The Talisman

Probably during my first or second season in a Creative Writing group, our mentor proffered a series of images of embroidered postcards from the front line of the Somme. These postcards were created by refugees streaming from the devastation of the battle, and sold to soldiers to send home to their sweethearts.

Almost universally jingoistic, with the French tri-colour jostling beside the Union Jack, the stimuli did nothing for me, but after a bit of searching I found this card offered again for sale on eBay. I began to see a story, which I was eager to write down.

That story, created sometime during the autumn of 2018, has lasted, with appropriate modifications, throughout the eventual saga of the entire novel, The Song Cannot Be Silenced.

I did buy the postcard, and also a sterling silver frame, so that it sits now on my beloved’s dressing table. Without this talisman, I think it’s doubtful that the novel would ever have been written.