CHARLES TODD--THE WALNUT TREE: A HOLIDAY TALE

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Missing Downton Abbey? Need the perfect Christmas book? Well, today we have a special treat for you on Jungle Red. With us are Caroline and Charles Todd, the mother and son writing team.  As Charles Todd they are the authors of two acclaimed mystery series--the Inspector Rutledge novels and the Bess Crawford novels--set during and after World War I.

But the Todds (who are among the hardest working and most prolific authors I know) have departed from suspense to give us an unexpected gift, THE WALNUT TREE, a bittersweet love story set at Christmas during the dangerous opening months of World War I.

In 1914, while visiting her friend Madeleine in Paris, Lady Elspeth Douglas's life is thrown into chaos when war breaks out and the Germans quickly overrun Belgium, threatening France. Having just agreed to marry Alain, Madeleine's dashing brother, Lady Elspeth watches him leave to join his unit, and then she sets out for England, only to find herself trapped on the French coast.
Elspeth—daughter of a Highland aristocrat whose distinguished family can trace its roots back to the court of Mary, Queen of Scots—decides to make herself useful, carrying water to weary soldiers near the Front. It is an act of charity that almost gets her killed when enemy shells begin to explode around her. To her rescue comes Captain Peter Gilchrist, who pulls her away from the battle and leads her to safety. 

Back in London, surrounded by familiar comforts, Elspeth is haunted by the horrors she witnessed in France. She enrolls in a nursing course, where she meets a fellow nurse in training, Bess Crawford. It is a daring move, made without the consent of Elspeth's guardian, her cousin Kenneth, a high-handed man with rigid notions of class and femininity.

Yet Elspeth Douglas is a woman with a mind of her own, which—as she herself says—is a blessing and a curse. She is determined to return to the battlefields of France to do her part . . . and to find the man she has no right to love. In a world full of terror and uncertainty, can the sweetness of love survive or will Elspeth's troubled heart become another casualty of this terrible war?

Now the Todds tell us more.

DEBS: With two strong suspense series--the Inspector Rutledge novels, set just after WWI, and the Bess Crawford books, set during the war, THE WALNUT TREE is quite a departure for you. Why a love story?

TODDS:  We had never tried a holiday tale, and we thought it would be an interesting thing to do.  We hadn’t tackled the first days of the war, those frantic events of late summer 1914 when the Germans marched.  So that was the time frame, and we‘d already decided on a character who was quite different from Bess Crawford.   That gave us the personal touch.  And how better to see those early battles than through the eyes of a young woman who loved two men, one in the French army and one in the British?  Some of the greatest love stories have centered around war time.  Gone with the Wind and Casablanca, just to name two.

DEBS:  The heroine, Lady Elspeth Douglas, is of the same class and background as Lady Mary Crawley of Downton Abbey. Reading about Elspeth really brought home to me just how different were the lives of aristocratic young women from not only middle and working-class women of their time, but from our modern experience.  On the one hand, they had everything done for them. But on the other, they had no freedom to make decisions about their own lives. Was this one of the things that interested you?

 

TODDS:   Yes, from the beginning we realized that to have a heroine from the aristocracy, we had to see the world through her eyes.  To watch her struggle with the ordinary life of someone like Bess.  Lady Elspeth had been well educated—she could converse with bishops or take dancing with the Prince of Wales in stride, almost as her due.  But title and influence couldn’t make her a Sister.  She had to train for that like everyone else, making her own bed, washing her own uniforms, scrubbing hospital floors on her hands and knees.  And she did this knowing that her family would disapprove, quite a step toward independence.  It’s a measure of her determination that she finished her training and not only that, took pride in her accomplishment.

 DEBS:  THE WALNUT TREE takes place right at the beginning of the war. Why this period in particular?

TODDS:  People weren’t prepared for what lay ahead.  Most of them believed that the war would be over by Christmas, which gave us the holiday theme we were after.  Sadly, the fighting was intense from the start, and by the new year, 1915, France, Germany, and Britain had reached the stalemate that Rutledge knew so well as trench warfare.  It’s a prelude to Rutledge, in a way.  At the same time, it reflects what was happening to so many young people—hasty engagements, new relationships, the tumult of change, and meeting people who might or might not have been in one’s circle before August, 1914.  Lady Elspeth hadn’t seen Peter Gilchrist since she was a girl.  If the war hadn’t come along, she might never have known what sort of man he’d become.  Or had the chance to fall in love with him. She might have married the excellent young man her guardian chose for her and never known true happiness.   

DEBS:  Was it hard to resist the temptation to sneak a little mystery into the story (although there is the incident of the man on the train...)?

TODDS:  Not too hard, because in the chaos of war there are all sorts of things going.  We chose a mystery that we felt best showed what such upheaval  really meant.  The same thing happened in World War II, by the way, and with the Nazis, on an even grander scale.  Linda, Charles’s sister, happened to mention one day that such and such a thing interested her, and we thought, Perfect, just what we were looking for.   We won’t spoil it by saying more.

DEBS: Did you feel restricted by the novella length?

TODDS:  In the beginning we didn’t notice it.  But about halfway through, we realized that we could easily have told Lady Elspeth’s story in a full length novel.  THE WALNUT TREE is nearly two hundred and fifty pages as it is, so we came close!   There was so much to explore, both in Lady Elspeth’s background and in the lives of the two men who were so important to her.  We liked her cousins too, and could see lots of material there.  We’d decided on a novella to begin with to make it a great holiday read.  But it could be equally exciting any time of the year. 

DEBS: While I could tell there could have been more story, I really enjoyed the novella. It was a treat to have a story that could be read in a couple of evenings, and as much as I like series novels, it was refreshing to read a story that was complete in itself.  (Although maybe Bess could run across the characters in her next outing-)

TODDS:  This is one of the glories of stand-alones like THE WALNUT TREE—you can tell an entire story and see the beginning and the ending between page one and page whatever.  And that’s something we enjoy, as readers, so we like it as writers too.  At a signing recently someone mentioned that TREE  would make a lovely movie.  And we think they could be right, because it’s a whole.

DEBS:  Oh, it would make a wonderful movie! (Thinking of casting now...) And the cover of the book is absolutely beautiful. I've kept it on my nightstand just because I've enjoyed looking at it. Did you have any input?

TODDS:  Actually we did.  The art department came up with a brilliant cover, but it didn’t really have a holiday mystery look about it.  More a regular mystery.  So we suggested some possibilities, and the art department was enthusiastic, even to inserting that tree with the bare branches, which is the walnut tree of the title.  The result was just spectacular, and every time we see it, we feel the same sense of wonder that it turned out so beautifully.  Many reviews have featured the jacket, too, and I think for the same reason. 

DEBS: And what's up next for the prolific TODDS?

TODDS:   We’re in the midst of the line edits for the next Bess, which is A QUESTION OF HONOR, and should be out in June.  The next Rutledge is coming out at the end of January, and that’s PROOF OF GUILT.   We had a short story in STRAND Magazine  this summer, another one in THE BEST AMERICAN MYSTERY STORIES OF 2012, edited by Robert Crais, , and we’ll be in the MWA anthology out next April.  We have three more short stories to do. And while all this is going on, we’re starting the Rutledge for 2014.  And that’s going to be exciting.  

DEBS:  So looking forward to both the Rutledge and the Bess! 

Readers, the Todds will be checking in today to say "hi" and answer questions, so be sure to post your comments.  Oh, and one more thing. Caroline, I think you recently had an adventure with an owl. Will you tell us about it?

CAROLINE: Ah, the owl  It’s name is Raleigh, it’s a barred owl, and he (we think it’s a he, with owls it’s not always easy to tell)  is a resident of The Ruth Patrick Science Center, University of South Carolina at Aiken SC.  Deborah McMurtry, who teaches teachers and schoolchildren about predators in her lab at the Center, was kind enough to allow us to visit Raleigh and let me hold him on my wrist like a falcon  and talk to him for nearly an hour.  It’s an experience I will never forget. He has an injured wing and can’t be released to the wild, but he has given hundreds of school children a chance to look at a bird they have read about but probably have never seen in real life. 

PSS: A late edition--the Todds will give away a copy of The Walnut Tree to a lucky commenter!!!

AND ANOTHER NEWS FLASH! THE WASHINGTON POST PICKS THE WALNUT TREE AS ONE OF THE BEST CHRISTMAS BOOKS OF 2012!