I read them the telegrams which his family had received when he was wounded. The first said, simply, that he was wounded; the next, ‘seriously ill’; the next ‘dangerously ill’, and so on. Then, finally, ‘out of danger’. And as I read them, I started wondering, ‘What would it have been like to get these telegrams?’

That was the beginning of The Soldier’s Wife. I went home and thought about it. My grandfather – he was known as ‘Freemie’ – was an orphan, so his telegrams had gone to his sister, Esther. I decided it would make a better story if the person receiving the telegrams was a wife. Hence The Soldier’s Wife.

I based my character Jimmy Hawkins’ war record on my grandfather’s. I gave him Freemie’s service number, as I didn’t want to use one which belonged to someone else. Fortunately we have Freemie’s enlistment and discharge papers, as well as copies of his war record and the telegrams about him – the telegrams Ruby receives in the book are identical to the ones our family received.