Broke in Belfast talks to Dianne Ascroft, a Canadian writer, living in Fermanagh, who published Hitler and Mars Bars, the story of a German boy, who was moved from famine-stricken Germany to Ireland after the Second World War as part of Operation Shamrock. The novel describes how half-starved Erich from postwar Germany adapts to life in rural Ireland, living in several foster families until he is a teenager. It's great to have you on Broke in Belfast, Dianne! Thanks! I’m looking forward to our chat. You’ve raised some interesting topics to discuss today.
Tell us a little bit about your background. I’m a Canadian writer, living in Britain. Born in Toronto in 1960, I earned a B.A. in History at the University of Windsor in 1984. Since moving to Britain in 1990 I’ve lived in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Although writing isn’t my primary occupation, I love it and spend as much time as possible indulging my passion. I’ve been freelance writing since 2002. Most of my writing focuses on history, arts/music and human interest stories. My articles have been printed in Canadian and Irish newspapers and magazines including the Toronto Star, Mississauga News, Derry Journal, Banbridge Leader and Ireland’s Own magazine. I’ve contributed material to an Irish local history book, The Brookeborough Story: Aghalun in Aghavea and the Fermanagh Authors Association’s second collection Fermanagh Miscellany 2. Hitler and Mars Bars is my first novel. Since I left Toronto I’ve been steadily downsizing. I moved from Toronto (population 3 million) to Belfast (population half a million) to a small town in Ayrshire, Scotland (population 18,000). Now I live in the country, on a small farm, with my husband and several pets (population 6 - including our pets). Curiosity about the past has inspired my love of history and genealogy as well as spurring me to write historical fiction. My other interests include Celtic and folk music, reading, quilting and hiking.
Since I am a German living in Belfast, and having written my History PhD thesis on German and Irish nationalism in nineteenth century Ireland, I am particularly interested in the German-Irish aspect of the novel. What made you, a Canadian living in Northern Ireland, become interested in Operation Shamrock and writing the story from the point of view of a German boy? Sometimes, hearing about the interesting lives people lead sparks ideas for my writing. In this case, learning about a German man’s unusual childhood was the catalyst that set my imagination racing. A few years ago I met a man who was born in the heavily bombed Essen area of Second World War Germany. He lived in a Children’s Home until the Red Cross project, Operation Shamrock, transported him, along with hundreds of other German children, to Ireland to recuperate from the horrendous conditions in their homeland after the war. His life story opened up a new aspect of German and Irish history for me - one that has been overlooked in history books. I became very curious about Operation Shamrock and began researching it. After extensive research I wrote an article for an Irish magazine, Ireland’s Own, about the experiences of one child who participated in the endeavour. I intended to stop there but family members urged me to use the information I had found to create a novel. Since most of my research was about boys who were part of the program, I decided a boy would be my main character. Also, with Irish society’s rather rigid gender roles at this time, many of the scenes I planned could not be written with a girl as the central character.
Did you know much about the History of the Second World War and life in Germany under Hitler in particular before you started? I had a general rather than detailed knowledge of the history of the Second World War and life in Germany under Hitler. I had gleaned this knowledge from secondary school and university courses as well as general reading and television documentaries.   Where did you do your research, and did you manage to go to Germany at all? Do you speak any German? I don’t speak any German and I knew that would be a disadvantage when I began my research. I wasn’t able to go to Germany so I had to rely on books, documentaries, archival material and others’ accounts for information. General background reading gave me an overview of the period. I read German political and social history texts as well as biographies and autobiographies. BBC documentaries about the Second World War, with period film footage, were very useful. For specific details about life in Germany’s Ruhr area, where Hattingen is situated, I relied heavily on information supplied by Hattingen Archives’ City Archivist, Thomas Weiss. I was extremely fortunate that he provided information in English. He answered my questions about the area and regional industrial activities that I referred to in my story, such as how was coal transported, in overhead cable carts, from a local mine to an industrial plant in Hattingen and what forest was nearest the Children’s Home. Period photos he sent illustrated his answers. Hattingen Archives also provided detailed information about the Children’s Home where the first chapter of my novel is set. They gave me a great description and photos of the building, information about the owners and details about some of the children housed there. Also, the German man, who had been part of Operation Shamrock, recounted his memories of the Children’s Home and I intertwined his memories with the factual information. Did anything in your research into Germany and rural Ireland over sixty years ago surprise you? Before I began researching Hitler and Mars Bars I had general impressions of German and Irish society during this era. I was somewhat surprised to discover how much Ireland especially has developed in the last sixty years. I hadn’t realised society changed as much as it has. Sixty years ago it was a very rural, non-industrialised place. I could have been stepping back in time over a hundred years instead of only sixty. I didn’t expect to find so little industrialisation such a short time ago. For instance, in Ireland mains electricity only came to most rural areas in the mid to late 1950s and television broadcasts didn’t begin throughout the country until 1960. Was it easy to get into the character of a German boy? Not really. I found Erich’s viewpoint very different from my own. It wasn’t his nationality as much as his gender that was ‘foreign’ to me. Some emotions and reactions to our life experiences are universal. But boys’ and girls’ perceptions of the world do differ so I had to think carefully about each situation to put myself into Erich’s shoes. I used the recollections of the German man, who had been a participant in Operation Shamrock, to understand how Erich might feel about events that occurred and to decide how he would behave. The focus of your novel is how Erich adapts to life in Ireland. What would you say were the biggest difficulties facing the boy? I think that belonging is a major theme in the novel - to family, to community and to country. And wanting to and trying to belong are Erich’s biggest difficulties. He has to adapt to a completely new environment when he is sent to Ireland. Fitting in and establishing his identity, in a foreign land, are major hurdles for him. He has to learn a new language and customs. In the rather isolated rural areas where he lives, people meet very few outsiders and he has to deal with their perception of him as different. In the midst of these challenges he is also dealing with the loss of his mother and forming bonds with his new family. Also, although he is seen as different in Ireland, after leaving Germany so young and having no family left behind he doesn’t belong there either. He doesn’t even remember how to speak the language after several years in Ireland. So most of the issues Erich faces revolve around trying to be accepted and included. How much of your own experiences coming to live in Northern Ireland flowed into the writing of Erich's adjustment to Irish life? Most of Erich’s experiences are based on accounts of German children who were transported to Ireland. Being an English speaking person, with Irish ancestry, the culture wasn’t as foreign to me when I first arrived as it is to Erich. So I didn’t face many of the problems that Erich does. But I did use my experiences of feeling ‘different’ and knowing that people perceived me as different to interpret Erich’s reactions to his experiences. The story ends with Erich leaving for England. I'm for one curious about what happens to him next, and if he ever goes back to Germany. Are you planning to write a sequel one day? Yes. When I finished the novel I didn’t really know what happened next to Erich. Then about a week after I’d completed the final edit, ideas started to flow into my head. I have a basic outline for a sequel now and would love to start working on it. I’m not sure how soon I will be able to begin writing but Erich will be back. Any budding novelist dreams about that first publishing contract. How did it happen to you, and how did it feel to see your novel in print? Soon after I began writing Hitler and Mars Bars, before I even started to think about finding a publisher, I saw an ad in Ireland’s Own magazine for a Book Deal competition run by Trafford Publishing. I submitted the book’s synopsis and one sample chapter, as required, to the contest. Then I continued writing. I didn’t know if I had any chance of winning so I didn’t think much about it. A couple months later I was notified that my entry was the overall winner. Trafford Publishing is a self-publisher, using Print On Demand technology, and the package I won included the free design, printing and production of the book as well as review copies and promotional material. I was absolutely delighted that I’d won as this guaranteed that my book would be published when I finished it - I was spared the task of submitting my manuscript to countless publishers, hoping to be accepted by one of them. So I never even explored the possibility of submitting the book to a traditional publisher. I think amazement and disbelief were my first reactions to seeing my novel in print - it was hard to believe it really was finished. I almost thought I could just go back and re-write any bits I fancied - it was hard to grasp that it was now a finished work. Are you thinking of publishing your novel in Germany? Many people in Germany are interested in Ireland and Irish writing. Will there be a German translation one day, perhaps? As I’ve said, Trafford Publishing printed my book. Since this publisher doesn’t run large marketing campaigns for its authors, for the book to be successful I have to promote it myself. Since I don’t speak German, it wouldn’t be feasible for me to release the book through a similar company in Germany or to produce a German language version through Trafford. I couldn’t market it adequately there. If a mainstream German publisher ever expresses interest in the book I would be happy to have it published there. What made you decide on a virtual publicity tour for your book? I think it is a great idea by the way! Last summer I had never even heard of a Virtual Book Tour but I stumbled across discussions about the topic on several writers groups online. I did some research into it and I read entries from others’ book tours on various websites. It seemed like a good idea so I tried a ‘mini-tour’ in August and found that it generated interest in my book. That success prompted me to start planning for a longer tour. Since I work fulltime, a personal tour of bookshops around the country is difficult - and chain bookshops often are not very interested in new writers. So it can be difficult for a new writer to find opportunities to do in person promotion. The internet has given me the opportunity to publicise my book without leaving home and to a much broader audience then I’d normally have access to. So, in that respect alone, a Virtual Book Tour is worthwhile. And because material stays on the internet indefinitely it will continue to publicise the book for me. I do ‘in person’ promotion as often as possible but online is a valuable addition to it. So what are you working on now? Since Hitler and Mars Bars was released I’ve been busy promoting it. So I haven’t had a chance to do much new writing. Most of my writing has been interviews and guest posts on other people’s blogs and websites. In my guest posts I’ve covered everything from what research is required to write historical fiction to interesting facts about brown spaniels. As I’ve mentioned, I do have ideas for a sequel to Hitler and Mars Bars and hope to start working on it soon. I recently completed a short story, ‘A World Apart’, about moving from city to country and adapting to a new lifestyle. Although it’s fiction, it draws on my own experiences of moving from Toronto, a city of 3 million people, to a farm in Northern Ireland. It will be published in the Fermanagh Authors Association’s Miscellany 2 in December. Thank you very much, Dianne, for those interesting insights into writing your book. Broke in Belfast wishes you every success with your Virtual Tour, and is looking forward to the sequel to Hitler and Mars Bars. To find out more about Dianne Ascroft, check out her blog, Ascroft, eh?