When I started my research, I soon found the heart of my story-the lives of the 80,000 or so German, Austrian, and Italian citizens who took refuge in the UK. I also knew that Our Castle by the Sea needed to be a story that felt fresh and relevant-one that had not been told before. There are, of course, already so many wonderful novels about the war-due to the intensity of times such as this and the inevitable fear, chaos, and loss that they bring, a wartime setting often makes for a very powerful story indeed. When I first fell in love with the Eric Ravilious painting of the view from the lantern room of Belle Tout, I knew the setting for my new book would be a lighthouse on the English coast, and I knew it was going to be a World War II story. As soon as you have chosen your historical setting, the canvas is no longer blank: the background for your story is already there, in gloriously rich, colorful detail, ready for you to add your own characters in the foreground.

Guest blog post by Lucy Strange, author of Our Castle by the SeaĮvery writer, every artist, every creative practitioner in the world knows how intimidating that moment can be: staring at the empty page or the blank canvas waiting for the first ideas to form and commit themselves to existence… One of the things I love most about writing historical fiction is that you never have to experience that terrifying moment for long.

Our Castle by the Sea by Lucy Strange