Another Pilgrimage ...

from Jacqueline

Just back from across the pond – again! This time, though, I spent almost half the time in northern France, visiting the battlefields of The Somme. As you probably know, I’ve been once before, a visit to both Ypres and The Somme. This time I wanted to concentrate on just one area for the next book I write in my series featuring Maisie Dobbs, the ex-WW1 nurse who later becomes a private inquiry agent.

It’s a funny thing, this “research” business. If you are a writer of fiction and you want to breathe life into the world you’re creating, then you’ll probably find yourself doing a bit of research – perhaps ambling around an agricultural show, or racing a Porsche at break-neck speed. You might actually get your hands on a gun, just to get the feel of it, or you'll walk along a street your protagonist will walk, and you'll be people-watching, window-shopping, standing, looking, lingering there. And for your research, you'll probably read a book or two or three, or a pile of books. And what are you looking for? You’re waiting for a nugget, a peg to hang a scene upon, a gem with which to start a conversation, to shape a character or to twist the plot. Sometimes you know it when you see it, sometimes, it comes back to you when you are in the doldrums, facing that blank screen and wondering how long it will take you to pay back the advance if you put in your application at Macys today. And sometimes it’s just there, immediately, you know what will happen, because you saw it in your mind’s eye as you walked the walk of research.

So, because the root of each of my novels thus far has been the legacy and impact of The Great War, I go back to look at where it happened. I won’t write a long account of my visit in my post today (you can read about my last pilgrimage to the battlefields by going to the following link: http://jacquelinewinspear.com/essays_604.htm).

But here are some photos from this visit – and Marianne, there's one just for you, so look out for it (there were more, but could not upload them for some reason, so will send them to you) But first, Newfoundland Park:





One of the most poignant places to visit is Newfoundland Park, in Beaumont Hamel. On the first morning of the Battle of the Somme in 1916, the men of (mainly) the Newfoundland regiments went over the top only to be mown down by enemy machine guns. The first line, second line and communication trenches were filled with the dead and dying within minutes. After the war, Newfoundland bought the land, threw a fence around it and left it to nature, although they brought in plants native to the island, so that their men and boys could rest in a place with reminders of home. The first picture shows the giant caribou sculpture, the second is taken from just under the statue, across the land – you can still see the scars of the trenches. Where you see the battlefield cemetery in the distance – that’s just in front of the German front line. We were there first thing in the morning, just as it might have been in the minutes before the whistle blew for the men to go "over the top." Soon that mist would rise to reveal the true terror of the day.

And here are some more:

One of the wreaths left at the top of the famous Lochnagar Crater:



And a memory to a fallen soldier:



Most of the British and Allied cemeteries of the Great War are true battlefield cemeteries, smaller enclosed
places of rest dotted along what was once no-man’s land along the Somme Valley. Sir Edwin Lutyens, who designed the layout of the actual cemeteries, said that he wanted to bring to mind a battalion of soldiers marching in an English field. The soldiers were initially buried where they fell, and reburied with non-secular markers after the war. This one sits in no-man's land in the place where the Accrington Pals were slaughtered on July 1st, 1916. In the distance you can see the tip of another Cross of Sacrifice (all the cemeteries have a Cross of Sacrifice). You can stand there and see the crosses in the distance marking more cemeteries:



I stood on this hill in exactly the spot where Siegfried Sassoon stood to watch the opening of the Battle of the Somme, where he saw men like small armies of ants rushing straight into hell.



Just a few more to go now .... This is a memorial to the men of the Devonshire Regiment, memorialized close to a small cemetery where they are laid to rest. At the top of the marker it says, "The Devonshires held this trench. The Devonshires hold it still."



Old shells from a battle long ago. You can still put your hand in the ground and pull up live ammunition.



The Delville Wood memorial to the missing of the South African regiments who fought there is a magnificent structure dedicated to the missing, many of whom lay undiscovered deep in the soil of the wood. Of course, the wood was decimated in the war, but has been allowed to grow into a quiet, peaceful place, much as it was before the war. I caught this ray of light beaming down through the trees, to the place where soldiers fought, died and remain to this day.



I don’t know, yet, what nuggets I will use, how I will pull thoughts, feelings, impressions from this visit to inform and give weight to the novel I will start writing on November 1st. Perhaps they need a bit of time to simmer, now that I’m home. I may use a lot of what I’ve learned in my visits to this region, I may use just a snippet. But the thing you come to know, as a writer, is that with this process called “research” you are always doing it, and you always use what you’ve learned – it might not be the next book, but it will inform your writing. Trust that process.