'It serves as a reminder of what happens when dangerous people get into power': Yorkshire writer uncovers great-grandmother's wartime story through 100 family letters
Whilst his sister played out in the street with other children, a teenage Ben Robinson was clicking away at the family computer at his home in Scarborough.
It wasn’t so much social media or gaming that was occupying his time, rather birth, marriage and death records as he delved into factions of his ancestry.
That was the first taste of family history for Ben, now 23, though little did he know then that a decade down the line he’d be exploring historical documents to piece together and tell the tale of his great-grandmother Charlotte Smith and her family, as they navigated life during one of the most volatile times in modern history.
Next month, Ben is set to launch Finding Charlotte, a fictionalised memoir based on his great-gran’s story.
An educator currently based in Newcastle upon Tyne, he has written for regional publications in the North East and Yorkshire, but this is his debut novel.
For the self-published book, he has used over 100 family letters and photographs, as well as archival mate rial, to piece together the interwoven stories of Charlotte and those around her.
Spanning both world wars, the book takes readers on a journey of love, loss and resilience from the family’s Yorkshire home to the battlefields of Europe and beyond - as far as Singapore and New Zealand.
“It's really important to me to tell this story carefully and with compassion,” Ben says. “It's not only deeply personal, but it looks at the experiences of Northern working class people as well as the often unspoken female perspective of war - not just the battles or the men fighting.
"This book serves as a reminder of what happens when dangerous people get into power. I've had the story in the back of my head for years, but now feels like the right time personally and politically to tell it."
Though Ben knew of the letters’ existence from 2015, he knew little of his great-gran’s wartime story until he started piecing them together two years ago.
As well as words sent by his great-grandfather, who was in the military corps of the police and was captured as a Japanese prisoner of war, they included notes from his great-gran’s sisters, who supported her through the period, particularly after her husband’s death.
“You can tell how much support she had and how well looked after she was,” Ben notes. “You get a sense of that coming together of everybody.”
He hopes that in reading the book people will recognise the importance of family histories.
“There’s always a lot of talk about big historical events like the world wars but there’s something to be said for the everyday histories that make up those large histories,” he says. “What we have in these letters and documents paints a different picture of a major historical event.”
- Finding Charlotte will be published on June 12. For updates on pre-sales, visit https://findingcharlotte.carrd.co