Writing a Mosaic

One of the great pleasures of my work, for which I never lose interest, is examining, listening to, and reading history shared by those who were there.  We call these primary sources.  They may be illustrations, photographs, witness testimony, letters and other correspondence, oral histories, memoirs, diaries, and the like.  Of course, they are the products of people, and human memory is fallable, biased, and sometimes completely incorrect, but none of that really matters when you start applying multiple primary sources over each other.  Layers of primary sources create mosaics of experience and emotion.

Back in late July, I spent an afternoon and evening listening to the personal experiences of radar veterans of the Second World War.  These were follow-up interviews.  I had the pleasure of joining the Ottawa-area radar veterans for lunch and a day of oral history interviews the previous summer.  I now have several hours of recordings from numerous veterans, which adds to the recordings that were made by the Secrets of Radar Museum between 2002 and 2008.  Time is of the essence for capturing the voices of the men and women who served in WW2.  The youngest among them are 88 years old, the majority in their 90s.  Their numbers are dwindling fast.

More than simply carrying out interviews, I found myself being handed numerous items to take back to the museum.  These included correspondence, self-published memoirs and accounts, books, CDs, and more.  These objects were given to me for the museum, for my research, for "the book".  What book?  "The book you're going to write."  So I brought it all back with me and I thought about the book they all expect me to write.

I have been approached in the past about writing Canada's radar history, there's even a publisher that has expressed interest.  I've never really thought seriously about it, though.  I felt I wasn't expert enough, or I lacked the time, or the will, or the interest.  The only book I ever wanted to write was my mother's family's experiences during the Occupation of the Netherlands, and I've never gotten very far with that.  The idea of writing a book about radar is daunting, particularly as I have only the barest understanding of radio, physics, or electronics.

Mmm, tastes like chicken...

So there I was, surrounded by material that these veterans gave to me for "the book".  I thought about their faces as they put their histories in my hands.  In their eyes was the certainty that I would do it.  There was trust that I would tell their stories with dignity and respect.  When I accepted the materials into my hands, I was unknowingly accepting the responsibility for their histories.

I've never written a book.  I have no idea how to go about it.  I have read a lot of books, and certainly plenty of history books dealing with World War Two.  A few of them are excellent reads.  Some of them are interesting.  Too many of them are dry, or inaccessible, even boring.  I want my attempt to do justice to the personalities of the veterans, to have the levity and approachability of comfortable conversation, even when talking about difficult subjects.  I honestly don't know if I can do it.  But this summer I decided I'd give it a try. 

I have started writing "the book".  My hope is that I can take all that has been put down before me, those works that have been published, those which have only been circulated amongst friends and family, the letters, the photographs, the maps, documents, and mementos, and most of all, the hours of oral history recordings, and turn them into something worth reading.  I have no timeline, I only hope I can create for them the mosaic of history, experience and emotion they long for and deserve.