Bruno and Frida by Tony Bradman

 

 

The story is set at the end of World War II as the Russians start to occupy Nazi Germany. Bruno’s mother is killed as the Russians attack. Bruno is befriended by the dog Frida, and by an old lady who takes him in for a while.  Frida is a suicide bomber dog and Bruno’s first task when he meets her is to remove her vest.

As the Russian occupation takes hold, Bruno has to move on and try and find his grandparents.  He has to leave the old lady behind. He never sees her again and he never finds out what happens to her. He writes to her daughter but she does not reply.

Bruno finds his grandparents and goes on to live a happy life.  He marries, becomes a doctor and has a family.  His granddaughter interviews him about being a refugee.  The family are sympathetic towards the Syrian refugees.     

This is a Barrington Stoke book and created for less able readers.

 Barrington Stoke claims “Our books are tested for children and young people by children and young people.”  Usually they commission a known writer to create the text and their own editors then work on it to make it suitable for the target reader.  

Tony Bradman offers an historical note at the end and also points out how German attitudes have changed since the end of World War II. 

 

The House on Schellberg Street Edition 2

Yes, there is now a new edition of this ready. It has been taken out of print by Crooked Cats and I've decided to go ahead and self-publish it under our Chapeltown imprint. I'm also working on the next book, Clara's Story, and I'm hoping that can come out in the spring. Two more wait to be processed and two more are yet to be written. Will it end there? We'll see.   

This cycle of stories is a little bit niche. They are not, though, grizzly, as one of my MA tutors warned me they might become. Clara's Story is possibly the darkest but even that leaves some hope. Yes, the stories deal with the Holocaust and World War II but they represent an attempt to understand how these things happened and how ordinary people fared within them. They're also an experiment in using writing as historical research. When we can't establish the verifiable facts, we have to use another tool – in this case that writer's imagination that acts a little like method acting. There's quite a bit of discussion about that on this site.

This new edition has a new cover. It gives a few broader hints about the story though is in a similar style so still recognizable. I've also given it another thorough edit. Thankfully I found very few typos. It was first published in 2014 and even in that relatively short time the fashion in language has changed, so most of my editing changes have been to do with that. I'm having Clara's Story and the other professionally edited and proof-read. I've added one extra item to the Glossary – an explanation about the Kindertransport. The word isn't used in the text but it seems an important concept so I've included it. I've also made the blurb a little more explicit. Potential readers need to know about the Holocaust and World War II connection.

Thankfully Amazon has connected the reviews of the first edition to this new edition.

If you've not read it yet and would like to, you might like to read this new edition. Click on the link below to find it.

Interview with Frederik Nath on his novels set in World War II

What led you to writing your fiction set in World War II?

Although like a lot of people, I’ve always had a vague interest in the French Resistance, it was not something I ever had a burning desire to write about until I was on holiday in the Dordogne and was in the market square in Bergerac. I found the inscriptions on the war monument very moving and thought – well now there’s a story in there somewhere. 

The early morning sunlight flickered from behind the high clouds and reflected golden and crisp from the monument in Bergerac’s market square. Around me, shoppers bustled and in the roadway a car beeped its horn. The grey stone pillar rose fifteen feet above me, its shadow pointing away towards the elm trees that line the roadway. A smell of garlic wafted as I read those brave words that showed the strength of the French and France’s indomitable leaders. The monument was a reminder of the valour and sacrifice of those brave local partisans who gave up their lives in the struggle against the occupying Nazi forces all those years ago.

Yes, it is moving. Surely there’s a story here.

In my head a story began to form. What would it have been like to have to make the choices needed to protect oneself and one’s family yet still remain French? The main character would need to do something admirable. He would need to depart from the norm. If you became a partisan you would endanger the people nearest you. What if you were caught? 

I began to think of how it would be to be the one who is rounding up the local Jewish people. Would you hate it? Of course you would, even if you were forced to it for fear of endangering your family. For a religious man it would be even harder. Surely one would do anything to avoid such ‘duties’ if you had a conscience?

The story began to form. A Vichy French policeman, a man of conscience, a family man working with evil Nazis whom he secretly hated. I created Auguste Ran, a good policeman, but in essence weak, until a certain event tips him over the edge and slowly he begins to fight back.

That’s where THE CYCLIST came from and it was my springboard for the other books in my French resistance series. Each takes a character and makes life hard for them, allowing them to become. In the end, THE CYCLIST sold 30,000 copies. It was Editor’s choice in the Historical Novel Review in 2011.

You can catch all six books on Amazon: a policeman, a teacher, an artist, a chef, a philosopher and in THE PROMISE a medical student.

THE PROMISE is the last and most recent of the series. Jean Valois, a medical student before the war, swears to his sister he will protect her. But in war, who can keep such promises? Trained to kill by SOE, in a desperate bid to save his sister Rebecca, he undertakes a mission deep into enemy-occupied Poland, risking all for the sake of a promise made long ago. A story of love, war, hatred and revenge, THE PROMISE tells a tale of courage and staunchness.

Why is this era so important to so many people?

Important may not be the right word. I think many people understand and empathise with what the French put up with during the occupation. It takes little imagination to see how those terrible time wove a fabric of anger and resistance. In the second book (Farewell Bergerac) one of the characters says in relation to a child he had seen painting out a German slogan: ‘That child is what the resistance is all about. Each of us must do what we can do. No one expects you to become a soldier. What use would a fat innkeeper be against the Hun? Not fighting, but resistance in every way, subtle or obvious, it doesn’t matter. Resist, object and show it, then die.’ I think that particular sentiment is applicable to many countries and many people who feel oppressed. It creates a kind of kinship with the past which in our minds we interpolate with our present.

Did you have to do much research?

One can do too much research and end up with a history instead of a story. I tend to write picturing the scenes and the action and when I need to make the picture in my head vivid enough to relate, I look up details which give the feel of the time. So, I guess I do much of the research as I go along.

 Which is your favourite book about this era – either one of your own or one by someone else?

My favourite book that I have had published is Francesca Pascal. It’s written from the perspective of a woman who is an artist and describes how she believes in her country and seeks revenge in her way against the Nazis. I’ve lived with and loved women all my life, but have no understanding of them, so writing from a woman’s POV was daunting to say the least.

Could you give us a two line summary of that book?

When Francesca’s daughter is killed by the German invaders, she vows to obtain vengeance in any way she can. She discovers that vengeance is no source of closure and there are better things in life with which to become obsessed. 

Bombings

In our story we read about bombs dropping on Nuremberg and London. There are no actual scenes, except in Renate’s nightmares, where bombs are dropped. We might suppose Renate has experienced them during visits to her mother in London. She was naturally worried about what might be happening to her mother in London, her father in Nuremberg and her grandmother in Stuttgart. It was partly this concern, alongside her confusion about her identity and her overwork, that caused her breakdown.

Actually, all three were spared injury and death from bombs. However, some of the property that Renate and her mother had managed to bring out of Germany was destroyed by an incendiary bomb.     

The Blitz on London began on 7 September 1940. The war had been slow to get started but began to feel real in March 1940. The beginning of the Blitz marked a change in German tactics; they were now prepared to attack British civilians. The Blitz, this intense time of bombing, ended on 11 May 1941. Other bombing raids still happened but they were less intense. 3000 Londoners were killed on the final night of the Blitz.

There are plenty of short films on You Tube to give you an impression of what a raid on London felt like. The Imperial War Museum North sometimes shows 360 degree films of the Blitz.

Nuremberg was in ruins by the end of the war. Two years after the war ended, when Renate went back there, there would still have been more rubble than whole buildings. See here. The most significant raids took place on: 

29 August 1942

26 February 1943

9 March 1943

28 August 1943

30/31 March 1944

3 October 1944

2 January 1945

20 February 1945

16 March 1945

5 April 1945

Norman Longmate ‘How We Lived Then'

This book gives a lot of insight into how World War II affected daily lives. It has helped me great deal with background to the novel.

For instance, it was clear that the people in Britain were expecting war. It was not so much a matter of if but when. (p8)

I have my characters on holiday in the summer of 1939. Longmate confirms that this did happen, and that people took their gas mask with them. (p13)

Life was boring for evacuees and other who had sought the sanctuary of the countryside during the “phoney” war.  (p72)

Bombing, when it did start, was vicious. (p140)

Longmate provides much detail about everyday life. There are numerous photos of the era, including of some important documents.  This is a very useful resource.       

School visits offered

I am offering school visits to do with The Potatoes in Spring project. There is a two-fold purpose to this:
- To raise funds to help me complete the project
- Disseminate knowledge gained from the research to date
Cost is whatever the school can afford, and as long as that at least covers my travelling expenses I’m happy to come to your school. No amount is too small, once expenses are covered but bear in mind that the Society of Authors recommended rate is £350 a day.
You may be interested to know that:
- I have public liability insurance up to £10,000,000
- I am CRB checked (enhanced)
- I am an experienced teacher and workshop provider
- I write for children and young adults.
The talks / workshops on offer cover:
- The viewpoint of 13 year old German girls during World War II and about the Holocaust (based on letters written between 1941 and 1943) We shudder at the Holocaust but here we might find some explanation of how it came about even though people are basically and usually big-hearted
- The extraordinary story of a Catholic woman, Jewish by nationality, who helped to keep a school for disabled children going. This woman was later forced to sell her home, was moved to a ghetto, then to Theresienstadt and was later killed at Treblinka
- The story of her granddaughter who was one of the first to arrive on the Kindertransport. This young woman had to endure a break-down as her mother was being bombed by the Germans in London and her father by the Allies in Berlin, before she began to recognize Britain as her home.
If you are interested in booking me for any of these talks please contact me via comment box or email me. 

Inspection Copy Offer

If you are interested in one of my workshops based on The House on Schellberg Street, I’m offering you a copy of the book. If you go on to book a workshop, you may keep the book free of charge.  Otherwise, you may return the book or if you decide to keep it but not book a workshop, I’ll invoice you for the book.