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When Wattles Bloom
published Harper Collins 2000
reprinted 2000 (twice)
Although my first three novels were 100% historical, for a long time I had contemplated writing a novel that was two stories in one - that is, a modern-day tale somehow tied in with historical one.
The day the idea for When Wattles Bloom came to me, I sat at my computer for hours, emerging eventually from my study with 5,000 words of the plot completed. It would be a World War I story, with a modern-day counterpart, both stories complementing and rounding out the other. For those readers who had read and enjoyed my previous novels, I decided to retain a strong historical flavour to When Wattles Bloom, while introducing a contemporary ‘feel’ as well. I’m delighted with the result and hope you are too! In each of the ‘stories’ in When Wattles Bloom there are two main characters - one male, the other female. The male characters are strong, and feature in a major way, especially in the WWI story. The research, as usual, was horrendous. I decided that my WWI soldier in When Wattles Bloom would be part of an engineering company (they made roads, blew up bridges, acquired stores and equipment etc) as opposed to being a trench soldier. One of my forebears had served in the 11th Field Company Engineers so I used that Company as the basis for my WWI experiences, using the actual unofficial diary of the Company to make my tale factual. Besides researching WWI France and England, I had to come up with info on Brisbane during the same period, as well as modern-day France. When Wattles Bloom is an examination of relationships, of love gone wrong, of heartache and grief. It is not, in any classic sense, a romance. The plot goes deeper than that, looking, in particular, at a time in Australia’s history over which no one had control, no one could predict any outcomes, and one in which the entire country watched helplessly as its sons were brutally slaughtered on foreign soils. As time progresses, we, as a nation, are realising more and more the supreme sacrifices made by those men of that long past war. Anzac Day services have never been so well attended, and many make the pilgrimage to foreign lands to see the resting place of their ancestors who were somehow caught up in the madness that was World War One. My own characters are no exception. I hope that by the time you finish reading When Wattles Bloom you have a sharper understanding of the times and the hopelessness of war. Cheers... Robyn Lee Burrows
© Robyn
Burrows - 2000
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