Getting your facts right

How much detail do you need?

My new novel is set on the channel island of Jersey. My father’s family came from there originally so I have a personal connection with the island. I am a little worried though: Channel islanders know their history well so I need to get my facts right – not easy when I can’t leave the house at the moment.

How concerned, should writers be about conveying the truth? Emily Dickenson once wrote: tell all the truth but tell it slant. To me that means I need to get the details correct, as far as I can, but I can put a spin on them that suits my purposes in the story.

Let me give you an example. I have been doing some research into Operation Haddock, when RAF planes, en-route to bomb targets in Italy, stopped on Jersey to refuel. My main character is going to be by the harbour when the planes flew over. But I needed to find out what the weather was like that day. So I contacted Mark Beswick, the archive information officer at the Met office in Exeter. Below is the trail of the emails we sent:

Gill:

I am researching a novel set in Jersey in world war two and need to find out what the weather was on a particular day - 11th June 1940 to be precise (at St. Helier). Would you be able to provide me with this information or suggest how I might access it?

Mark:

We don’t appear to have any digitised data for June 1940 for Jersey. Our catalogue indicates we hold paper records for Jersey St Helier, there does appear to be missing data from July 1940 to August 1946 but that would infer that we would probably hold something for June 1940. Unfortunately with all restrictions due to Covid-19, we no longer have access to the paper archives as we are all working from home so I’m unable to look at these.

Guernsey was listed in the UK daily weather report for 11th June 1940 which gives the following.

Maximum temperature: 70 deg F / 21.1 deg C
Minimum temperature: 56 deg F / 13.3 deg C
Rainfall: Nil
Sunshine: 9.8 hours.
A dry day with sunny intervals and a mainly light westerly breeze.

Gill:

That is really helpful. Thank you so much. I am assuming Guernsey and Jersey would have similar weather?

 Mark:

I think on average, you would expect Guernsey and Jersey to have fairly similar weather but I’m sure there would be days when the weather would be a little different but I know from visiting Jersey myself, that sometimes the weather can be very different from the west side of Jersey to the east side!

Gill:

Thanks, Mark. It does. As a historical fiction writer I try to be as accurate as possible with details, where information is available, and then take an educated guess when it’s not. As my book is a novel and not a factual account, I have a little more leeway. Nevertheless I like to get my facts straight if I can as I think it’s lazy, and possibly disrespectful to people who lived through those times, not to try to get the details right. 

Interestingly, the RAF planes which took off from Jersey airport on the evening of the 11th June ran into electrical storms and severe cold over the Alps, so I have the weather on Jersey being a little humid that day. It is certainly clear that it was quite warm.

Mark:

 I attach the UK daily weather report for 11 and 12 June 1940 where I got Guernsey information for. You can see mention on the forecast of thunderstorms but of the selected stations, I could only seem to see thunder and lightning reported at Gorelston and Felixstowe through the evening of 11th, this might suggest the trough became more thundery as it moved eastwards.

At 1300 GMT, Guernsey had a temperature of 67 deg F / 19.4 deg C and a relative humidity of 65%. I think you could consider that as being fairly humid for the middle of the day and that air temperature (relative humidity is generally higher at night and lowest during the middle of the day). Dew was reported later in the evening at Guernsey.

I suspect St Helier may have been a little warmer and more humid than Guernsey, so I think what you are saying sounds very reasonable in the absence of being able to check Jersey report in our archive.

I was thrilled by Mark’s responses. It always amazes me when people, who have no vested interest in my writing, are prepared to ‘go the extra mile’ in order to help. Brilliant! As I explained in my emails, I think it is lazy not to research things carefully, and also possibly disrespectful to the people who lived through these times, not to try to remain faithful to events. But sometimes we simply cannot access information – as Mark said, the digitised weather records of that time were not available, and due to Covid restrictions he didn’t have access to the paper records, – so we have to make educated guesses. But I was particularly pleased he thought my theory that the weather could have been humid on Jersey at that time was plausible, as it suited my purposes. Writers sometimes use weather to reflect characters’ thoughts and actions – known as pathetic fallacy. I want to set up some tension between my characters in this scene, and the references to the sultry weather will reinforce this beautifully. So a successful outcome. Sometimes diligence pays off! But we can’t do it alone: recruiting helpful people who will support our research is essential – and for me, one of the great pleasures of writing.