Settings for The Visits

The London that I have experienced is of course, nothing like the London of the Second World War. Having said that, to this day there are the many elements – geographical, architectural and structural, that make what Joseph Conrad described, the ‘greatest city in the world’, quintessentially, London. I have walked the same streets and pathways taken by my characters and I’ve descended into the Underground stations used by so many as bomb shelters. Online resources provided historical day-specific weather reports and much background material has been referenced to provide a verisimilitude of the carnage wrought by the Blitz.

Throughout Brenda’s life, water plays an important role and in some sense mirrors my own experience on lakes and the ocean. On several occasions, years before Brenda was purported to have visited Hornby Island in British Columbia, my family spent happy summer days camping in the quiet wilderness there. The scene with Cecily and the orcas is a reflection of an encounter my father and I had while salmon fishing not far from the bluffs at Helliwell Provincial Park, albeit on a larger and more robust vessel.