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Social Expectations
The Tuba of the Somme follows three unforgettable Yorkshire women navigating a world shaped by war, class divisions, rigid social expectations, and men who frequently make life more difficult than necessary. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
The world as it is today, because so little has changed in the last hundred years – plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.
What inspired you to explore love and companionship through relationships that challenge the social expectations of their time?
The relationship between Mary and Rose, which challenges the social expectations of their time, still challenges the social ‘norms’ in many countries today. Even in societies considered progressive and free. It was important to me to show their relationship, and the constraints placed upon it, in a way which many people would recognise from their experiences today.
What role does satire play in your examination of human vanity, hypocrisy, and the contradictions of social respectability?
A very important role. These days, real life often goes beyond satire, and each year brings us examples of powerful and ‘important’ people bending the world to their will, doing things which a few years ago would have been unthinkable. The use of satire in this novel serves to remind us that what used to be beyond credible belief can very quickly become a lived existence for many if those in power go unchallenged.
When readers finish The Tuba of the Somme, what is the most important message you hope stays with them about war, love, human folly, and the courage to live according to one’s own desires?
That it is always possible to live life on your own terms if you are prepared to accept the consequences of your choices. We lived then, and live now, in a world where men make the rules, but it is possible to live by your own rules, and noone has to follow rules that go against what’s right.
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Marvel as three formidable Yorkshire women navigate a man’s world of violence and war, while dealing with both their own men and the lethal, mysterious, treacherous tuba.
It’s the early 20th Century. Edith’s husband comes home from war, bringing his experiences in the trenches with him, and before long Edith has an unwanted suitor parked in her parlour. Rose and Mary find each other after years apart, but Mary is married and working-class, and Rose is a middle-class widow. Life would be simpler if men would just leave them alone, but life is never that straightforward.
Especially when there’s a psychopathic brass tuba on the loose, intent on mischief, mayhem and murder. The tuba had a moment of glory on the first day of the Somme, but it can’t leave things be now. Which means, sooner or later, peace-loving Edith, Rose and Mary are going to have to do something about it.
