by Allison Montclair
Allison Montclair’s beloved Sparks & Bainbridge Mystery series is a fun read for all mystery lovers, however, the events are very much rooted in history. Montclair heavily researches the post-WWII era while writing this series. Below is an essay from Allison Montclair discussing the research and thought processes that go into these books.
In a tense moment in The Right Sort of Man, the first in my Sparks and Bainbridge Mysteries, the following takes place:
“[She] opened the door to see a short, perky brunette standing there, a notebook and pencil in her hands.
‘How do you do?’ chirped the woman. ‘My name is Eloise Teasley. I am conducting a survey for Mass-Observation about rationing and the response of the Ordinary British Housewife. Are you an Ordinary British Housewife by any chance, and if so, would you mind answering some questions?’”
Faithful readers will know, of course, that Miss Teasley is none other than the intrepid Iris Sparks, improvising her way through her first investigation under the guise of a Mass-Observation researcher.
But what was Mass-Observation?
In 1937, two teams based in London and Bolton were formed by an anthropologist, a poet, and a filmmaker to interview ordinary people about their reactions to national and world events in order to counterbalance what was perceived as the sugar-coated pronouncements of the established press. Their first publication, “May the Twelfth: Mass-Observation Day-Surveys 1937” by over two hundred observers, collected anecdotes, overheard comments, and interviews of people and their reactions to the coronation of King George V. Mass-Observation would go on to make similar surveys and investigations covering a variety of topics.
The timing was fortuitous for anyone researching life in wartime and thereafter, such as myself. While regular histories are essential to getting at an understanding of events and their causes and effects, M-O gives you individuals. I write mysteries in historical settings. The history is around everything, but the characters, the people, are what drive the story and engage the reader. In M-O, you hear voices, speech patterns, patterns that don’t parrot the popular perception of the period. [I like alliteration when I can get away with it.] All of it can give authenticity to a historical fiction author.
My characters lived through the Blitz, and I was able to flesh them out with experiences drawn from Tom Harrisson’s “Living through the Blitz,” an M-O publication. My detectives were a pair of women, Iris Sparks and Gwen Bainbridge, and some of their sensibilities were inspired by a pair of oral histories by Anne de Courcy, The Last Season and Debs at War, both of which drew on the M-O books and archives.
My fourth book, The Unkept Woman, originally was intended to be about something very different than what I started thinking about, but I kept coming across references to the “Britain Can Make It” exposition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in the fall of 1946. It turned out that M-O covered the exhibition quite extensively. The problem: The archives were in England, I was in New York, and there was a pandemic going on.
The pandemic proved to be a help, oddly enough. When I contacted the archives, they realized that I could not come there and beg entry. They provided me with a free pass—FOR ONE MONTH ONLY!—to access the digital archives.
That proved to be a very intensive month, but oh, the treasures buried within! In the M-O reports from “Britain Can Make It,” we find the comments of children after seeing the toys and school furniture, as well as the complaints of the adults over the unavailability of the new designs, the lengths of the queues, and the occasional oddness of the presentations. Much of it digitized from handwritten notes! All grist for the mill, and things one might not find in regular histories of the event.
You also find out tiny details that can become instant writing prompts. A mention of buskers entertaining the people waiting in the long queues gave me an entire paragraph that I never would have considered, not to mention a happy afternoon listening to songs buskers would sing back in that time [because why write when you can waste time listening to music in the name of research?]
I have only scratched the surface of what was there, sad to say, but I know about it now. More than a dozen books and many more reports are there for me to rummage through. It isn’t the only resource I draw upon, of course. But it gives life to my writing in ways that others don’t.
ALLISON MONTCLAIR grew up devouring hand-me-down Agatha Christie paperbacks and James Bond movies. As a result of this deplorable upbringing, Montclair became addicted to tales of crime, intrigue, and espionage. She now spends her spare time poking through the corners, nooks, and crannies of history, searching for the odd mysterious bits and transforming them into novels of her own. She is the author of the Sparks & Bainbridge historical mystery series, which begins with The Right Sort of Man.
