by Mary Wood
One of the things that comes through when researching Bletchley Park is the secrecy. Very few people knew the place existed during the war, and it wasn’t until thirty years after the event that the real activity that took place there was revealed.
I visited Bletchley Park as part of my research for Brighter Days Ahead. It is a fascinating place, needing more than a day to absorb everything there is to see and experience. But for what I needed, as my story was only to have the Park as a background setting as very few scenes actually take place there, my visit furnished me with a clear understanding of the atmosphere and the conditions the people worked under, and also acquainted me with the machinery and some of the terms used at the time. In just one day, I was steeped in the knowledge of how life was for the code-breakers, and the girls who sat for hours feeding machines with words that meant nothing to them, but which had a massive impact on wartime decisions.
Brighter Days Ahead is a gritty tale set around the private lives of a few fictitious characters who worked at the Park. Although we know that the wonderful Alan Turing, one of the men based at Bletchley Park who contributed so much with his work developing the Enigma Machine, did have homosexual tendencies, Simon, one of my main characters, is not based on him. Nor are any of the events that happened to Simon in any way related to anyone who ever worked at the Park. They are a figment of my imagination, based on my knowledge of how homosexuality was perceived at the time; as a criminal offence, punishable by imprisonment, according to the law of the land.
The secrecy surrounding Bletchley both during the war years and after was held with pride and honour, and I hope that comes across in my novel. Although the people who lived in the area were aware that something went on there, most thought that it was an administrative hub of the war. However, I have taken poetic licence in going a little further than that as it is very difficult not to mention the place and the function it serves when writing a novel and setting it in a certain place. And so, although I have allowed the friends and family of the characters who work at the Park to know where their loved ones were based – which didn’t happen during the war – I have not allowed them to know what went on at Bletchley. I hope that veterans will forgive me for this and recognize that I had no choice if my story was to have any substance.
I highly recommend a visit to Bletchley Park. There is so much to see and wonder over. Those who run the Park strive to keep the memory of the vital work carried out there alive in such a way as to make the experience an enjoyable and informative one. I will never forget my visit.
I hope you enjoyed Brighter Days Ahead. I would love to hear your thoughts and can be contacted through my website: www.authormarywood.com.
Much love to all, Mary.
Acknowledgements
My grateful thanks to Charlotte ‘Betty’ Webb, a remarkable woman, for the help given towards my research. Betty was one of the many women who were stationed at Bletchley Park during the war, and she still works there to this day. Thank you so much, Betty.
And to author Kate Thompson, who selflessly shared her research into the work of the women of Bletchley and kindly facilitated a phone call between myself and Betty. Thank you. I highly recommend your books to all my readers!
To one of my readers, and now my friend Pauline Totten, for her support in entering a competition on my Facebook page to have her name used in the book. I hope that you like the lovely character named after you in Brighter Days Ahead, Pauline, and that she does you proud. Thank you.
As always, my eternal thanks to the Pan Macmillan team who work tirelessly on my behalf: my editor Victoria Hughes-Williams and her assistant Jayne Osborne, for always being in my corner, praising and encouraging me, and for ‘getting me’ and my work. To Laura Carr and her editing team, especially Mandy Greenfield, for their insightful and sensitive edits that make my work sing off the page and yet keep my voice and imagination central. To Kate Green, my publicist, for the exciting events you arrange to promote me and my work, and the special care you give to my well-being whilst I am on tour. To all the members of the sales team, especially Stuart Dwyer, for believing in me and working so hard to make my books available. To the designers, for the wonderful covers that always tell the story. To Wayne Brookes, for the joy you bring to me when you report you are signing off more reprints, and for your belief in me. Thank you all, from the bottom of my heart. Not forgetting the many who work in the background, too. You all help me achieve my dream.
My thanks, too, to my wonderful agent, Judith Murdoch, for your efforts on my behalf. For seeing something in me and my work that others have overlooked and for bringing that out and standing firmly by my side as you took me on the journey to traditional publishing. For your continued encouragement and foresight, and for the support you give me – always there for me. I am forever grateful.
No acknowledgement can be complete without mentioning my wonderful husband, Roy. Holding my hand and holding my love. Without you there is nothing.
And my wonderful family, especially my children, Christine, Julie, Rachel and James. You are my support and my world. A special thank-you to James for the hours you give to reading my draft manuscripts over and over. And for your honesty in pointing out flaws as I go. Your contribution keeps me on the right track as I can get very carried away as I write.
I love you all very much.
And last but not least, to all my readers – you are so important to me, especially those of you who follow me on Facebook and on my website, as you have become my friends. You encourage me and support me, and I am so very grateful to have you in my life. Love to you all.
Brighter Days Ahead
Mary Wood was born in Maidstone, Kent, and brought up in Claybrooke, Leicestershire. Born one of fifteen children to a middle-class mother and an East End barrow boy, Mary’s family were poor but rich in love. This encouraged her to develop a natural empathy with the less fortunate and a fascination with social history. In 1989 Mary was inspired to pen her first novel and she is now a full-time novelist.
Mary welcomes interaction with readers and invites you to subscribe to her website where you can contact her, receive regular newsletters and follow links to meet her on Facebook and Twitter: www.authormarywood.com
BY MARY WOOD
The Breckton series
To Catch a Dream
An Unbreakable Bond
Tomorrow Brings Sorrow
Time Passes Time
Proud of You
Brighter Days Ahead
The Generation’s Wars
All I Have to Give
In Their Mother’s Footsteps
Judge Me Not
First published 2017 by Pan Books
This electronic edition published 2017 by Pan Books
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ISBN 978-1-5098-1119-9
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