“The great pleasure of it was to keep the original London, and lay over it a sheen of how it would have changed. It becomes frighteningly easy to imagine this happening.”

What would Britain look like if there was never a Second World War? What if, instead, Britain allowed the Nazi regime to take hold of the country, forming a peaceful Alliance with Germany?

This dystopian version of history is the setting for Jane Thynne’s new novel Queen High, a sequel to Widowland. In this episode we explore this new world, and the unexpected but not implausible alterations to the timeline that might have brought it into being. We discuss the consequences of a regime hellbent on rewriting and editing history. And we talk about the underestimated power of wisdom.

In this episode, you will learn:

1. How to craft a dystopia that remains unsettlingly close to reality.
2. How to create a villain that strikes fear into the hearts of your readers.
3. Why paying mind to the intricacies of your characters is just as important as a focus on world building.

Find out more about Jane here.

Your host is inkjockey founder Mark Heywood.

Behind The Spine is an inkjockey production, and the audio accompaniment to The Writing Salon. Sign up to the newsletter here.

You can view the full transcript here.

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