The French Gift is a World War II story of female friendship, longing and sacrifice through war and loss, bringing together the present and the past.
We chat with Kirsty Manning about her latest book release, along with writing, research, book recommendations, and more!
Hi, Kirsty! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
I live between Melbourne and a sleepy seaside village where I’m renovating an old shack alongside my family. My weeks are pretty busy in the city running around with three teenagers and trying to write during the day. My husband I are co-owners of Bellota Wine Bar and Prince Wine Store.
I adore beautiful food and wine—even better if someone cooks for me! In my spare time I like long walks with friends and swimming in the ocean.
Prior to writing I was a book editor and then freelance journalist. (Also, a pretty terrible waitress.) I have degrees in Literature and MA in communications.
As the year draws to a close, how has 2021 been for you?
Strange! I live in Melbourne, Victoria and we’ve had lockdown for 265 days. I know!
As a writer I can socially isolate like a boss, but with my husband and three teenage children all working from home for the majority of that time, I’ve had to do things a little differently.
I’ve loved (for the most part) this close time with my family—and time for reflection. It’s been a year of review with ups and downs.
That said, 2022 can’t come soon enough …
When did you first discover your love for writing?
Primary School. My Mum recently sent me the first cover blurb I wrote. I always enjoyed creative writing through school, but didn’t study it and embark on fiction as a career until I was forty.
Quick lightning round! Tell us the first book you ever remember reading, the one that made you want to become an author, and one that you can’t stop thinking about!
Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey. I read it in my last year of high school and there is a scene of a glass structure floating down the river. I could smell the eucalyptus, longing and desire.
Your new novel, The French Gift, is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Lush, surprising, full of hope
What can readers expect?
At the moment women are crying out for our voices to be heard. For too long, history has been written and recorded by men. War stories, are typically told from male perspectives. How many movies and books feature men as the lead: Gallipoli, Saving Private Ryan, Good Morning Vietnam etc, etc
But here’s the thing: women have always been strong. Women have always linked arms and dragged their loved ones into better conditions, to safety, to the future.
In my heroine, Josephine, I wanted to capture some of that resilience and inspiration of wartime women. To honour the women who were forced to work in atrocious conditions, and whose stories have largely been forgotten.
Where did the inspiration for The French Gift come from?
I read a lot of non-fiction because I love to explore forgotten pockets of history in my novels. A few years ago, a single paragraph in the excellent non-fiction book The Riviera Set by Mary S. Lovell lit my imagination. Lovell described a decadent party on the Côte D’Azure arranged by a famous hostess, where one of the guests is (faux) murdered and the local police were roped in as part of the game.
What fun, I thought! What if I write a book about a decadent murder party … and then it goes wrong.
But I also wanted to write a story inspired by the ordeal of women in WW2 who were forced into labour in factories. We know so little about their history—women’s stories of war—and I stumbled across a translated version of a memoir by Agnès Humbert.
Can you tell us a bit about the challenges you faced while writing and how you were able to overcome them?
It’s always a huge challenge to balance the nuances of a real person and real places with the needs of a fictional character to serve the story. I always work with historians and translators for authenticity. I have readers that check for any sensitivities as I want to honour and celebrate the inspiration behind my novels.
The other challenge in a dual timeframe books is marrying the contemporary story with the historical plot. It’s a bit like putting together a jigsaw with no idea of the shape it is meant to be. It all ties together in the end.
As a historical fiction writer, can you tell us about your research process? Particularly for this novel?
I took copious notes right through Résistance—(expertly translated into English by Barbara Mellor) to get inside the head of Agnès Humbert. To try understand a woman that was part of the Resistance, member of the subterfuge group Cercle Alain-Fournier, co-founded the clandestine newspaper Résistance, was tried, sentenced and imprisoned for espionage for five years at Cherche-Midi, de la Santé, Fresnes and Anrath prisons and endured forced labour at the Phrix Rayon Factory.
I like to read primary source material, but also government records, prison records, court documents etc. There’s a list of some of the resources at the back of every book for people to follow up areas that interest them.
Unlike my heroine Josephine, Agnès Humbert was a key figure in the liberation, and stayed in Germany to assist the American troops hunt Nazis. Her story does not end at the Phrix Rayon Factory, for at 51 years of age she returned to a liberated France and to work and writing. She was also a devoted mother, daughter and wife.
Agnès Humbert was an extraordinary woman. It has long been my quest in historical fiction to draw attention to forgotten pockets of history. Agnes Humbert’s English translator– Barbara Mellor–have captured with accuracy and visceral reality a type of reportage a female first-person experience of the Résistance and shined a spotlight on the forced labour factories used in WW2 that have long been overlooked in history.
What’s the best and the worst writing advice you have received?
Worst: you should workshop your ideas with a lot of people before you set pen to paper. Ideas by committee never work
Best: Keep writing. You can’t edit nothing.
What’s next for you?
A historical mystery series, set in Paris.
Lastly, what have your favourite reads of 2021 been?
Sarah Bailey’s The Housemate, Jane Harper’s The Survivors
