Clare Harvey receiving her award
Harvey’s historical novel, The Gunner Girl, has won the prestigious 2014 Exeter Novel Prize. The lauded novel began as part of Harvey’s Creative Writing dissertation at the University of Nottingham. Harvey has praised her former Nottingham tutors and teachers for getting the best out of her writing. She said: ‘I have to say that this is testament to the quality of teaching on The University of Nottingham’s Creative Writing MA course. It definitely lifted my writing to a level that got me noticed by award judges, agents and publishers.’
The Exeter Novel Prize, too, has gone from strength to strength in recent years. It is judged by well-respected Exeter-based writers. The prize bodes very well for Harvey, who is understandably ‘so thrilled’ to receive the prize ‘for [her] debut novel.’
The Gunner Girl is set during the London Blitz, and follows three very different women as they navigate their lives in the war-torn capital. Bea’s boyfriend is sadly missing in action and she feels that she needs to escape her domestic duties. Wealthy Edie wants to make a difference to the war effort but doesn’t know how. Lonely Joan’s home has been destroyed by a bomb. After joining the Auxiliary Territorial Service, their lives integrate with each other’s. Each character shows a different, more personal, take on the female war experience.
Drawing on her years as a military wife and her time in the army reserves, Harvey’s narrative voices distinctly female concerns. War-writing is usually dominated by male writers and this is something Harvey wishes to challenge, because many women have war stories too. The Gunner Girl was inspired specifically by Harvey’s mother-in-law who lived, worked and fought in London during the Second World War.
Harvey still lives in Nottingham and is an associate writer at Nottingham Lakeside Arts, on the same campus where she studied for her master’s degree. At Lakeside she is the Project Co-ordinator for the Lakeside Literacy Project. She oversees current Creative Writing students, who run innovative workshops for local school-children based on exhibitions shown at the centre. It’s a wonderful initiative for children wanting to follow in Harvey’s literary footsteps.
The Gunner Girl is published on the 8th of October by Simon & Schuster.
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