A novel inspired by real-life events with an interwoven mystery has been released by Busselton author Christopher Masterman.
Secrets from Norway, which was published in December, is the fifth book from Masterman.
Masterman, a retired British aircraft engineer, has been in Australia for 12 years and retired to Busselton five years ago.
His most recent release follows his love of historically inspired novels.
“When I write I like to take an environment, something I’m familiar with and then add a story to it,” he said.
“I know quite a lot about World War II because I was in the air force, not at that time but I was born during it – my father was in the air force during the war.
“Secrets from Norway isn’t about World War II, but about what happened to people in involved in it.”
The novel features several story arcs, the first being about a young British member of the Royal Air Force, who is sent to Norway to build an airfield, and his adventures with an young Norwegian girl.
The second arc follows the story of two brothers as they search for information on their father, who was killed immediately following the war.
Masterman said an immense amount of research went in to the novel, and he was assisted by a personal source.
“Everything I’ve written about it is true, all of that actually happened and I’ve weaved in this story,” he said.
“Now the twist in it is, I know it happened because it was my father, who was the young officer in Norway building the airfield, and I have all his diaries so part of the book is actually his diaries describing what he was doing in Norway.
“What it was like to be bombed by the Germans, seeing people die around him, that's all in his diaries and I’ve transcribed them almost word by word so that creates the atmosphere.”
It was when Masterman relocated from Canada to Australia that he was prompted to go through possessions left to him by his father, in what would spark his journey as a historical writer.
“I was never interested in his war stories even though I joined the RAF as well,” he said.
“His part of the war was never a great interest to me but then he died, I was asked to write his obituary and I looked through his log books and saw that he had flown the whole way through the World War.
“He was very successful as a pilot all over world, and I was next to him in England, he was suffering from acute dementia and I decided I had to pay tribute to him – the brave young man who had done all these things.”
The result of this tribute was his first novel, An Average Pilot.
Masterman has gone on to publish the thriller Deathly Confessions, as well as historical novels Travelling to Tincup and The Bridge at Braunau-am-Inn.
Masterman said writing and history was simply a passion, and selling books was a bonus.
“People ask me and I say well my attitude is this, if I were a painter, artists do work and often don’t sell them but they still have created something they’re proud of and other people like to look at and I look at it like that with these books,” he said.
Secrets from Norway is available at Barefoot Books, Busselton or through online book sellers.