Black Isle writer's debut novel in line for award
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Author Verity Walker from Fortrose has been shortlisted for a national literary prize with her debut novel Major Tom’s War.
Written under the name Vee Walker, it is set against the background of World War I and although it is a work of fiction, it is based on real people, places and events drawn from her grandfather’s unpublished war diary scrapbook, lovingly assembled by her grandmother Evie.
It is one of five titles in the running for an inaugural award to be announced at next month’s Malvern Military History Festival, Britain’s only literary festival dedicated solely to military history.
The Society for Army Historical Research (SAHR) Prize for Military Fiction will be announced during a reception on Saturday, October 26.
Ms Walker is delighted that her book, launched last year at the National Army Museum in London, is among the contenders.
“I was completely gob-smacked to be shortlisted,” she said. “I am not a historian. It was written very much as a story.”
Major Tom’s War is set against the background of events in India, England, Wales, Scotland, Belgium, Germany and France including the suffragette movement, executions by firing squad and the retreat from the Somme in March 1918.
Ms Walker, a museums and heritage consultant, spent almost a decade researching and writing the book which was snapped up by niche publisher, Kashi House.
Last week she led two free workshops as part of the annual NessBookFest in Inverness. One was encouraging people to write short stories based on treasured family items such as an object or photograph. The other for users of the Nettley Centre at Highland Hospice.
