So what are my literary influences, the ones that are hiding behind the obvious ones that appear on the printed page? Verity’s cultural literacy is carefully constructed on my part to match her character. In actual fact, Verity’s literary background is not exactly the same literary background that influenced me as a writer. When she is given a writing task, she constructs it as a story. She reads fiction in three languages, four if you count Scots.

‘Verity’ herself is obviously an avid reader-off the top of my head I can think of her referencing (and often quoting) Peter Pan, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, Kim, A Tale of Two Cities, Down and Out in Paris and London, ‘Tam o’Shanter,’ Kidnapped, A Little Princess, The Silence of the Sea, Narcissus and Goldmund, Faust, and (obliquely) ‘The Wasteland’. But Code Name Verity is fiction, and that’s where it has its real roots. When people ask me about the background reading I did for Code Name Verity, I usually gush about biographies and documentaries and obituaries of amazing real life World War II spies and pilots, mostly women.

‘But she is employing the literary conceits and techniques of a novel.’ I of course took the opportunity to interpose wi’ pig-headed Wallace pride, ‘I am not English, you ignorant Jerry bastard, I am a SCOT.’Įngel dutifully slapped me into silence and said, ‘She is not writing a novel. She is making use of suspense and foreshadowing.’ ‘The English Flight Officer has studied the craft of the novel. ‘Fräulein Engel, you are not a student of literature,’ he said.

The Literary Inspiration Behind Code Name Verity To celebrate its release, we invited the author to talk about inspirations and influences. Her newest book is Code Name Verity a Historical YA about two friends during WWII – and it is AWESOME. Today’s guest is Elizabeth Wein, YA writer, author of a cycle of Fantasy novels drawing from Arthurian legends (starting with The Winter Prince) amongst others. It can be about their new book, series or about their career as a whole. The cool thing is that the writers are given free rein so they can go wild and write about anything they want. “ Inspirations and Influences” is a series of articles in which we invite authors to write guest posts talking about their…well, Inspirations and Influences.

Elizabeth e wein books