also said that I had an exceptional connection with my characters and he bewildered me with terms that I had never heard of, such as perspective and voice. 

Suddenly I realised that the structure of writing was a science like any other, something that even I, a dyslexic, could learn. I immersed myself in it and rewrote my first manuscript. During that process, something miraculous happened! The principal character appeared sitting next to me! Suddenly, I was experiencing everything that he was experiencing. I’m not sure if I became him, or he became me, but from that moment I had a story which came directly from the heart because my character was no longer a fictional entity. It proved to be good enough to publish, and so my first novel, “Autumn Daffodils - Charlie's Story” was self-published. It didn’t break any Amazon sales records, but for a totally unknown author, it more than covered its cost and provided an enormous boost to my confidence. A second “Autumn Daffodils” book was published a year later with similar success.

I moved on from the success of the two “Daffodils” books and wanted to incorporate a story with considerably more gravitas, something I could really get my teeth into. I decided upon historical fiction because I enjoy research. I chose the Second World War because that was my parents’ generation and it feels relatively close to me. My idea was simple: take a woman from the East End of London during the Blitz. Reduce her to only the clothes she stood in when her house was bombed, and then leave her to make her own way in war-torn Britain. The story wasn’t planned beyond that. 

My character, Lily, literally leapt off the page and sat down next to me! As strange as it may sound, I felt as much a part of Lily as I had my previous male protagonist. She quickly ceased to be a fictional character in my mind. Lily is inspired by some of the inspirational women of WW2, women like Joan Bright, and Vera Atkins who was so influential in forming and running the SOE F-Section. (Special Operations Executive) Lily emulates Vera and not only helps to create an SOE Station but she rises close to the very top of the British wartime establishment. The sacrifice and tragedy that people like Lily suffered during WW2 is almost incomprehensible to us today. When the person is added to that scenario and you relive it through her life, loves, and emotions, I found the entire experience of living her life deeply moving and emotionally draining. 

When the manuscript was finally finished, I knew I had something special. Written in first person perspective with meticulous historic detail, it reads like an autobiographical account of one of the most tumultuous periods of British history. The book called “None Stood Taller” was self-published, with no fanfare or promotion of any kind. I didn’t need it to sell, I had already achieved my ambition. Together with my wife and Editor Carol, we sat back to see if it sold anything at all. It sold one or two, and then four or six, and then within a few weeks it was the Amazon number one Bestseller in its category!!

Not only did it sell by the thousand, it became shortlisted for the “Selfies” self-published Book of the Year Award, and the “Independent Authors Network” for their Book of the Year. The story which was led entirely by the historical events was always going to be far too large for one book, and so two more books completed the period. “None Stood Taller - The Final Year” and “None Stood Taller - The Price of Freedom.” I still need to pinch myself. The success of my three “None Stood Taller” books has been life-changing. I am still a dyslexic who can’t spell, and my reading pace is glacial, but I can write best-selling novels! It still feels completely improbable, and has certainly forced me to analyse how and why this has happened. 

As a dyslexic I have attempted in the past to read novels where, after a chapter or two, I have asked myself, ‘what is this book actually about?’ Often (horrible generalisation) a writer is painting a picture in the early chapters, possibly a backstory. I lost interest because the books didn’t capture my interest within the period of my limited attention span. This is the essential difference between fiction and non-fiction. You would obviously expect a page of non-fiction to tell you something specific and interesting about the subject of the book or article. This does not necessarily apply to fiction. It is essentially a balance between your personal reading pace and your attention span. 

I now realise this reflects in my writing. I have to write with pace or I get distracted. Every page has to say something, every paragraph has to convey some kind of information about the story or the character. My goal is not to produce just a readable and interesting story. However important that is, what draws me into the process is the human involvement. I want the book to be essentially an emotional experience, and to do that I need to be personally involved with the characters. The ultimate goal is that the reader should share that experience. 

Having not read a novel myself until very recently is either a handicap or a bonus; I’m not sure which. It’s a handicap because I don’t have anyone I can learn from or emulate. It’s a bonus because I start with a clean sheet; what I produce is not stereotypical. I write in first person perspective because that brings me and the reader directly in contact with the character, as opposed to an omnipotent third-person narrator. I now realise that a lot of authors prefer third person perspective because it’s less restrictive and leaves the writer feeling less exposed. What many consider as being its shortcoming is precisely the asset I like to exploit. It’s also a dangerous perspective because it makes demands upon the reader. The reader is invited to experience the same emotions as the character. 

That only works if you can fully empathise with the character. If you find that type of personality abrasive or positively dislikable, then you will not want to share the character's emotions. This is very interesting from my own perspective because the last thing a writer wants to do is alienate the reader. My character Lily from “None Stood Taller” is a case in point. I portray her as an intelligent, ambitious, high achieving woman, exactly like the woman she is based upon: Vera Atkins - look her up on Google. Interestingly, my readers fall into two camps. They are either inspired by strong women, or they are intimidated. The latter think that what Lily achieves is unrealistic; the former falls in love with her! These are problems that third person perspective avoids, but for me that third person comes between me and my characters.

My latest work-in-progress is once again historical fiction, telling the story of the outbreak of WW2 and the Blitz. It’s narrated by two people. Emma Stevenson is a doctor working at Saint Thomas’s Hospital; the other is a police detective, Roger Pritchard, based in Balham, South London. Two traumatic events which both took place in 1940 inspire their separate stories. September 9th was only the second day of the Blitz, but this was when the first of the many bombs which fell on Saint Thomas’s completely destroyed the Nurses’ Home, killing two nurses and four physiotherapists! On October 14th, an armour-piercing bomb fell onto Balham High Street! By a cruel act of fate, it fractured one of the main South London water mains that ran above the underground train tunnels. The result was that Balham Tube Station became inundated with water, mud and debris, killing over 60 people and injuring hundreds. The following is the introduction to the book:

In 1933 the people of Germany stepped blindly into the ballot box and too late they realised that the road to tyranny is not paved with good intentions; it is instead paved with falsehoods and manipulation. Six years later, faced with the reality of war, the ordinary men and women of Great Britain stood fast, forty-one million individuals united in spirit.

Doctor Emma Stevenson stands in defiance, safe in the knowledge that in a world where death becomes the price of freedom, one thing holds true. Few people celebrate when an individual life is lost, much less a thousand, but the whole world rejoices when a single life is saved. For Emma Stevenson, victory is the triumph of life over death. 

Detective Inspector Roger Pritchard inhabits a world that exists in the shadows, a world where rationing and restrictions provide opportunities for the morally corrupt. Even as terror rains down from the sky, another terror stalks the broken streets of London. A serial killer strikes fear into every woman who walks alone at night. For Roger Pritchard, victory is the triumph of order over disorder.

Emma and Roger are two people from completely different walks of life. They have nothing in common, but then again, perhaps they have everything in common. They both live in the shadow of death, and yet they each dare to dream of a life without fear, perhaps even a life where love can prevail. Their struggle to survive is no more and no less than thousands of others of the greatest generation who refused to be cowed. This is their story, the triumph of the human spirit.

The story has expanded into two volumes which, with luck, might be finished this summer. Will it be another best seller or will it disappear into obscurity? This is one of the exciting things about being a writer. I am certainly delighted with it and that’s the whole point of it for me. Be it a success or failure, it has been another wonderful experience."

Peter Turnham

2024 

 https://www.peterturnhamauthor.com   

 

 

 

          

                                                                                                                                                                               https://www.amazon.co.uk/None-Stood-Taller-inspirational-Historical-ebook/dp/B08HVN8QMZ/

​