War story epic is 'set to fly off the shelves'
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THE debut novel from Black Isle author Vee Walker, conceived after the discovery of a family secret, will be snapped up as a highly collectable first edition at its imminent launch.
That’s the prediction of Dingwall-based bookseller Bill Anderson who has been chosen for the Highland launch of Major Tom’s War, an epic novel set during the First World War.
Ten years of research went into the novel which will be given its local launch at Highflight bookshop in Dingwall on September 26 at 6.30pm.
Mr Anderson said: "Most military fiction these days tends to be written about the Second World War as that seems so much closer in time and is therefore easier to research. Major Tom’s War offers a unique, detailed and well-researched view of a hideous conflict which ended almost 100 years ago. It is so many things – a war story, a study of women’s history, a romance and even a murder mystery of sorts!
"I jumped at the chance of hosting its Highland launch and will be aiming to keep copies of it in stock after the launch until the first edition sells out – which I think may happen very fast. I would recommend popping in to order your copy now."
Walker’s debut novel is an epic story of tragic loss and unlikely love as experienced by four people with interconnecting destinies: an Indian Army cavalry officer, a V.A.D. nurse, a mayor in occupied France and a Highland soldier-laird.
The story is based on real people, places and events drawn from the author’s grandfather Tom Westmacott’s unpublished war diary.
Walker has English, Scots and French blood. She describes the three Winnington-Ingram sisters, of whom her grandmother Evie was the youngest, as "scarily intelligent young women, even by modern standards."
They make an early choice not to marry in order to devote their lives to intellectual pursuits — her great-aunt Etty was one of the first women in the country to receive a First Class Honours degree — but then Evie’s future is changed by the war.
Major Tom is Tom Westmacott, Walker’s grandfather. He flees a dark past in Calcutta in 1914 for the horrors of the Western Front. The same terrible secret impacts on Evie and in fact gives her good cause to hate him. So why, in 1918, at the (then) advanced age of 34, does she agree to Tom’s proposal of marriage?
The stirring and intricate plot of this uplifting novel weaves together real events set in India, England, Wales, Scotland, Belgium, Germany and France, including the suffragette movement, the multicultural Indian Army on the Front, executions by firing squad and the retreat from the Somme in March 1918, while offering insights into the strangely cosmopolitan camaraderie and grim humour of the trenches. Major Tom’s War is a unique literary commemoration of the Armistice centenary and celebrates the extraordinary capabilities of ordinary people caught up in the upheaval and unimaginable horror of the First World War.
Due to the anticipated demand, the event, which follows a national launch at the National Army Museum in Chelsea, will be ticketed.
Free tickets are available now via Eventbrite by visiting the Eventbrite.co.uk website and searching under Major Tom’s War.
Copies of Major Tom’s War are available to reserve now and to purchase on the launch night from Highflight at £19.99.
They can also be ordered in advance via the publishers www.KashiHouse.com
