Leighton Buzzard Writers’ LBO Column. This week by Claire Fisher
For my last Write Away article I wrote about Leighton Buzzard Writers’s plans to create a book of stories and poems to commemorate the centenary of the start of the First World War. In it I mentioned that I had heard a wonderful story about the Vimy bomber.
In a nutshell, the story was that the bomber was built at the Morgan Coachworks, to fly off from Pages Park and fight in the war.
The following week (April 2), Neil Cairns’s article ‘Bomber was ready to late for the war’ related the true facts of the Vimy bomber’s history.
The article was a fascinating insight; rich in detail and well researched, but I have to say I preferred the story that the bomber did fight in the war. It somehow seemed more fitting that the Linslade-manufactured bombers had their moment in the war effort. Which is probably why the myth has persisted in Leighton-Linslade culture.
Mr Cairns’s letter (April 2) suggested that my falling for the myth was a bad thing. So are myths, urban or otherwise, really a bad thing?
It is inevitable that historical events, not just from the First World War, gather a layer of myth about them as they are retold. Myth creation may take the form of exaggeration, as in the the classic ‘it was this big’ fisherman’s tale. Myths are created by changes in the retelling, as happens in Chinese Whispers. Or myths are created through just plain bias. Take, for example, the story of Boudicca, the Celtic queen who led a rebellion against the Romans. According to MilitaryHistoryOnline.com the only information concerning the rebellion comes from Tacitus and Cassius Dio.
They were Roman writers and therefore on the opposing side, so the ‘truth’ of their accounts should be treated with caution. In later centuries archaeologists have uncovered evidence to support Tacitus and Dio, but there will always be a degree of circumspection in putting the ‘true’ picture together.
Did she really kill herself with poison? It is up for historical debate, but the tragic myth of the flame-haired British heroine standing up to mighty Rome in her chariot with bladed wheels is recognisable to most people.
Myth is what keeps history alive in popular culture, be it fact or fiction, and so myth should be celebrated.
Coming back to the First World War... after 100 years, the reality of the war is slipping from living memory, but there is a vast reservoir of facts, information and personal stories to tap into to keep the First World War in popular consciousness.
Authors such as Pat Barker (The Ghost Road) and Sebastian Faulks (Birdsong) and even TV’s Blackadder are using this reservoir to create stories that will capture imaginations and keep readers thinking about the war.
As a writer of fiction, this is my role. Leighton Buzzard Writers are a creative bunch – drama is our forte – and with the input of local historians to keep our imaginations grounded in fact, we can create a book that will be both a thought provoking and entertaining version of Leighton Buzzard life in world war. So myths are not such bad things.