MARGARET’S NEW NOVEL

UNCOVERING THE CODE

Skegness author Margaret Dickinson has just published book 29 and is already working on her 30th novel in her series of sagas. Secrets of Bletchley Park is set within the wartime codebreaking station, where there are more secrets than just the station’s work...

IN THE STUDY at her Skegness home, Margaret Dickinson is working on an important book. It’ll be her 30th. And with her most recently published novel, Secrets at Bletchley Park, now in bookshops it’s fitting that the author has acknowledged the life and work of the codebreakers based at Bletchley Park, because those same machine and cipher devices led not only to a shortening of the war but also the development of the computer, indeed, to the creation of computers just like the one responsible for Margaret’s prolific output of around 70,000 word a year. The hallmarks of Margaret’s work are wellresearched historical contexts, and strong female characters, making her a standout author in the saga genre. “From the beginning, my agent was looking for three things from my books. First of all, they must have a strong woman as the central character, second of all it must be firmly set in a certain recognisable location, and finally it must have a very satisfactory ending.” “The reader must turn the last page and say ‘yes, that’s a good ending to that story.’ When ending a book in a trilogy it becomes a little trickier, because you must give a hint that there is going to be more to follow, but you’ve got to end that book on a satisfactory note.” “I was born in Gainsborough, but soon moved to Chapel St Leonards near Skegness when I was seven,” says Margaret. “I was educated at Skegness Grammar School and Lincoln Technical College, worked in Skegness in various office-based jobs, and I’ve been there ever since. That’s why it was a very natural decision to make Lincolnshire the basis for my books.” “I always wanted to be a writer when I was younger from the age of around 14 with the hope of one day being published. I managed to get my first book published in 1968 and it just went from there.” “My first nine hardback books published by London publisher Robert Hale didn’t have many connections to Lincolnshire. It wasn’t until the early 90s when I started writing the

“For nearly every book I’ve written, I hit a brick wall. Usually halfway. However, after nearly 50 years of writing, I’ve learnt to just keep calm and carry on and break through that wall. Once you have a draft down, you know you’ve got a book there and it’s easier...”

paperbacks that I started to deliberately focus on basing the stories in Lincolnshire and that was primarily due to my agent Darley Anderson’s advice. Darley is also the agent for the likes of Lee Child and John Connelly, and he’s been my agent for 25 years now.” In terms of the advice she offers to aspiring authors, Margaret says: “It takes a lot of hard work. I was a part time author while working in an office to start with, although it was always something I wanted to do full time. You have to really study the type of fiction you want to concentrate on and get a feel of that particular genre.” “Never be afraid of constructive criticism and try to accept that some people have different opinions and tastes. And just... write. If you’re following a dream to become an author, never give up, and try not the be too disappointed with rejection. Most writers will get rejected by publishers; there are very few books that are actually picked up and published straight away. It is rare and it’s challenging, but never give up.” “For nearly every book I’ve written, I hit a brick wall. Usually halfway, I do struggle to carry on. I publish a book a year so I’m writing it for around five or six months before. When you think about reading a book for that length of time, you can understand that you do get a bit bogged down.” “However, after nearly 50 years of writing, I’ve learnt to just keep calm and carry on and break through that wall. Once you have a draft down, you know you’ve got a book there and it’s easier.” “In Secrets at Bletchley Park, two young women from very different backgrounds meet in the Second World War and are plunged into a life where security and discretion are paramount,” says Margaret. “But both have secrets of their own to hide. Mattie Price, born and raised in the back streets of Sheffield, is tough. She has a petty thief for a father and a mother who turns to the bottle to cope with her husband’s brutish ways.” “Meanwhile, our other heroine, Victoria Hamilton, lives in the opulence of London’s Kensington and has all the material possessions that a young girl could want.” “But her mother, Grace, a widow from the Great War, is cold and distant, making no secret of the fact that she never wanted a child. Grace lives her life in the social whirl of upper-class society, leaving Victoria in the care of her governess and the servants.” “Mattie and Victoria are both set on a path that will bring them together at Bletchley Park in May 1940. An unlikely friendship between the two young women is born and together they will face the rest of the war keeping the nation’s secrets and helping to win the fight.” “They can tell no one, not even their families, about their work or even where they are. But keeping secrets is second nature to both of them.”

“It’s a fantastic feeling when you’ve finished a book. It still has to be seen by numerous editors and proofreaders, but after you’ve put so much hard work into it and you put the last word down, you can finally appreciate your efforts. It’s a success in itself to finish it.”

“Obviously, it’s also a great feeling when the book becomes a success though, and it’s lovely to meet my fans and the people who enjoy reading the books that you’ve put so much hard work into.” n

Find Out More: Margaret Dickinson’s new book, Secrets at Bletchley Park, is now available from all good bookshops, published by Pan Macmillan.

BLETCHLEY PARK: HOW WE WON THE WAR...

Bletchley Park, once the top- secret home of the World War Two Codebreakers is now a vibrant heritage attraction. Back in September 1938, though, it was one of the most important country estates in the fight against the Nazis. On 18 September 1938, a small group of people moved into the mansion under the cover story that they were a shooting party. They had an air of friends enjoying a relaxed weekend together at a country house. They even brought with them one of the best chefs from the Savoy Hotel to cook their food. Behind the cover were members of MI6 and the Government Code and Cypher School (GC & CS), a secret team including a number of scholars and academics turned Codebreakers. The group’s job was to set up and run intelligence activity from Bletchley Park. The first operational break into Enigma came around the 23 January 1940, when the team working under Dilly Knox, with the mathematicians John Jeffreys, Peter Twinn and Alan Turing, unravelled the German Army administrative key that became known at Bletchley Park as ‘The Green.’ Encouraged by this success, the Codebreakers managed to crack the ‘Red’ key used by the Luftwaffe (German air force). In addition to German codes, Italian and later Japanese systems were also broken. Bletchley Park was vital to Allied victory in World War Two; deciphering the military codes and ciphers that secured German, Japanese, and other Axis nation communications, producing vital intelligence in support of Allied military operations on land, at sea and in the air. Bletchley Park also facilitated the creation of the world’s first electronic computer, Colossus. n