Come and chat to PAT BARKER, about her stellar writing career, her award-winning trilogies and her latest novel, NOONDAY, our April Book of the Month, on Weds 27 April, 9-10pm

[TillyMumsnetBookClub]

Pat Barker is one of Britain's most respected and best-loved novelists. Her epic trilogy about the First World War began with the astonishingly powerful Regeneration, followed by The Eye in the Door (winner of the Guardian Prize) and The Ghost Road (winner of the Booker Prize). As definitive, detailed and deeply felt as that series, her new trilogy is equally classic. Following a group of artists who meet at the Slade during WW1, Noonday is the final part of the story (though easily also a stand-alone novel) that began with Life Class and Toby's Room. Struggling in the thick of the Blitz, Elinor is unable to paint, out all night driving ambulances while her husband Paul is dragging bodies out of rubble. Their friend Kit Neville is trapped in a paper-pushing job at the Ministry of Information, frustrated that Paul’s artistic reputation has overtaken his own, and aware of his long-buried feelings for Elinor. As the blackout darkness befuddles and confuses, and as their exhaustion warps and distorts perception, their relationships become blurred. The book is vividly atmospheric, immersed in a traumatised London and the effects of the sustained attacks. It is her expert psychological insight, however, those fleeting moments of fear or connection or compassion, that make Barker a truly outstanding novelist.

You can find out more on our book of the month page, plus get an insight into Pat Barker's own relationship to London, her childhood and kickstarting her writing career in this fascinating interview with Alex Clark in the Guardian.

Penguin have 50 copies of Noonday to give to Mumsnetters: to claim your copy please fill in your details on the book of the month page. We’ll post on the thread when all the copies have gone. If you’re not lucky enough to bag one of those, you can always get a Kindle edition or paperback copy here

We are honoured, thrilled and delighted that Pat will be joining us to answer your questions about Noonday, all her previous award-winning novels and her fascinating career on
Wednesday 27 April, 9-10pm. Please feel free to discuss the book here throughout the month and then come and meet Pat on the night, and ask her a question or simply tell her what you think of her books. It’ll be a particularly special chat, very much hope you can make it…

Good evening! Just posting my q now in case I don't make it later. I read the whole trilogy and really enjoyed it. I loved how well researched it was and learnt loads about things that were going on during the wars 'behind the scenes' that I hadn't really thought about. All of the stuff in Toby's Room about Tonks in Queen's Hospital was fascinating, and I looked up the drawings afterwards - so horrifyingly beautiful.

My question for Pat is, when you started writing Life Class, did you already have a clear idea of what would happen in Noonday, or how the lives of Elinor, Paul and Neville would pan out? And if you did, did you stick to that or did it change as you wrote?

Do you like the character of Neville? He is very flawed and yet still appealing. And did you know the ending from the beginning?

I'm a bit of a fan, have read the Regeneration trilogy and the one ending with Noonday. I was excited to received the free copy and be reunited with Elinor in middle age.

What was it that made you want to write war in relation to about art and artists?

Good evening, everyone...

Firstly, a large thank you to all those who have posted so far - I hope you are all able to be here with us tonight.

Tonight is the fulfilment of a long-held personal ambition as I have wanted to ask Pat Barker onto Bookclub ever since we started seven years ago. I’m therefore absolutely delighted to welcome Pat to Bookclub this evening. Pat really needs no introduction - her direct, vivid and deeply moving novels have won multiple awards and gathered extraordinary reviews and accolades over 30 years. I am thrilled that we have the chance to talk about them all with her over the next hour.

Pat, thank you very, very much indeed for giving us your time tonight. And congratulations on Noonday, another outstanding novel and a fitting end to the Eleanor/Paul/Kit trilogy (is it officially known as the Life Class trilogy? That'll have to be one of my questions later...)

We've already got a fair few questions to get through so I'll just add the standard Mumsnet ones that we like to ask all our authors...

What childhood book most inspired you?

What would be the first piece of advice you would give to anyone attempting to write fiction?

What is the best book you’ve given someone recently?

And the best you’ve received?

Over to you...

Many thanks again to Mumsnet and Penguin Books for a copy of this book. I hadn't read Life Class or Toby's Room, but as opposed to many sequels, this appeared to be written to work just as well as a standalone story, so I decided to go ahead and read it. As expected, this was never going to be a light whimsical read. It is instead a highly perceptive examination of everyday lives forced to keep going in the face of adversity, and laced throughout with the ominously dark undertone of wartime horror. The well-developed narrative transports the reader to WWII London and the Blitz, and we follow the characters as their paths and lives overlap in their struggle to survive yet another war. Clearly a lot of hard work went into writing this book.

I'd like to ask Pat a few general questions to start with, if I may ..

QUESTION ONE:- Do you have a personal favourite out of the books you've had published? And/or out of books published by other authors?
QUESTION TWO:- With the advancements in CGI and on-screen visual effects, and the tools now available to film-makers, we have seen previously 'unfilmable' literary classics finally make it to the big screen. Would you be open to the possibility of your books being optioned for film or television, and how would you feel about your work in 'other people's hands'?
QUESTION THREE:- What's next? Are you done with war-themed books, or is there another one on the horizon?

:)

Hi I'm delighted to be here.

@notqueenbee

I very much enjoyed the novel - especially the vivid descriptions of the London blitz. A question for Pat Barker: I wondered why you decided to include the character of Bertha Mason - and why name her after the character in ' Jane Eyre '?

Well, Bertha Mason was one of those minor character that seemed to come out of nowhere and seemed to threaten to take over the whole novel. So she was quite destructive because she kept playing havoc with the structure - kept saying "It's my book!" And that's never happened to me before. Initially I didn't make the connection between Bertha Mason and the first Mrs Rochester. When a name comes too easily to you it's generally because it's a name that's already been used. When I did realise I could have changed it but then I thought, she is a mad woman living in an attic so why not keep it?

And also in Jane Eyre there's a kind of parallel between Jane and Bertha's positions, and there's a similar parallel between my Bertha and Elinor Brooke.

Oooh Tilly is a fan too

Hi Pat, I really enjoyed Noonday and read it straight after Life Class and Toby's Room and I felt I got to know the characters in more depth in successive books.

My question is, having written 2 trilogies about a group of characters, could you ever imagine writing a longer epic work or do you feel a shorter format suits you better?

I was also fascinated by the real life characters of Rivers in the Regeneration books and Tonks in this series, and I wondered if there are any other real life characters who you are planning to write about?

Not your new novel but ... I am still haunted by the graphic descriptions of war and death in regeneration. I was probably too young and sensitive when I first read it. I still am and I say that as a history teacher. They are books I've never forgotten. I hesitate to suggest them to my students as they seem so innocent and I know the books will change the way they think.

Thank you for great writing. How on earth did you survive writing those books.

Evening. Firstly, thanks for the copy of the book. This is genuinely something I would not normally read. I had not read the previous books in the trilogy but didn't feel like I was missing something. I really enjoyed the factual references in the book and the images the writing evoked - the horses running, the sounds and smells. I got through this book quickly and enjoyed it for the most part. I struggled slightly with the references to the medium and her physical presence.
It has made me realise that I won't avoid historical fiction as I usually do. Thank you. My question for Pat - how do you research your books?

@barricade

Many thanks again to Mumsnet and Penguin Books for a copy of this book. I hadn't read Life Class or Toby's Room, but as opposed to many sequels, this appeared to be written to work just as well as a standalone story, so I decided to go ahead and read it. As expected, this was never going to be a light whimsical read. It is instead a highly perceptive examination of everyday lives forced to keep going in the face of adversity, and laced throughout with the ominously dark undertone of wartime horror. The well-developed narrative transports the reader to WWII London and the Blitz, and we follow the characters as their paths and lives overlap in their struggle to survive yet another war. Clearly a lot of hard work went into writing this book.

I'd like to ask Pat a few general questions to start with, if I may ..

QUESTION ONE:- Do you have a personal favourite out of the books you've had published? And/or out of books published by other authors?
QUESTION TWO:- With the advancements in CGI and on-screen visual effects, and the tools now available to film-makers, we have seen previously 'unfilmable' literary classics finally make it to the big screen. Would you be open to the possibility of your books being optioned for film or television, and how would you feel about your work in 'other people's hands'?
QUESTION THREE:- What's next? Are you done with war-themed books, or is there another one on the horizon?

:)

Q1: I think probably Regeneration was my favourite. I did the research with my husband and we had a great time doing the research so it's got happy memories surrounding it.

Q2: I'd certainly be open to it- the more the merrier! I'm quite easy about stepping back and letting other people take over. The Play of Regeneration which toured last year was written by Nicholas Wright and I was quite happy to let him do what he wanted with the book and he did a great job. My attitude is that he's devoted his entire life eat to the theatre and he knows far more than I do about what works on stage.

Q3: I'm writing about a bronze age sex slave in a book that is provisionally called The Silence of the Girls. The bronze age sex slave is the girl Achilles and Agamemnon argue over in the Iliad. In the Iliad she says nothing and I wanted to tell that story from the point of view of the woman.

@TillyMumsnetBookClub

Good evening, everyone...

Firstly, a large thank you to all those who have posted so far - I hope you are all able to be here with us tonight.

Tonight is the fulfilment of a long-held personal ambition as I have wanted to ask Pat Barker onto Bookclub ever since we started seven years ago. I’m therefore absolutely delighted to welcome Pat to Bookclub this evening. Pat really needs no introduction - her direct, vivid and deeply moving novels have won multiple awards and gathered extraordinary reviews and accolades over 30 years. I am thrilled that we have the chance to talk about them all with her over the next hour.

Pat, thank you very, very much indeed for giving us your time tonight. And congratulations on Noonday, another outstanding novel and a fitting end to the Eleanor/Paul/Kit trilogy (is it officially known as the Life Class trilogy? That'll have to be one of my questions later...)

We've already got a fair few questions to get through so I'll just add the standard Mumsnet ones that we like to ask all our authors...

What childhood book most inspired you?

What would be the first piece of advice you would give to anyone attempting to write fiction?

What is the best book you’ve given someone recently?

And the best you’ve received?

Over to you...

The Book that most inspired me as a child is Emily Climbs by LM Montgomery, the middle volume of the Emily trilogy.

LM Montgomery is better known for the Anne of Green Gables series. The Emily trilogy is about a young girl growing up in early 20 century Canada who wants to be a writer - which is what first attracted me at the age of ten or eleven when I first realized I wanted to write. It made being a writer seem possible.

Advice to anybody wanting to write fiction. Don't give up. Write a lot - and try not to trip yourself up by being too critical of work in progress. Don't try to double guess what publishers are looking for. They don't want a carbon copy of something they've already published. They want to be pleasantly surprise by something new.

What was the best book given recently? Mr Stink by David Walliams given to my seven year old granddaughter. She's now moved on to Gangsta Granny by the same writer. I just had the great pleasure of hearing her laughing out loud as she was reading it.

I was given Treachery by S J Parris. I love good historical crime fiction. It's one of a series featuring ex monk and heretic Giordano Bruno who is working as a spy in Elizabethan England. Its always a good moment to realize that an author you really enjoy has written other books - so I look forward to reading the others in the series.

@LocalEditorMerton

Hi Pat

Very much looking forward to the webchat on Wednesday.

You've now written two trilogies set against unfurling events of WW1, the Interwar Years, and WW2, so wondering whether you've got any plans to write something more contemporary, with the 'War on Terror' as its background?

Also, reading 'The Regeneration Trilogy' sent me off on a 'WW1 fiction fest' from which I've not yet really emerged. What WW1 set/inspired novel has most impressed you and why?

Kate

I think I prefer writing historical novels because here is, with the benefit of distance you can see what really mattered and what seemed to matter at the time but didn't whereas when you're writing about contemporary events you're faced with the fact that there's nothing more completely out of date than last year's headlines, so I just like the distance, the perspective.

I think the most significant book for me was a book called The Captains and the King by Jennifer Johnson, first novel very short. It's essentially about an old man who is still haunted by those years, and it's absolutely beautifully written.

aging hippy, I am such a fan, I almost tried to get my 10 year old son to read Regeneration trilogy, but then decided maybe War Horse was probably more appropriate just now... Still can't wait for him to be old enough, and how lucky he is to have all these books ahead of him.

I would also like to add to frogletsmum question:

Pat, how do you find the creative process differs when dealing with a real character and creating an imaginary character from scratch? Do you find one or other more pleasurable/difficult?

I like that wartime London is the backdrop to Noonday and note that wartime, particularly the First World War, seems to be a favourite setting for your novels, so is there anything in your background, family or otherwise, that you draw upon, or has particularly influenced you?

@frogletsmum

Hi Pat, I really enjoyed Noonday and read it straight after Life Class and Toby's Room and I felt I got to know the characters in more depth in successive books.

My question is, having written 2 trilogies about a group of characters, could you ever imagine writing a longer epic work or do you feel a shorter format suits you better?

I was also fascinated by the real life characters of Rivers in the Regeneration books and Tonks in this series, and I wondered if there are any other real life characters who you are planning to write about?

I don't know whether it suits me better but my novels always tend to a come out at about 80 000 words but in the process they can get up to about 130 000 words but by the time I've got through various drafts and edited them they tend to end up about 80 000. I'm not in the least tempted to write a doorstop novel in fact I'm more inclined to get away with as short as I can. I love novellas, I think it's a brilliant length and actually some of the greatest books we have are novellas but they are not easy to publish. For example 'A month in the Country' by JL Carr, Jekyll and Hyde of course, 'Of Mice and Men' by Steinbeck', 'The Secret Sharer' by Joseph Conrad and 'Heart of Darkness' by Joseph Conrad, 'Death in Venice' by Thomas Mann. There are masses that have stood the test of time. And the thing is you can read them in a short time and there's so much to think about and I think when people are really pressed for time, novellas are a great way of indulging your passion for reading and feeding your mind whilst not having to settle down to a really big book which can feel really daunting.

In answer to your second question: Not at the moment but there are characters in the book that are inspired by particular real life people just like Bertha Mason in Noonday owes a lot to Helen Duncan who was the last woman to be tried as a witch in England and she was tried and convicted in 1944.

Thank you ever so much for answering my questions, Pat. And some discerning responses to all the other questions, too. Really great to gain a little insight into your writing process and favourites.

Another question, this time specifically about 'Noonday'. (Sorry, I realise you have loads to get through).

I'm trying to get to grips with the aftermath of the assault that Elinor suffered at the hands of Kit Neville. I realise that in the face of all the horror surrounding them, Elinor would want to push the incident to the back of her mind, but she almost seems to act like it never happened. She reacts to him amicably when they are on duty together afterwards. She is very concerned for his safety near the burning buildings, and concerned for his welfare after the building crashes down upon him. Why is this? I would have thought a part of her would be screaming for justice, possibly even vengeance. I realise that they knew each in college, and that Kit once proposed to her, but in many ways, that makes it worse, to be betrayed in this way by someone you know. After the assault, Neville states "I seem to have become ... a bit of a monster", to which Elinor replies, "You always were." I haven't read the previous 2 books, but what happened for Elinor to say this? Was it to do with Toby? And if he indeed was always "a monster" why did she sleep with him in the first place?

Hi Pat,
I'd love to know whether you settle down to write every day - do you have a routine ??

@yUMMYmUMMYb

Evening. Firstly, thanks for the copy of the book. This is genuinely something I would not normally read. I had not read the previous books in the trilogy but didn't feel like I was missing something. I really enjoyed the factual references in the book and the images the writing evoked - the horses running, the sounds and smells. I got through this book quickly and enjoyed it for the most part. I struggled slightly with the references to the medium and her physical presence. It has made me realise that I won't avoid historical fiction as I usually do. Thank you. My question for Pat - how do you research your books?

I always try to go to letters and diaries rather than to read biographies and memoirs because you only really get the sense of the characters' day by day reactions to events if you've got the letters or the diaries a real life character has written and you compare them with something written 15 years later and you realise that you're looking at a completely different version of the same event - and we all do that. We all reshape our memories to fit in with what we think ought to have happened or wished to have happened. What the novelist needs is initial reactions and raw emotions and there is a particular delight about looking at the real handwriting of the character you're writing about.

@notqueenbee

I'd be very interested to know why you called the novel ' Noonday', and your process at arriving at that decision. I loved the book, thank you!

The novel is taking place in the run up to the middle of the 20th century and It's also taking place in the middle life of the characters so in terms of the day it is actually noon. What I had in mind also was the idea of the noon of the 20th century being actually very dark, so it's a sort of darkness of noon idea.

Is it too late to pst a question? I was wondering if You think the feminist movement was helpful in opening a space for a new, female writer (when you started), and how you see the terrain now.

Sorry if that's off-topic/irrelevant.

Am loving the new trilogy. Really enjoying your details. It reads as though you've researched the period.

Thanks for answering :-)

Exciting news about the Iliad-related project. I remember Madeleine Miller's The Song of Achilles (a Bookclub choice a few years ago) featured her as a main character - Briseis, I think?

@Chchchchange

I am a huge fan of yours, Pat. It's lovely to have you on here.

I'm wondering who inspired and inspires you now as a writer?

How much re-writing do you have to do when you sit down to write a book?

1. All the authors I read when I was a child. Every single one of them. Thanks to the library I read very widely when I was a child - good stuff and terrible stuff. I didn't read children classics. I read whatever I picked up. There was this sort of feeling, thinking this is a marvelous thing and you realise, I could do this too! I could write the kind of books I want to read and at the age of 11 or 12 I belonged to a circulating library (they no longer exist) and I was reading not Mills and Boon, but things a bit more raunchy and bodice ripping! And I actually wrote a book like that when I was about 11! It would have been hilarious! When I was 13 I felt terribly ashamed so I got rid of it. A great pity.

1. A least 5 drafts! More in particular places where it's difficult but my first drafts are very rough. It wouldn't be as much as that for others. But i firmly believe in getting to the end. The awful thing about polishing as you go, is that you end up polishing the big toe and you realise you have a portrait bust and you don't need a toe at all!