The Ghost Train
Mikhail Bulgakov I've just finished 'The Master and the Margarita' by Mikhail Bulgakov - it is a masterpiece, and its road to publication is legendary. Through courage, determination and love it was finally published after seven or eight attempts in the face of oppression and political censorship. Poor Bulgakov died before seeing his book in print - 'from a terminal illness probably brought on by unbearable stress and disillusionment'. To anyone who has experienced trying to get published that sounds probable. It was Bulgakov's widow's belief in her husband's work that finally saw the book published first in Russia, then in the West.
The prose is magical ('manuscripts don't burn', 'love sprang out like a killer from around a corner'), and the story is rich with magic realism, full of spirits, demons, witches and the famous talking black cat. When I first started writing, the work of Angela Carter, Isabel Allende and Gabriel Garcia Marquez influenced my early stories (their books are wonderful, my early stories frankly weren't). It's interesting how popular magic realism has become - tales peopled by ghosts, vampires, angels have gone mainstream with the success of books like Twilight. Ghosts have a long literary history - think of Cathy in Wuthering Heights, or the cast of characters in Shakespeare. Which other stories affected you most? They seem to be having something of a popular renaissance at the moment; Sophie Kinsella's new book is about the ghost of a 30s flapper, and our own blogger friend Calistro's new book 'Heaven Can Wait' is in keeping with the zeitgeist. I'm reviewing 'The Hungry Ghosts' by Anne Berry for Bookbag at the moment - interesting that a new publishing imprint's first book is also peopled by ghosts.
Do you believe in ghosts and spirits? Where I grew up it was wild and isolated - there was plenty of local lore about haunted houses, and disembodied hairy hands that would snatch the steering wheel at night on deserted moorland roads. As a child I certainly saw what you would call spirits or angels, and remember them clearly (but haven't seen anything since I was around my daughter's age). Perhaps this is why I can't 'do' horror - an overactive imagination and a sense that the magical is possible.
My own book is narrated by a famous wartime figure who lost her life in mysterious circumstances - writing this new work feels like I'm channelling spirits. I spent an interesting day at an archive reading original documents, diaries and letters this week. When I look at the photographs of the real people I'm working into my script, I feel a responsibility to get the fictional words I'm putting in their mouths right. At an airshow this morning, there were dashing looking chaps wandering around in wartime RAF uniforms, and displays of real SOE artefacts - secret maps, compasses, weapons alongside photographs of the brave men and women who died. It really brought everything I've been researching to life. The retired pilot in charge of the archive told me in no uncertain terms that they had not liked the last novel published on my subject ('too Mills & Boon'), so you feel a responsibility to make this new book entertaining, magical and factually correct. There are apparently three writers researching my topic and a documentary team filming - all have been poring over the same material as me. There's nothing like a bit of stiff competition to get you writing faster - and better.
TODAY'S PROMPT: In wartime, they often spoke of sensing a guardian angel at their side during times of great danger. Have you ever experienced anything like that, or seen a ghost? Do you even believe in them? Ghosts are hot property in publishing at the moment (apparently angels are next ... whoever decides these things). Why not have a go at writing a ghostly tale someone told you as a child, or choose a favourite figure from history you know a bit about and tell their tale in the first person. It's a good exercise to step outside yourself and into another character's shoes. If you relax (think of the 'artistic coma' Dorothea Brande talked about), it's amazing how quickly the words you are writing start to surprise you - not quite automatic writing, but the spirit of the person you are writing about soon comes through.
