Pardonable Lies

  A local boy not yet a man lifted the bugle to his lips, and, as the Last Post sounded, Maisie held her breath, closing her eyes. She felt Dene step forward, a veteran of the Great War, raising his deep resonant voice above the salty wind as he spoke the words:

  “They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old:

  Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

  At the going down of the sun and in the morning

  We will remember them.”

  Maisie saw the casualty clearing station in her mind’s eye, saw her beloved Simon locked in his cavern of shell shock. I was a nurse. A single tear slipped between the lids of each closed eye as she touched the treasured watch that had been her talisman for so many years. Dene returned to her side and Maisie felt the reassuring weight of his arm around her shoulders, pulling her to him. I will remember them.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  The act of writing a novel is generally thought to be a solitary journey from that first awe-inspiring blank page to the end. However, the fact that most authors offer acknowledgments speaks to the presence of a team in the background, offering advice, support, information, a shoulder to cry on, or someone to share a laugh with. The team is often a blend of new contacts and old friends, and when I think of mine I know I have been more than fortunate.

  Holly Rose, my very dear friend and writing buddy (and brilliant writer herself), is entrusted to read the first draft of anything I write. Someone give the woman a medal! My Cheef Resurcher, who knows who he is, is not only a wonderful friend—and conspirator—but one to whom I turn in my quest to bring color and depth to the life and times of Maisie Dobbs.

  I have drawn upon the knowledge and expertise of the following while writing Pardonable Lies. In the U.K.: James Powers of Somme Battlefield Tours, who along with his wife, Annette, made my visit to the battlefields of the Somme and Ypres an unforgettable pilgrimage; the knowledgeable and extremely efficient staff of the Imperial War Museum and of the National Railway Museum; Ian Langlands of Smith & Nephew, who was kind enough to search the company’s archives for information on the history of adhesive bandages. Deepest thanks to Carolyn Bleach, Deputy Secretary of the Intelligence Corps Museum at Chicksands, and also to Major (Retd.) A. J. Edwards, OBE, historian at the Military Intelligence Museum—any errors with fact in the story are all down to the author, but cannot diminish the integrity and bravery of the Intelligence Corps. In France: Thanks to Pascal Berger of the AJECTA Association, and to my friend Stéphane Bidan. In the U.S.: I am honored to be a member of the Great War Society and must thank Secretary Mike Hanlon for being a wonderful support and resource.

  I am blessed, too, in my editors: Jennifer Barth at Henry Holt in New York and Anya Serota with John Murray in London. Heartfelt thanks must go to John Sterling, president and publisher of Henry Holt, for his inspiring support of Maisie Dobbs. My agent, Amy Rennert, is both a very dear friend and mentor as well as cheerleader extraordinaire for Maisie Dobbs, and thanks must also go to Dena Fischer of the Amy Rennert Agency.

  Finally, saving the best till last, to my husband, John Morell—thanks, love, for your unfailing encouragement.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  JACQUELINE WINSPEAR is the author of two previous Maisie Dobbs novels, Maisie Dobbs and Birds of a Feather. A national bestseller and a New York Times Notable Book, Maisie Dobbs was nominated for seven awards, including the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Novel, and won the Agatha, Alex, and Macavity Awards. Birds of a Feather won the 2004 Agatha Award and was nominated for the Bruce Alexander Historical Mystery Award and the Dilys Award. Originally from the United Kingdom, Winspear now lives in California.

  Author Interview and

  Discussion Questions for

  PARDONABLE LIES

  JACQUELINE WINSPEAR

  Author Interview

  1. Some writers claim that their characters come to them fully formed and complete, others discover their characters over the long process of writing a book. What is it like for you to return to Maisie Dobbs on this third outing, and what new things do you discover in your ongoing relationship with the character?

  In a way, it’s like a long-term relationship. With each book I have felt as if it were a two-way process in which the character is revealing herself to me at the same time as I am developing the character, based on imagination and historical research.

  2. Detective novels are fraught with conflict, and yet, in yours, a great deal of empathy is extended to all characters involved. Sometimes it is hard to spot the antagonist. Would you talk about why you take this complex approach to the mystery novel?

  I’m not really interested in the black and white, the “goodies and baddies.” I find the complexity of the gray areas more compelling, more intriguing. As I have said before, there are angels and demons in all of us, and I am interested in the relationship between the two within the “ordinary” person.

  3. In Pardonable Lies, there is almost as much tension in whether Maisie will tell the truth to Cecil Lawton as there is in her pursuit of the truth itself. Would you agree that, sometimes, just making the right moral decision is like a mystery to be solved?

  In a way, yes, though I think it might be more accurate to say that there are layers of mystery, and moral decisions are part of that complexity. In Maisie Dobbs, the question of what happened to Simon was a mystery in itself. And Maisie Dobbs, the character, is a mystery—her thoughts and actions keep the reader turning the page.

  4. An interesting detail toward the beginning of Pardonable Lies: As Maisie Dobbs approaches Ms. Browning’s house, she notices that the railings of the flat have recently been replaced, the old railings taken and melted down for the war effort. These are the small, forgotten details that make a believably constructed period piece. What do you think is the secret of evoking that period in history on the page?

  I think the secret, if there is one, is in judicious application of the research. I gather copious amounts of research material, but I use it in a ratio that can be compared to an iceberg—only about 7 percent of it is visible above the water. I don’t make a huge effort to get everything in—otherwise the reader might as well pick up a nonfiction book. Instead, the story dictates use of research material—every fact must support the story. Then I just trust that my research informs every line—in the way characters address each other, their thoughts and conversations, and so on.

  5. From Maisie Dobbs and Avril Jarvis, to Priscilla Evernden and Madeleine Hartnell, this is a story largely moved forward by the actions of women. Is it a part of your objective, as a writer, to show the active role that women have played in history?

  It’s not an “objective” so to speak, but I do have a real interest in the lives of women between the wars, and the barriers that were brought down simply because there were two million more women than men, as revealed by the 1921 census—a direct result of wartime losses. Those barriers went up again later, but I certainly believe an archetype was born in that time—the independent British woman.

  6. One of the ways in which Pardonable Lies departs from previous Maisie Dobbs novels is in your use of dreams. Why have you chosen to write Maisie’s dreams into the story. Do you feel they reveal another dimension of Maisie’s inner life?

  I believe dreams can be enormously powerful, that they can provide a portal to understanding emotions, and to—as you say—the “inner life.” Maisie, in Pardonable Lies, is going through what might be termed a ‘dark night of the soul’—so her dreams are intense and important.

  7. Maisie is unique to her time period, and to the detective genre, in that she practices meditation and creative visualization, as learned from her guru, Khan. Why do you feel this is an important part of Maisie’s characterization? Does meditation, or yogic philosophy, perhaps play a part in your own life?

  They didn’t call it “creative visualization” then, but there was certainly an interest. You see, that’s the interesting thing; we tend to think that such practices are new, or at l
east the Western interest in them is. However, among certain scholars in particular, there was an intense interest in Eastern philosophies at the turn of the last century—certainly the “Raj” days of the British Empire contributed to that. I have books on yoga, for example, going back to the early 1900s. I think it’s an important part of Maisie’s characterization because she’s had exposure to such scholars—Khan is one—during her apprenticeship to Maurice Blanche.

  8. The awful portent of World War II strikes a quiet, but sustained, note through your novels. Late in Birds of a Feather, Billy says that his biggest fear is that there will be another war, and his children will be forced to enlist, and in Pardonable Lies, Maisie overhears a conversation in a Parisian café about whether Hitler is good for Germany. Do you see the presence of World War II becoming stronger in the series? Will it arrive?

  World War II is definitely a specter casting a shadow—and history bears this out. You’ll see it again in Messenger of Truth. And in time it will arrive, though I can’t say much about that at the moment!

  9. The relationships of Ralph and Maisie to their respective fathers is juxtaposed in that they are both alienated from their fathers, but for different reasons (Ralph for moral and emotional reasons, while Maisie’s estrangement is more intellectual). Would you comment on these parallels, and perhaps talk about how you plot and create them in your writing?

  Some things are not “plotted” as such, but seem to fall into place. I think the “falling into place” happens because I become immersed in the characters, so there are parallels that are there, but that I do not consciously develop—they just happen.

  10. Peter Evernden, it turns out, was killed in a food riot during the war; in Maisie Dobbs, Enid is killed by an accident at a munitions factory. Part of your unique perspective on World War I is that you identify the myriad ways that it imperils the citizens of a country, beyond the realm of combat. Would you talk about your perspective on war in general, its necessity and consequence, as played out in your novels? Do you see war as a scourge, or more objectively as an agent of fate? Or both?

  What interests me is the experience of ordinary people. To tell you the truth, although I can repeat certain dates, statistics, and so on, what I am really curious about is what happens to ordinary men, women, and children in extraordinary times. And I think, if anything, what touches me deeply is that some things never change—for example, I was watching a segment on TV yesterday evening about the 16,000-plus wounded coming home from Iraq—it’ll doubtless be many more by the time this is read. The point was made that head injuries and multiple amputations form the majority of disabilities to be faced by the returning servicemen and women. Though the time was different and of course battlefield medicine is different, that was pretty much the story in the Great War—some 1,350,000 men returned to Britain with serious wounds, 60,000 to 80,000 of them with profound shell shock. How do we support those people as they grow older? Will we be courteous and helpful to the old man who has to take longer in the grocery store because he cannot think quickly due to wounds sustained some fifty years earlier? Or will we forget? Will we become impatient in a way that we might not have if faced with a young man clearly just home from war? That’s the sort of thing that makes me sad. I remember, when I was a child, there were two brothers who lived locally. They had both been wounded in the Great War, both blinded—and when I say “blinded” I mean that they did not have eyes in their sockets. They would walk to the small grocery store in the hamlet where we lived, one with his hand on the shoulder of the other, just as the blind wounded were led along during the war. They were always so courteous, so kind, and I remember being terribly upset that they had had to live with such terrible wounds—and I must have only been four or five at the time.

  11. What does your unnamed “Cheef Resurcher” do for you, and could you share an example of one way in which vigorous and resourceful research directly influenced this book?

  Ah, my “Cheef Resurcher” who cannot be named! All I can tell you is that he is a retired international man of mystery who happens to have a real interest in the history of the Metropolitan Police—and he loves research and history in general. I ask him lots of “could this have happened?” type questions. He has illuminated many of the gray areas for me, so if someone says, “The police wouldn’t have done that” because, say, it isn’t in written procedure, I can safely say I have it from the horse’s mouth that such a thing could have happened. Here’s a small example: In Pardonable Lies, there is mention that the woman police auxilliary lived upstairs at Vine Street Police Station. There were no official “section houses”—accommodation provided for police constables—in those days, so at that time, that’s exactly where the women recruits to the police lived. I wouldn’t have known that had my Cheef Resurcher not told me.

  12. Maisie Dobbs is soon to make a jump to television. Could you share with us how it might be conceived for the small screen, and what it is like to hand your beloved characters over to a team of people who will collaboratively reimagine her? Do you have a dream cast?

  The TV serialization rights have been optioned, which is of course terribly exciting. I think the thing an author has to bear in mind is that it is a completely different media, that every word, every image on the page cannot be transferred directly onto the small screen, and that there are shortcuts that have to be taken to communicate certain events. Also, each Maisie Dobbs book probably has the material for two or three separate TV “cases.” Obviously one has to trust that the characters will be presented in a way that reflects the books, especially as TV viewers will forever after “see” the characters as they are on the screen. I would not have allowed the rights to be optioned if I did not think the company concerned would do their best to honor the books. I don’t actually have a dream cast, to tell you the truth. There are so many new, absolutely brilliant actors and actresses on the scene in the U.K. now that I just hope to be pleasantly amazed. I have to say, though, that I always thought Anthony Hopkins would make a terrific Maurice Blanche, and Maggie Smith a great Lady Rowan; however, they don’t tend to do TV series—more’s the pity!

  Discussion Questions

  1. Three significant figures in Pardonable Lies—Avril Jarvis, Pascale Clement, and the younger Maisie Dobbs of the detective’s own tormented recollections—are all about thirteen years old. Why does the novel choose this moment in the three girls’ growth and development as a focal point for observation? Do the three girls have anything in common apart from age?

  2. Although a number of mothers, including Agnes Lawton, Irene Nelson, Mrs. Jarvis, and Maisie’s own mother, are essentially absent as characters, they exert profound influence over events in the novel. What is the significance of the theme of the absent mother in Pardonable Lies?

  3. In quite a few classic detective novels, including The Maltese Falcon and Farewell, My Lovely, homosexual characters experience violent or disrespectful treatment. Does the treatment of homosexuality in Pardonable Lies fundamentally differ from that in older detective fictions? How and why?

  4. Compare Maisie’s current relationship with Dr. Andrew Dene and the role that her crippled ex-lover Simon continues to play in her life. Which is more important to Maisie, and why?

  5. Maisie lied about her age to go to war and now routinely risks her life as a private investigator. Nevertheless, Priscilla Evernden observes that Maisie has “kept to the safe places.” Is she right? Explain.

  6. Many of the characters in Pardonable Lies, including Maurice Blanche, Ralph Lawton, Jeremy Hazleton, and Maisie herself, engage in elaborate deceptions. Is there a deception in the novel that you consider less “pardonable” than the others? Why?

  7. Is there a deception in the novel that you consider more “pardonable” than the others? Why?

  8. Like Jacqueline Winspear’s previous novels, Maisie Dobbs and Birds of a Feather, Pardonable Lies is haunted by inescapable memories of World War I. In a sense, the war is the great crime from which the leg
al offenses and ethical transgressions of Winspear’s novels are the offshoots. How are the webs of falsehood and deception in this novel a response to the experiences and traumas of war? Do the lies in the novel make the aftermath of the war easier to bear, or do they compound the war’s original immorality?

  9. Although Jacqueline Winspear frequently focuses on the physical and psychological scars of warfare, Pardonable Lies offers instances of something beautiful or noble that has emerged from the horror. Examples include the birth of Pascale Clement and Ralph Lawton’s heroic service in the Flying Corps. How does the novel’s introduction of these silver linings enrich or complicate Winspear’s depiction of the war and its aftermath?