A: Writing The Poppy Wife was, in many ways, a way of exploring and connecting with my own family history. My four great-grandfathers all fought in the First World War, and all four came home, albeit with various mental and physical injuries, so this history casts a long shadow over my family. While all the characters in the book are fictional, the chronology and the engagements are closely based on the experiences of the battalion with which Lewis, my great-grandfather, served.

Q: One of the most intriguing elements of this book is the role of photography, and especially Harry’s job as a grave photographer for bereaved families. How did you decide to give Harry this role?

A: In terms of the photography, this was something that I came across while researching another book. I was spending a lot of time looking through newspapers from the 1920s, and kept noticing advertisements for battlefield and grave photographers. It struck me as such a curious job to be doing—and such an interesting assignment to give to a character in a novel.

During the First World War, and its immediate aftermath, relatives of fallen soldiers could apply to the Imperial War Graves Commission to have a photograph taken of their grave. A hundred and seventy thousand of these photographs were supplied free of charge. But by 1920, with funding running out, it was announced that this service would be ceasing. Demand was still there, though; families who couldn’t travel to the former battlefronts themselves wanted to know that their loved ones were properly and respectfully buried—and (tragically) really just to have the proof that they were definitely dead. And so, through the 1920s, commercial grave photographers were working all over the Western Front. As well as providing photographs, they offered to place wreaths on behalf of the bereaved, undertook research, and would accompany family members if they subsequently decided that they did want to visit. I have some examples of these war grave photographs and, bordered in black card, they are very poignant images.

Q: Readers are sure to be struck by all the vivid historical details; it’s clear you did a great deal of research while writing this book. Can you tell me about your research process?

A: As a Ph.D. student I adored research; it always seemed such a privilege to be allowed into archives, and behind the scenes in museums, and to have that sense of direct contact with the past. Centuries collapse when you unroll a scroll that no one else has handled for decades, when you breathe it in, and focus in on the character expressed in the handwriting, and there’s a real immediate sense of communing with an individual from another time. I became a commercial researcher after university, but history remained my out-of-hours passion through those years—and, while I worked in Belgium and France, I had the chance to pursue my particular interest in the First World War.