FIFTEEN WORDS BY MONIKA J. THOMAS EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW.
I hope you enjoy this exclusive interview with Fifteen Words author Monika Jephcott Thomas.
> If you could spend time with a character from your book whom would it be?
> and what would you do during that day?
I would play with her, encourage her not to be too upset about her Dad and help her to help him.
> How did you come up with the idea for the book?
I was doing some research into my family history, as most of us do at some stage of our lives and, also as most of us do whose parents grew up during the world wars, I felt their stories were the stuff of novels. Unlike many who will be reading this however, my parents were both German. They met during the Second World War and were eventually separated by it, as Max and Erika are in the novel – my father having to go off and serve as a doctor in the German army, not because he wanted to (he was not a supporter of the Nazi party), but because he was conscripted, like so many young men across the globe in the early ’40s.
The novel is heavily inspired by the real-life trials and tribulations of my parents’ early married lives – simply because they are so inherently dramatic – whilst allowing me to depict the complexity of growing up in Nazi Germany among the potent forces of religion and fascism competing for young souls. It is also an exploration of the strength of human relationships, which the war tested greatly, in an age when letter writing was one of the few long distance forms of communication available to most; when the fighting separated husbands and wives, children and parents for extensive periods of time and over vast distances.
In the book, Max is a POW in a Russian labour camp on the edge of the Arctic for four long and painful years. I was shocked to find out, during my research for this novel, that German POWs in those Soviet labour camps were only allowed to send letters home if they contained a maximum of fifteen words. So, in the novel, Max struggles over how to express everything he wants to tell Erika with such limitations. He enlists the help of his more artistic friends to help him. But finally in despair he writes something damning. It becomes one of the themes of the book: how we can say so much in so few words to beautiful or destructive effect.
The book was written reasonably quickly, in just a few months, but that was mainly because I was steeped in all the stories from the research I had already done into my family history, which had unearthed all manner of letters, documents, photos and tape recordings. The real work was deciding which stories to follow in the novel. Apart from the themes I wanted to explore, the stories I eventually focused on were also the most gripping, page-turning aspects of the history. So the book has its fair share of explosions, air raids, prison breakouts, emergency medical procedures on the battlefield, not to mention a pregnant woman hanging on to the outside of a speeding train!
Fifteen Words is however, primarily a love story. Anyone who likes World War 2 fiction will find it not only interesting but, I think, refreshing. This book is unusual in that there are not many books written in English about the German experience of WW2. Many early readers of the manuscript found it an eye-opener, informing them about the war in a way they never thought of before, without it being a text which tries to rewrite history. In no way does it attempt to say the Nazis weren’t to blame for the atrocities of the war, but it merely points out that not all Germans were Nazis. As with any war, which we see all too often today, there are many civilian casualties, from all strata of society. In this very human story I hope I have been able to reaffirm how all of us, from whatever nation, for all our differences, still suffer and rejoice in remarkably similar ways.
> What is an interesting fun fact about your book?
The interest in the book is the romance that developed and how it survived. Fun is not the focus although enjoyment of the novel is of course.
> Did you have to do any research to write this book?
One of the main difficulties of researching for historical fiction is just that – the research! Or more specifically getting bogged down in the research. Research is important of course and reality is so often stranger than fiction, which is why history provides such good fodder for novelists, but at the end of the day we are writing historical fiction. As a reader, if you want to read a history book, I would suggest you don’t pick up a novel. As a writer, I would suggest, that as soon as something you research sparks your imagination, get writing and stop researching. I often have blank spaces in the pages I write; spaces where a fact or detail needs to be added, but it is not so vital to keep me from actually writing the drama my characters are going through. Later on, after the writing is done, I can go back and fill in the blanks. The internet, being just a click away, is a very tempting and useful tool, but it can lead you down labyrinths that are a massive distraction sometimes. It’s better not to go there until after or before your actual writing time.
There is another difficulty with researching history and that is the history books themselves. As we all know, history can be a very subjective thing, open to interpretation and manipulation by historians, depending on their political and cultural bias. Every few decades, top secret documents are released to the public under the Freedom of Information Act, the 30 year rule, etc and we find ourselves a little closer to the truth; a little more aware of how history is not as black and white as we might have thought.
That’s why I think some of the greatest tools for research are photographs. During the research for my novel Fifteen Words, set in Germany during the last days of the Second World War and the few years after it, I would pore for hours over photos found in archives, on the internet and in my families own collections. Luckily, the age of photography was still reasonably young in the early-mid twentieth century, so the photos I saw could not have been doctored; and as such they are often the most honest and objective interpretation of the past we can find. Photos are so full of stuff to inspire your imagination; full of details that can populate your descriptions. Use them!
Private letters are similarly useful, as they can help you imagine the voices of your characters, the vocabulary they might use, the turns of phrase they might employ. Private letters often can tell us what kind of issues occupied the minds of people during the eras you are writing about. For example, nearly all of the letters in my novel Fifteen Words are near transcriptions of genuine ones I found in archives. I would match a letter to the appropriate character, or sometimes a letter I stumbled across inspired a whole new turn of events in the book.
So while the details are important, getting inside the characters is so much more important. And the best research you can do for this is to look inside yourself because, although there may be many decades or even centuries which separate you and your characters, human beings are, and always have been, very similar, beneath all the wonderful and incredible cultural and physical differences we possess. That is why if, as a writer, you can set down emotions that you have felt in a clear and honest way, readers from any part of the globe and from any epoch in the future should be able to relate to and be moved by them.
My personal story below, my professional one see under ‘Author’ on www.monika-jephcott-thomas.com
I was born 4 days after the end of WW 2 under quite dramatic circumstances.
My mother had joined her father in law, who had been evacuated to the town of Bernried in Bavaria from the Ruhr district . After the war had finished the Americans decided to throw the family out of their home and so my mother was sitting in the street 3 days before I was born. She went to have me in Bernried Castel which had been confiscated from their owners during the war and was used as an orthopaedic clinic. It was run by nuns and nobody knew how deliver a baby or wanted to. As she was a doctor she had brought her own instruments necessary to deliver me and in the end read out to an orthopaedic surgeon from the training manual how to get me safely into this world.
So I arrived without my mother knowing where her husband, father or mother were. Over the next year she got to know that her husband was in Russian imprisonment and returned only when I was 4, her father was in Siberian imprisonment and returned only in 1956 when I was 11, and her mother was in Polish imprisonment from which her father in law rescued her in 1947.
My mother returned with her father in laws family to the Ruhr district where I grew up and had a very happy child hood be it that my father was missing. My mother started her surgery when I was 3 and I have many memories accompanying her sitting in the front of her bike in a basket when she visited her patients.
When I was 4 my father returned from POW and for some time things were not quite so easy while he was trying to integrate into an established environment. My siblings were born and I continued with a secure background to develop into a teenager. When I was 21 I married my child hood sweetheart who had visited us regularly from the UK from when I was 15 and moved with him to the UK . There I was a Modern language teacher for 30 yrs in Secondary State and Private schools. It was a difficult transition culturally. The school system worked very differently from Germany and seemed much more restricted in its curriculum. I experienced many prejudices from parents against me as a German, and although that might be understandable it was hard to deal with.
I also discovered very early on in my teaching that many of the pupils were not achieving their potential because of emotional, behavioural, social or mental health problems. After trying from within the school system to do something about this and not succeeding as the climate 30 yrs ago was not conducive to emotional support of pupils but targeting achievements of grades, it led me to my current profession.
My 3 children are now grown up and I have 4 delightful grand children . I remarried nearly 20 yrs ago and Jeff has developed with me our profession in Play and Creative Arts therapies .
This particular book was written because the real life events it is based on were so inherently dramatic within the context of the complexities of growing up in Nazi Germany that I wanted others to experience this.
It is also an exploration of the strength of human relationships, which the war tested greatly, in an age when letter writing was one of the few long distance forms of communication available to most; when the fighting separated husbands and wives, children and parents for extensive periods of time and over vast distances. This is particularly relevant for many families today and I hope the readers will gain hope and resilience from my book.
> What is the biggest surprise that you experienced after becoming a writer?
How the agent and publishing world works.
> What book / books have influenced you the most?
My love of books started in Secondary school where we were introduced to the German classics. I enjoyed mainly the poetry of Goethe, Eichendorff and Rilke.
When I got into 6th form we were introduced to non German literature and my favourites were Dickens, Shakespeare, Bronte sisters , Sartre
My book was mainly influenced by my family history and I found Jodi Picoult’s ‘Story Teller’ very interesting. It gave me some insight into questions in my mind as to ’how could ‘Hitler’ happen in Germany. In her book Jodi describes how the ‘monster inside you’ can emerge through circumstances
Unfortunately I have not got much time nowadays to do reading for leisure. My reading time is taken up with professional books which I do not read again and again but use as reference material. What I read often again are my favourite poets like those mentioned above and English poets like Donne and the English Romantics
> Anything you would like to say to your readers?
I hope you really enjoy the book and I would be grateful for your feedback
Two young doctors form a profound and loving bond in Nazi Germany; a bond that will stretch them to the very limits of human endurance. Catholic Max - whose religious and moral beliefs are in conflict, has been conscripted to join the war effort as a medic, despite his hatred of Hitler’s regime. His beloved Erika, a privileged young woman, is herself a product of the Hitler Youth. In spite of their stark differences, Max and Erika defy convention and marry.
But when Max is stationed at the fortress city of Breslau, their worst nightmares are realised; his hospital is bombed, he is captured by the Soviet Army and taken to a POW camp in Siberia. Max experiences untold horrors, his one comfort the letters he is allowed to send home: messages that can only contain Fifteen Words. Back in Germany, Erika is struggling to survive and protect their young daughter, finding comfort in the arms of a local carpenter. Worlds apart and with only sparse words for comfort, will they ever find their way back to one another, and will Germany ever find peace?
Fifteen Words is a vivid and intimate portrayal of human love and perseverance, one which illuminates the German experience of the war, which has often been overshadowed by history.
Purchase on Amazon UK - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fifteen-Words-Monika-Jephcott-Thomas-ebook/dp/B01MCWG3IJ/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1477564925&sr=1-1&keywords=fifteen+words
Monika Jephcott Thomas grew up in Dortmund Mengede, north-west Germany. She moved to the UK in 1966, enjoying a thirty year career in education before retraining as a therapist. Along with her partner Jeff she established the Academy of Play & Child Psychotherapy in order to support the twenty per cent of children who have emotional, behavioural, social and mental health problems by using play and the creative Arts. A founder member of Play Therapy UK, Jephcott Thomas was elected President of Play Therapy International in 2002.
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