7 minute read
JACQUIE BLOESE
THE REMNANTS OF THE GUERNSEY OCCUPATION
PHOTO: EMMA C
Get to know… JACQUIE BLOESE
BRIGHTON AUTHOR OF THE FRENCH HOUSE
By DENISE TYLER
Q The eponymous French House is Hauteville House, Victor Hugo’s house on Guernsey where you grew up. How well did you know the house before you wrote the book?
A I was very familiar with it as I got a job there when I left school working as a tour guide, showing people around the house for a summer. I was doing tours in French and English and that’s how I became intimately acquainted with it. Victor Hugo himself was a really interesting character and the thing that piqued my imagination was the fact that his long term mistress, Juliette Drouet, joined him in Guernsey where he was exiled, and lived in a house across the street. There are lots of stories about the two of them and they were together for 50 years, until Juliette’s death. This intense relationship cemented ‘the French house’ as a very apt setting for my first novel.
Q The French House takes place during the Nazi occupation of Guernsey. How much did you hear about that growing up?
A My great-grandparents and grandparents lived through the occupation and I grew up listening to stories about what life had been like. I was a child of the 70s so it was the fairly recent past for them as it was only 30 years or so since the war ended. The physical landscape tells a story of its own – the lookout towers and bunkers all along the West coast were built as part of Hitler’s Atlantic Wall.
Q How much of the action in The French House is based on actual events – did the bombing of the harbour in the opening scenes happen for instance?
A Absolutely, yes. Every Friday, the local growers took their produce down to the harbour for export, and that was when it was bombed. Tragically, several people were killed. The deportation from Guernsey to Germany in 1942 of anybody born in Britain also happened, and the character of Leutnant Schreiber is loosely inspired by a newspaper censor called Kurt Goetmann.
Q The French House is your debut novel and it was picked for the Richard and Judy Book Club in December. That’s quite an accolade.
A It was a big surprise, but I was thrilled obviously! As a debut novelist, I’m aware that it helps to manage your expectations; the main wins for me are people buying my book, reading it and enjoying it! So when I got an email from my editor entitled ‘some exciting news’ I couldn’t quite believe how exciting it would turn out to be.
Q What’s your writing day like?
A I’m at my best in the morning. I like to get up and try not to get too distracted by emails or anything of that nature and just get the
SEVEN SISTERS
words down, often in my pyjamas! I think I’m quite a slow writer, compared to some, so I might do 300 words or so, after planning a scene. Then I’ll break for lunch and maybe a walk, then in the afternoon I’ll go and work somewhere else like the Jubilee Library to try and get up to a thousand words.
Q Have you always been interested in reading and writing historical fiction?
A Yes – I’ve always loved stories set in the past. I’m fascinated by human nature and that’s one thing that doesn’t change – and for me as a writer, going back in time to explore and re-create a period in history is incredibly stimulating. It’s another way of travelling; I can’t quite imagine writing a contemporary novel at the moment, anyway.
Q You moved to Brighton just before lockdown and you’re now busy with your second novel – have you had a chance to explore more widely yet? A Yes, there are so many great places to discover in Sussex. We really like the
THE BAYSIDE SOCIAL
walk at Friston Forest and over to the Seven Sisters, that whole area is beautiful. We also love walking to Lewes across the Downs from Brighton. The Bayside Social in Worthing is another favourite, which is very chilled out with a nice community feel and right on the beach. Closer to home, Burnt Orange in central Brighton is a lovely treat, as is Med which opened during lockdown and serves a delicious set menu. We’re regulars for co ee and cinnamon buns at Marmalade on Sussex Square, and I love going to my local bookshop in Kemptown, which now has a café as well. One of my favourite times of year here is winter: I quite like it when the crowds have gone! You can walk down to the beach and watch these amazing sunsets. It’s really special.
jacquiebloese.com
Twitter: @novelthesecond Instagram: @jb_writer
This LITTLE GIRL
Absolutely goes behind the scenes at Matilda The Musical
RAKESH BOURY AS MR WORMWOOD
Even as an adult, I’m excited to meet the cast of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Matilda The Musical. The show has been playing in the West End since 2011 and its unforgettable songs are played on repeat in countless households. There’s hardly been an empty seat in the house since it opened, and now a new film is attracting even more fans – because it’s a timeless show that people of all ages return to again and again for its anarchic spirit and unique style.
Clearly, the show has a special energy behind the scenes as well. A new cast change brings Rakesh Boury and Amy
Ellen Richardson to the roles of Mr and
Mrs Wormwood, and they were both fans before they’d been cast. “I saw the orginal at
Stratford and I remember thinking, there’s nothing else like this. I laughed, I cried,” says Richardson. We’re in the theatre’s
Circle Bar in the afternoon, where tables are already set up for the children’s supper later. For them it’s a tight schedule – they spend the day at school, then rush to the theatre for the evening performance. “It’s a well-oiled machine,” says Boury.
There are currently three teams of children who perform in turns, and Boury and Richardson are blown away by their talent. “They’re so unbelievably good,” says Boury, who has four-year-old twin daughters who are deep into their Matilda fan phase. Richardson has been acting since she was 10, so seeing the children on stage reflects her own life. “What an experience it is for them,” she says. “And they’re so good that they make you up your game.”
For a long-running show, it’s unusual to have so many of the original team still involved, but Matilda The Musical is very much a passion project for pretty much
everybody. Writer Dennis Kelly, composer and lyricist Tim Minchin, director Matthew Warchus, musical director Laurie Perkins and choreographer Peter Darling have all been hands-on since the beginning, and the show adapts to each new wave of actors. “We were encouraged to bring our own interpretations to the roles,” says Richardson. “We do feel that they’re our roles, which is great when you’re taking on an existing role,” says Boury. “The team genuinely wanted us to find our own versions, which is great – I’ve done shows where they insist on you doing everything a certain way. But every Wormwood there’s ever been has been their own.”
Plainly, they both love the show and feel lucky to be part of it. “We’ve done 140 shows but we still feel like the new cast,” says Boury. And the energy comes from the audience too. “When I finish work, 1200 people applaud me. That feeling can keep you going. Just this week there was a 40-year-old man in a Matilda The Musical t-shirt standing up at the end, bawling his eyes out. It’s the power of the arts, isn’t it.” He’s right – this show stays with everyone it touches. Long may it continue.
DRINK & FOOD
PERFECT PAIRING
RARE CHAMPAGNE
Announcing a new Rare Pairing series, Rare Champagne have enlisted top French chef, Mélanie Serre, to create new menus for the season. "I am delighted to explore, discover, create and compose menus for which I had a carte blanche," she says on the partnership. Turn to page 31 to discover what she created in the kitchen. rare-champagne.com
