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History Extra podcast

Robert Harris on V2, historical fiction and WW2

History Extra podcast

Immediate Media

History

4.34.5K Ratings

🗓️ 27 November 2020

⏱️ 26 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Robert Harris discusses V2, his new Second World War thriller inspired by the German missile campaign in 1944 Best-selling historical novelist Robert Harris discusses his latest thriller, V2, inspired by the German missile campaign in 1944. He explains why he is obsessed by the Second World War, and shares some of the secrets of writing great historical fiction. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:25.0

Hello and welcome to the History Extra podcast from BBC History magazine. I'm Ellie Korthorn. What's the secret to truly gripping historical fiction?

0:31.0

Well, for today's podcast, I spoke to the best-selling historical novelist Robert Harris to try and find out.

0:38.0

You've probably come across some of Robert's books such as Munich, Enigma, Pompeii, Fatherland or the Second Sleep, many of which have been adapted for film.

0:47.0

For his latest book, V2, Robert returns to the Second World War and the launching of one of the conflict's deadliest weapons.

0:55.8

I spoke to him to find out more.

0:58.1

So thanks very much for joining me to discuss your new World War II thriller V2. To begin with, I think you can do this better than me so I wonder if you could

1:06.5

just give listeners an idea of what it's all about the opening gambit as it

1:10.9

were well the novel takes place over four or five days at the end of

1:18.1

November 1944 and it's about the launching of V2 ballistic missiles from occupied Holland by the Germans against London.

1:30.0

And I tell the story through two main characters.

1:32.6

One is a German rocket engineer scientist

1:36.3

who's been attached to the military who

1:39.2

are firing the rockets from the woods around the Hague.

1:43.0

And my other character is Englishwoman, a member of the Women's Royal Air Force,

1:49.0

who works at RF Medminum, where they dealt with photo reconnaissance.

1:54.8

And she is a victim of a V2 rocket strike in the early pages of the book,

2:01.5

and the novel cuts back and forth between the two of them.

2:05.0

The fact that it cuts back and forth between these two sides is one of the most exciting elements of the book.

2:11.0

Why did you want to show it from those two different perspectives?

2:14.4

Well I thought one couldn't really tell the story of the V2 and bring home the drama of it

2:19.4

without seeing it from both sides to just be with the rocket engineer launching the missiles without saying the effect would only tell half the story.

2:28.6

Similarly, I wanted to describe how the British set about trying to fight back against these rocket attacks

...

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