On this episode, we were joined by Alice Winn, author of the Hatchards Fiction Book of the Month, 'In Memoriam,' her highly-acclaimed debut.

Beginning at the onset of WWI, Winn's novel follows lifelong friends Gaunt and Ellwood from the confines of their cloistered English boarding school to the horrors of trench warfare, as a forbidden romance of fits-and-stars slowly blossoms between them.

Alice spoke to us about the parallels in attitude felt by young people during that time period and the present; taking ideas from the life of Siegfried Sassoon; and the dangers of complacency within a peacetime society.

We also learn how inspiration for the novel came from reading archival newspapers published by her alma mater, Marlborough, regularly listing the wounded and dead amongst former students throughout the war.

Finally, her cat makes a most welcome appearance on mic; a first for The Hatchards Podcast.

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