My debut novel  “Dance The Moon Down”  is set against the background of the First World War. The novel attempts a new slant on an old theme by focusing on the lives of the women left behind. The story’s central character, Victoria, has been married for barely a year when her poet husband, Gerald,  volunteers to fight and then goes missing on the Western Front leaving her to fend for herself in a male dominated society. Her struggle to survive and her refusal to give up hope that her husband will one day return give the novel, I feel, a uniquely poignant flavor.

That is an angle that isn’t often explored. What genre is your book?
Historical Drama.

What kind of readers will it appeal to?
Hopefully both men and women of all ages. So far it has gained a following across the board, but it is specifically aimed at women aged 18 upwards.

Complete this sentence for us: if you like _________________, you’ll love my book.
Downton Abbey and War Horse.

We love Downton Abbey – but, doesn’t everyone? Tell us more about Victoria, though.
She’s something of an anachronism in her own time being one of the few women to study at university. She’s highly educated, intelligent, but utterly naive in the ways of the world. A trait that soon becomes obvious as the story unfolds. She’s strong willed and feisty, which often leads her into difficult situations. She is a woman with one foot in the old world and one foot in the new. It is how she combats the values of the first and adapts to the challenges of the second that drives the story along.

And you say her husband’s a poet?
Gerald, Victoria’s husband and the love of her life, is an aspiring poet. He is a man of integrity and, unlike Victoria, calm and  level headed , but above all a patriot. It is his decision to volunteer and defend his country that begins the process of change in Victoria’s life.

Great title, by the way.
I came across an article in The Nation, a now obsolete periodical, for July 1914,  written by John Galsworthy, the author of the Forsyth Sage, entitled “Studies in Extravagance, the latest thing”. Basically it was a critique of the younger generation, of whom  he wrote-  “they had been born to dance the moon down to ragtime.”  Of course we now know that they in fact fought the bloodiest conflict of the twentieth century and paid a terrible price. The irony of this statement made such an impression on me that I took it for the title of my novel.

Tell us a bit about yourself.
My name is Robert Bartram. I was born in Edmonton, London, in 1951. I spent several of my formative years living in Cornwall where I developed a life long love of nature and the rural way of life.

I began writing in my early teens and much of my short romantic fiction was subsequently published in various national periodicals including”Secrets”, “Red Letter” and “The People’s Friend”. My passion for the history  of the early twentieth century is second only to my love of writing. It was whilst researching for another project that I came across the letters and diaries of some women who had lived through the trauma of the Great War. What I read in them inspired me to write my debut novel “Dance The Moon Down” and the rest, as they say, is history.

I am single and live and write in Hertfordshire.

What’s next?
I’ve begun research on my new novel. It’s set against the background of the American Civil War. No – it’s going to be nothing like Gone With The Wind, but that’s all I’m saying at the moment.