From turning claw-footed coffee tables into imaginary flying machines during her childhood to winning The People's Book Prize for her debut novel The Grotto's Secret, Paula's passion for storytelling has always been central to her life.
Beyond her successful writing career—which includes her popular Torcal Trilogy—Paula and her husband, Ken, have been featured widely across major media outlets, including Sky News, the BBC, The Guardian, and the BBC show Escape to the Continent, which highlighted their move to Spain.
Today, Paula joins us to discuss her latest novel, Bridge of Lies, exploring its themes of courage and resilience amid wartime danger.
Norm: Historical fiction often starts with a single spark or image. Was there a specific moment, location, or piece of history that inspired Bridge of Lies, and why did you choose 1942 Bordeaux and the Free Zone as the backdrop for this story?
Paula: Thanks for having me, Norm! The spark for Bridge of Lies came during one of our many visits to France. We stopped for a coffee and walked across a bridge over the Garonne River. I love the French rivers and leaned right over the bridge to see underneath and that's when the character of Garonne seemed to look right up at me – even though there was no one under the bridge.
I was left wondering how someone would escape up this huge river during the war. Garonne "told me" he was a boat builder and he knew the river like a river rat. My research started there, with boat builders. On our next visit, we recced the river for settings and by then Garonne's story was alive in my mind. The Free Zone was about to be occupied at this moment in the war, so it worked perfectly with what Garonne, Pierre and Noelle were doing at time of the war.
Norm: The book opens right in the middle of a tense river mission where a body floats past in the dark. Why was that scene chosen to introduce readers to the story, and how does it set the emotional tone for the suspense and danger that unfold?
Paula: That scene happens later in the book after Garonne has made the decision to save Noelle. I wanted to show the peace and serenity that Garonne has when he's on the river, but the shocking intrusion of the floating body immediately brings him back to the reality of his perilous mission. I imagined all the scenes like a Netflix series, which often start with a jump scene from later in the episode, have a minute of that scene and then leap to the start of the story. I decided to do the same.
Norm: Antoine, whom everyone calls 'Garonne,' is a grieving father who just wants to be left alone with his boats, but he gets pulled into danger anyway. What inspired you to tell this story through the eyes of an ordinary man rather than a traditional spy, and how did you develop his spiritual connection to the La Garonne River to reflect his inner resilience?
Paula: Rural France is one of the most beautiful places we have ever visited, and the local people are warm and friendly. During our recce to find settings for the story, I wondered how the rural folk survived the French Occupation. I really wanted to tell their story rather than from a city person's point of view. Also, the possibilities of escape in the rural countryside gave me lots more ideas for plotlines and twists and turns.
I'm a water baby myself and I'm most at peace in the water or beside the water, so Garonne's wonderful connection to the river came easy to me. The depth of his connection to the river was further established when we spent weeks on the river looking for settings. Being right there beside the water in the morning, at noon and in the evening, seeing it's swirling tides and slack moods really brought it home to me that a river is much like life. We ebb and flow constantly with our life's events, much like a river does with its tides. That affinity with the river was always there while writing Garonne and Noelle's story.
Norm: The villain, Dietrich Haas, is genuinely terrifying because he feels so unpredictable and ruthless. How do you approach writing a Nazi antagonist without turning him into a cartoon villain, especially when showing darker, almost pathetic sides of him during his interactions with his driver Manfred and his own family?
Paula: I watch a lot of films and TV shows in this genre, and I've seen cartoon antagonists and really scary villains. To write Haas, I had to embed myself into his character and feel his evil when he is doing shocking things to innocent people.
And then showing he was a real person who loved his little girl beyond all else reminds us that real-life Nazis were the same. They could go from loving a little girl to torturing a person without batting an eyelid or thinking they were doing wrong. They really believed in their Fatherland and all the doctrine that went with their regime. It was a challenge to write someone like Haas, but I kept thinking of how Garonne and Noelle would be in constant danger with someone hunting them, which brought it all to life.
Norm: Pierre Ferrand is the classic "trouble finds me" uncle who brings energy and danger wherever he goes. Was he as much fun to write as he is to read, and how did you nail that authentic, bickering, lifelong friendship dynamic between him and Garonne?
Paula: Oh, Pierre is adorable and always will be to me. I wanted to show two men who loved each other since boyhood, but who had grown up so vastly different. Their friendship was a special part of writing their story. Garonne refuses to go and Pierre refuses to stay or to leave Garonne behind. They're both strong willed, so who wins? Their bickering scenes were not only the fun part but also the part that warmed my heart so much for what happens to them along their journey. To really get their dynamic right, I drew on men I know who have a special bond. I also kept seeing Garonne and Pierre and their story in my head like a movie, which really helped to bring them both to life. All the way through, we feel their tight bond in all the decisions they make.
Norm: Major plot points involve a hidden map on a silk scarf detailing hidden Jewish treasures and a mystery surrounding a Gustav Klimt-style painting. How much of this was based on real historical events regarding stolen art in WWII, and what kind of research went into how the Resistance and Nazi officers tracked down these valuables?
Paula: There was so much art and treasure stolen during the war, so I wanted to showcase that aspect of the French Occupation. I read lots of historical records and watched lots of documentaries as research and I still do. Each time I learn new things about this era, they still shock me. It brings home the atrocities of the war and how humanity cannot allow those horrors to ever reoccur.
Connecting the scarf and the painting with the twisted tale took a lot of thought and plotting out the details of who does what and how and when, until it all clicked into place. It also took a lot of rewriting!
Norm: There are some deeply painful scenes in the book, like the public terror tactics Haas uses in the town square. How do you balance showing the brutal reality of the Occupation without overwhelming the reader, and how do you keep hope alive during those dark moments?
Paula: That scene was shocking to write but each terrible thing Haas did in the town square kept coming to me as elements that had to be shown. I really wanted readers to feel how much he believed in his mission and how he was so cold-hearted to the local people to give him depth as a villain.
During one edit, I almost pulled that scene, and my editors told me I couldn't. It was vital to have readers bite their nails knowing what Haas was capable of doing when he eventually caught Noelle and Garonne.
Keeping hope alive can only come from deep within, as it does for real people. Fictional people are no different. Noelle clings to hope of finding her parents, which is helped along with her new friendships along the way. Garonne clings to hope of finding Leon with each new resistance person he meets. Pierre clings to hope and the belief that France will win the war through all his daring escapades. Like us real humans, they all must find that hope somewhere deep inside themselves because it was the only way to face each new morning.
Norm: Late in the book, Garonne's old flame, Helaine, reappears and brings up a lot of complicated romantic history and personal regrets. Why was it important to bring romantic history into a wartime thriller, and do you think war forces people to confront past regrets faster than they normally would?
Paula: Garonne had spent so much time alone and would do so after the story ends, so I wanted to give him a little warmth and comfort in being loved. Rekindling an old flame was much more heartfelt than setting up a new romance. It also gave me the twists and turns that came with Helaine and her traitor husband. It was lovely to weave their past into their present story and ensure there were lots of old wounds to complicate their journey.
Norm: Garonne goes through a massive transformation—from an isolated man hiding from the war to someone who destroys his own boatyard to save others. What does his arc say about everyday courage, and is there a specific point where you feel he officially decides to stop running and fight back?
Paula: Garonne's transformation was on my mind for years! From the moment he came to me under that Garonne bridge, he was always "telling me" to leave him alone in peace with his boats, but he had to have someone to push him into action. Setting up his friendship with Pierre helped to do that and also having a one-eyed girl suddenly in his home wearing his son's clothes nudges him along. And then there's the brutality of Haas that really gets him fired up.
Everyone has courage and many people feel they don't have any. To find that courage buried deep down, I had to scrape Garonne's heart open and sand down his rhino exterior, as he'd do on his precious boats.
His transformation starts with his neighbours being mistreated by Haas and that just cracks his nut a little. Him seeing other horrors in his local town happening to local people that he cares about also starts bringing up the courage from deep down inside him. When Haas commandeers his home, Garonne decides enough is enough. He believes helping Pierre to get Noelle to safety is also his way of finding his missing son, Leon. These events all weave together to start what becomes his transformation.
Norm: Bridge of Lies is the first entry in your French Occupation Series, followed by Mask of Secrets and Dolls of Deceit. Did you always plan this as a series, and can readers expect to follow Garonne, Noelle, or Leon into the next books?
Paula: Sadly, no. Each book is a standalone and only called my French Occupation Series because they're all set in Occupied France. So, readers won't join Garonne and Noelle again, but there are other characters in similar dire distress to follow. Garonne came to me first, and the others came to me in different ways. Mask of Secrets came to me when I watched a Jessica Chastain film and admired her red hair. That's when my character, who lives a life behind a mask of secrets, started forming in my imagination. Dolls of Deceit was similar. I was looking through the window of a little French shop and a doll had beautiful blue eyes. And boom, there was my character, telling me all about how she had grown up with her dollmaker father and how she loved their eyes the most.
Norm: Where can our readers find out more about you and Bridge of Lies?
Paula: The easiest way to connect with me and my book is to check out my LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/paulawynne - I write as Paula Sheridan, which is my real name, but I have written previous historical fiction novels as Paula Wynne, my pen name. I also run Book Luver and I Turn Pages for readers to find new authors and their books.
Norm: If a reader closes Bridge of Lies and takes away just one main message about human nature during hard times, what do you hope that is, and what is the best piece of feedback you've received from early readers so far?
Paula: Essentially, we're all human and we all love and hate in different ways, but we all have courage in varying measures. When faced with drastic situations we rise to become heroes of our own journeys. I've written a true story of extraordinary courage, set in colonial Southern Africa, which is about my 'African' grandfather and his life story.
Finding Penrose also shows how ordinary people are really just extraordinary when faced with life's hardships. So far, I've received some heart-warming feedback, such as:
"This book is awesome. I stayed up all night to finish it!" — Hope Gerhardstein
"Your writing style is wonderful, with fully engaging scenes... excellent world building." — Anne Connor, I Turn Pages reader
"Wow, Paula, a gripping beginning to the story. I can see it as a movie unfolding with each scene." — Jan Sikes, I Turn Pages author