Falling for the enemy: a forbidden love affair is at the centre of Pip Williams' new book
Nightlife

Falling for the enemy: a forbidden love affair is at the centre of Pip Williams' new book

B1IntermediateOctober 23, 202628 min
  • Interview
  • Arts & culture

Pip Williams' The German Ward explores the growing feelings between a British nurse and a German doctor in a French World War 1 camp, exploring the complexities created by being in love with your country's enemy.

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Now, that book and Pip's second novel, The Bookbinder of Jericho, was set in Oxford

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World War I, albeit with flashes to Oxford.

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0:00

Well, it is a great thrill to welcome back author Pip Williams to the writers tonight. She's the Adelaide author who wrote the best-selling book The Dictionary of Lost Words in 2021, became a New York Times bestseller. Now, that book and Pip's second novel, The Bookbinder of Jericho, was set in Oxford

0:27

in the UK, but her third novel, The German Ward, takes us to the Western Front during World War I, albeit with flashes to Oxford. Pip was partly inspired by the story of Australian-born impressionist painter Isabel Ray, who spent many years living in the community of Etapley in France, and the sketches she made of soldiers

0:48

jet there during the First World War. But she's also told the love story of a romance between an English nurse and a German doctor. Welcome back to Nightlife.

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