The Keeping of Secrets
The keeper of family secrets, Patricia Roberts grows up isolated and lonely. Trust no one and you won't be disappointed is her motto. Three men fall in love with her and she learns to trust, only to find that their agendas are not her own. With secrets concealed from her by the ultimate love of her life, and with her own secret to keep, duplicity and deceit threaten their relationship. In a coming of age story set against the sweeping backdrop of the Second World War - evacuation, the Battle of Britain, the Blitz, buzz bombs and secret war work - Patricia ultimately has to decide whether to reveal her deepest held secret for the sake of her future happiness.
About the author: Born and raised in the Home Counties, Alice Graysharp has enjoyed a varied working life from hospitality to office work and retail. She currently lives in Surrey. This is her first novel, and the first title in a two book series, she is also already working on a seventeenth century trilogy. Published in the anniversary month of the outbreak of the Second World War and the Battle of Britain
Website: https://www.alicegraysharp.com/
Bill Character Spotlight
Q. Who is Bill?
A. Bill (William) Whitshere is Pat’s best and only friend at the start of the story. He is six months older than Pat; we meet him shortly before Christmas 1939 by which time he is 16.
Q. How does Bill know Pat?
A. Bill’s and Pat’s fathers played cricket together for the Clapham Cricket Club when Bill and Pat were young. Traditionally the husbands played the cricket and the wives prepared tea, which is how Pat’s mother and Bill’s mother met. The families have kept in touch since and have regular get-togethers.
Q. What was the inspiration behind the character of Bill?
A. Pat had traumatic times in her childhood and is expected to keep family secrets. I wondered what effect these inhibitors might have had on her ability to develop close friendships with girls who can be more demanding in friendships than boys. I thought she might find the kind of intense relationships between girls, especially teenage girls, difficult to handle, especially with the level of secrecy imposed on her. Boys tend to develop socially at a slower pace and approach friendships on a different level. I therefore thought it likely that if Pat did have a friend she is more likely to have a friend who is a boy because it would be a safer kind of friendship: ‘He didn’t demand emotional commitment or a swapping of secrets and confidences.’ So Bill was created as a brother figure with whom she could share some good times.
Q. What does Bill look like?
A. Bill has inherited his father’s shorter, stockier frame, and has dark brown hair, grey-green eyes and a generous, wide mouth. When we meet him at Christmas time 1939 he has spent a term of weekends cycling home from Reading and ‘I suddenly realised that the hand that held mine was attached to a firm, muscular arm and that he was leaner than the stocky boy I remembered.’
Q. What is Bill’s personality like?
A. Bill is a bouncy, humorous, larger than life character who enjoys a sense of the dramatic. He and Pat have developed a kind of “ta-da” greeting. He is capable of empathy; a friendly arm around her if as a child she fell and scraped her knee. However, he used to play practical jokes on Pat, but now is capable of insight and realises that she has unhappy feelings around them and apologises for his childhood behaviour. He is also developing has a deeper, more serious side which takes Pat by surprise.
Q. What are Bill’s likes and dislikes?
A. Bill likes jokes, especially corny ones, and puzzles and games. When they were younger Pat and Bill would play with his train set or pour over his collection of Champion and Hotspur, reading aloud or enacting their scenes of derring-do and adventure. He likes cricket but is not so keen on rugby or football.
Q. What does Bill want to do when he grows up?
A. Bill wants to go into the diplomatic service. He struggles at school, especially with maths which is a disappointment to his father who wants him to become an accountant. His favourite subjects are languages and he want to travel and use his languages. Whether he succeeds in achieving his chosen career…. this may be something we find out in book 2.
Q. How does Bill find evacuation?
A. Bill misses his home enough to cycle from Reading to Brixton at weekends, and he is encouraged in this by cycling with his new friend, Jon, who is billeted with him on evacuation.
Q. What can you tell us about his feelings for Pat?
A. When we meet him he appears to be the hearty, brotherly friend she has always known, but underneath he has been harbouring romantic feelings for her. It is not clear for how long, though perhaps for some time as his Christmas present to her reveals his feelings and he later lets slip that he has always regarded her as his girl.
Q. How does Bill develop as the story progresses?
A. Well, I don’t want to give away too many spoilers but he develops a certain stoicism and acceptance and proves capable of biding his time, remaining loyal despite feelings of jealousy. Conversely this could be seen as exhibiting a certain amount of possessiveness. As to where his relationship with Pat goes eventually, you’ll have to read the book!
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