PETER APAP BOLOGNA has just had his first novel published: Lost Generations, a literary and political thriller set in the inter-war years in Europe, weaving fiction with true history. Marie Benoît discovers why and how he set about writing it.

You say you have been writing this novel for some 10 years. What spurred you to write a novel in the first place?

What prompted me to put the novel together was the horror I felt about the consequences of European politics in the 20th century.’

I was a bookworm from a very early age, initially The Hardy Boys series by Franklin W. Dixon, and the Famous Five stories by Enid Blyton, and then the novels in my father’s library: P. G. Wodehouse, E. Phillips Oppenheim, the Bulldog Drummond stories, Edgar Wallace, and that genre of 1920s fiction. At St Aloysius I discovered a wonderful library of Victorian boys novels, in particular G. A. Henty’s historical novels. I devoured them all, and lived vividly through all the adventures of his boy heroes. Much later in life I was delighted to learn that Winston Churchill was also a Henty addict. I became a devotee of historical novels, which led me to real history, in particular European history.

Over the years I built up a large library of history, biography and diaries, and liked diaries in particular, especially Harold Nicolson’s, Chips Channon’s, and James Lees-Milne’s (who was also Harold Nicolson’s biographer). When it came to writing my own historical novel, I chose a sort of diary format. Larry tells of his adventures in a chronological sequence in the first person singular. It seems to have worked as the story moves on at a fairly fast pace. Alaine says it is a sort of literary and political thriller.

Yes, I must not forget to mention that my interest is in both literary and political history. So Larry starts in Paris in the literary world of Odéonia, with Sylvia Beach, the publisher of Ulysses, and Adrienne Monnier. He later gets involved in journalism and spying.

Which of the characters in the novel are most like you? Is there much of you in Larry Sterne?

Larry is not me, but he shares my tastes in books, paintings, and good food. He likes cars, which do not interest me. On moving to Paris, he is able to be open about his homosexuality (a crime in Britain). I wonder which way I could have gone at his age, had I been free to choose! I have been very happy in my heterosexual life, and blessed with a wonderful family, but I wish to make the point that young people should be allowed to decide their own sexuality be it gay, hetero, or  bi, without let or hindrance, or intolerance.

Larry Sterne’s Jewish connections provided him with a cause, which I rather envy, as it gave scope and purpose to his life. He had great adventures in Nazi Germany, and later as President Roosevelt’s eyes and ears at Downing Street. I got a lot of vicarious pleasure writing about those.

What was the process of gathering material for this book?

Reading and making prolific notes, with page references, and googling. The library I built up is now online at www.pabbooks.com, and is an extensive bibliography of the works from which I gleaned my information. I believe the historical part of the book is true, which will tend to make the book good history, but I hope it is also good fiction.

Did you discover anything unexpected in the process of completing your first novel? About yourself perhaps?

Yes, I did learn a lot, for example about the rise of Fascism: Mussolini was the originator, following on from Gabriele D’Annunzio. He became Hitler’s model for both his own political persona as Führer (Duce), and his Nazis (Fascisti). Hitler greatly admired Mussolini, and smartened up his own appearance to match the Duce’s ‘elegance’! He also negotiated a Concordat with the Vatican, though he had no intention of observing it. There was a lot more history I had to come to terms with, such as the way France was divided following the Dreyfus case, and then the shameful behaviour of the Vichy Government. The worst part was the Nazi persecution of the Jews, culminating in the Endlösung (the Final Solution), the diabolical conclusion of the Wannsee Conference, and ultimately the Holocaust.

Apart from dedicating your novel to your wife Alaine you also dedicate it ‘to the memory of the 33, 771 Jews who were massacred by the SS at Babi Yar on the day I was born 29 September 1941’.  You have spent many years in business and international banking in London and New York and must have worked with many Jews. Is this where you acquired your sympathy for them?

The answer to the first question is that in the novel, a most important event occurs at Babi-Yar. This event affects Larry very deeply. I won’t say what happened, so as not to spoil the story. When I checked on Babi-Yar, I discovered it had taken place over my birth day. I tell you I had goose-pimples, and felt I had to mention this in the dedication.

It was Leon Uris’s novel Exodus, which I read when I was about seventeen, that made a huge and lasting impression on me. I could not put it down and read through the night, as the tears rolled down. I was shocked to the core by the suffering of the Jews, and became a passionate sympathiser and defender of the Jews.

As to the second question, I was interested to realise that at the time I did not categorise my colleagues. But looking back, I would say the majority of the bankers I admired and liked were in fact Jews. I got to know the Hock family well in the three years I spent at Singer and Friedlander. They were all very kind and taught me a lot. I still rather miss them. Later, at Chemical Bank in New York, I really can’t remember who was Jewish or not. At that time international banking was a very civilized profession, and race was not something you even noticed. At school in Connecticut my young daughters were totally colour-blind. The banker I most admired was Siegmund Warburg, member of a famous Jewish dynasty. He is going to feature in the sequel to Lost Generations, on which I am already making good progress.

Have any authors influenced you particularly in writing this novel. If so can you talk about these influences?

I would say I am influenced by the diarists I mentioned above, and the great biographers such as Philip Ziegler. I am also influenced by the American hard-boiled school of thriller writers, e.g. Raymond Chandler (though he was originally English), Dashiell Hammet; and Ian Fleming’s James Bond stories, in so far as tempo is concerned. By that I mean keeping the style easy and readable. Dickens and Scott are of great literary merit of course, but that sort of style would be too convoluted for the modern reader. I could be accused of writing like a journalist, and that would be true as I love good journalism such as you find in The Spectator and The Oldie. Having been an avid reader for more than sixty years, I am probably unable to pinpoint precisely my influences without psychotherapy.

What advice would you give to aspiring writers after this experience?

Writing is born in you, so if you like to write you should do so without inhibition, and develop your own style so you can get your thoughts and ideas down fast. But get your writing edited! You need to learn the basics, such as when to use italics; how to avoid tautology, and clichés (though they can also be very useful), how to avoid ‘very’, and so much more basic stuff. You have to learn to write correctly before you may break some rules. My first efforts used to come back from my editors (in whom I was ‘very’ fortunate) covered in a mass of red ink, marginal comments and advice, sometimes most offensive. But in the long run it worked for me.

I don’t think I am experienced enough to advise on that. I put myself in Larry’s                                        shoes, and wrote as I thought he would. I did listen to the others, but I’m not sure if I got all that right. I think I got Harold and Vita Nicolson right. [By the way, Vita Nicolson was Mabel Strickland’s cousin, though that has nothing to do with this story]. I also think I got the letters right. That’s a helpful device, sticking in a few well-written letters to embellish the story, and summarise some of the previous and future action.

I like the way you helped the reader of Lost Generations by adding a very helpful Appendix Who was Who. Would you like to comment on this?

There are so many people mentioned that you need a Who’s Who. In fact I think it should have been broader. I find it quite fun to read on its own. The glossary is important too as there are so many foreign acronyms.

(Lost Generations is sold in aid of St Patrick’s Salesian School).