I came across the topic for this book while watching the BBC one evening and saw the program, “Who Do You Think You Are?”. This particular episode featured Amanda Holden and an event of which I had never heard… The sinking of the Lancastria during WWII.
This was not only Britain’s worst maritime disaster, but reportedly took more lives than the Titanic and 9/11 disasters combined!
I felt a very somber duty to make sure I effectively represented this tragedy and the events Bridgit witnesses have all come from eye-witness accounts, journals, and research done by others – and to whom I owe a huge debt of gratitude.
For instance, the image of two young men deciding to end their lives in the water, with one shooting his friend and then himself – that came from testimony of those who lived through the horror.
The Lancastria was sunk almost immediately after Dunkirk and as such Churchill decided to forbid any coverage of the disaster – unfortunately, that media ban remained intact and the Lancastria and her victims have largely been lost to history.
It is my fervent desire that Bridgit’s book will help keep their memories alive…