I wanted to write a historical fantasy/horror story that played in the period of the First World War, but it still needed to be relevant today. I’ve always been interested in history and particularly the period from the start of the 19th century until WWII. Those years shaped the way our world looks today — and lie at the basis of many of our contemporary conflicts. It’s impossible to understand modern politics without a sound knowledge of that period. I saw an opportunity to mix a number of themes in the story that reflect several of today’s major concerns.
Racism is one of them. The Special Branch of the British secret service, which is led by the main character, has been created under Queen Elizabeth I to keep an eye on non-human populations on British soil whose interests might collide with those of mankind. Clearly, ‘our’ interests aren’t always aligned with ‘theirs’, and conflicts are rife. The ethnically defined ‘other’ is still one of the most important themes in contemporary politics. The European Union’s cohesion was threatened by migratory fluxes from the war-torn Middle East and poverty-stricken regions in Africa. Race wars kindled by aggressive white supremacists and police brutality are setting the USA aflame once again in an election year — fifty-four years after Martin Luther King’s murder, everything seems to have come full circle. The seventies’ cultural and racial melting pot ideals seem further away than ever. In Dream Whisperer, Mycroft Holmes typifies our distrust of the ‘other’. Just as he wants to cripple the German post-war industry to prevent that nation from ever competing with Britain again, his willingness to engage in dialogue with non-humans is limited by short-sighted self-interest. Under his leadership of the special branch, relations with non-human races have wilted. Old conflicts are flaring up again.
International cooperation is another theme. Holmes quickly understands he needs help from other nations to fight the threat represented by the Dream Whisperer. He manages to set up a successful cooperation first with the French and later with the Americans. When President Harding comes to power that cooperation is dissolved. Harding is a less visionary president than his predecessor Wilson. The Great War has catapulted the USA in the limelight as the next world power, but Harding isn’t interested in becoming a world leader. He won the elections from his front porch, and his focus is essentially a domestic one. He regards world politics and international partnerships with mistrust and disdain, just as we see the USA folding back on itself these days and pull out from international trade and arms agreements, withdraw from and/or heavily criticise international organisations like NATO, IMF, and WHO.
Then there’s the issue of women’s rights. Before the war, British women couldn’t vote. The suffragettes fought a long battle for women to acquire that right. I introduced a female protagonist, Rebecca Mumm, who dresses like a man, refuses to marry, and tries to succeed against male prejudice. I’ve looked into the biographies of many turn-of-the-century female cultural icons. To be successful, they had to choose self-realisation above ‘marital bliss’ and turned to same-sex partners for support and independence from male dominance. These women are role models for Rebecca. After all these years, much has changed, but much has remained the same. Women often are still not considered equals to men, although they’re often shown doing a much better job than men. Just look at the formidable Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand’s brilliant Prime Minister. If Dream Whisperer is ever turned into a movie or a TV series (I can dream, can’t I?), she’d be a perfect candidate to play Rebecca.
Fleming, the main character, is a quarter-elf. He‘s the ultimate outsider, being neither fully elf nor human. His efforts to police conflicts between humans and non-humans are confronted with deeply-felt interior struggles, which make him question where his loyalties lie. His views on what consists good stewardship for our planet clash with his boss’s traditional, economically driven points of view. We live in times that challenge the capitalist ideal of eternal economic growth and its precedence over environmental sustainability. Protests fuelled by climate change and the new world forced upon us by Covid-19 should demand to review old paradigms, but the forces that compel us to return to the situation-that-was are very strong. Holmes, for all his brilliance, isn’t a change leader. He desperately tries to maintain the status quo in a rapidly changing world, although one can suspect he’s the first to realise he’s fighting a losing battle.
The Dream Whisperer is an agent for chaos. He’s shown to use personal data of humans to pit them against one another, just as internet troll bots and unscrupulous companies for-hire misuse the internet and its rich data streams to further the deplorable agendas of their masters. A recurring theme in the novel is ‘who can you trust?’ It’s an issue we’re confronted with on a daily basis watching the news and scrolling through social media.
I tried to thread all these motives — and many others as you’ll find out — into the storyline without getting in the way of it. Hope you’ll enjoy that.