Show notes
Inspirational author Amanda Barrett’s latest book, The Warsaw Sisters shines a light on an oft-forgotten corner of World War II Poland, and the true stories of ordinary individuals who fought to preserve freedom and humanity in the darkest of times.
Hi, I’m your host Jenny Wheeler, and today on Binge Reading, Amanda talks about how she excavates the forgotten fragments of history in her books and why she loves the enduring power of story.
The Warsaw Sisters tells of two women fighting against the darkness engulfing their homeland, one by entering a daring network of women sheltering Jewish children, and the other by joining the ranks of Poland’s Secret Army, the Polish version of the Resistance.
As Warsaw buckles under German oppression, they must rely on the courage of ordinary people – so-called ordinary people – to resist the power of the state.
Binge Reading Thriller Giveaway
Free Books – THRILLERS R US – Mystery and Thriller Lucky Dip
Our Giveaway this week is Thrillers R Us an opportunity to get free books from a wide -ranging selection of mysteries and thrillers from many authors, including my own book, Sadie’s Vow, a San Francisco Mystery set in the mid- 19th century.
You’ll find the links for downloads for these free books in the show notes for this episode on the website, www.thejoysofbinge reading.com.
Buy me a coffee and defray production costs
And before we get to Amanda, just a reminder you can help to defray the cost of production of this episode by buying me a cup of coffee on Buymeacoffee.com/jennywheelx.
And if you enjoy the show, don’t forget, leave us the reviews so others will find us too. I make this plea every time I podcast. Word of mouth is still the best way for others to discover the show and great books they would love to read.
Events and books mentioned in this episode
The Warsaw Sisters Playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWyLFWfMD6nXlZrylX1eMw-SbKHz7t05P
Irena Sendler – Polish humanitarian https://irenasendler.org/
Warsaw Uprising: https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-warsaw-polish-uprising
Polish Resistance: https://polandatwartours.com/unsung-heroes-the-brave-men-and-women-of-the-polish-resistance-during-ww2/
Dietrich Bonhoffeur’s fiancée, Maria Von Wedemeyer/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_von_Wedemeyer_Weller
Treblinka: – the concentration camp where many Warsaw Jews died.
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/treblinka
Sophie Scholl: ( From The White Rose Resists,) https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-57008360
Amanda’s books mentioned in this show:
Within These Walls of Sorrow: https://amandabarratt.net/within-these-walls-of-sorrow/
The White Rose Resists; https://amandabarratt.net/the-white-rose-resists-a-novel-of-the-german-students-who-defied-hitler/
My Dearest Dietrich: https://amandabarratt.net/my-dearest-dietrich-a-novel-of-dietrich-bonhoeffers-lost-love/
Books Amanda is reading:
Kristen Hannah, The Women, https://kristinhannah.com/books/the-women/
Jennifer L. Wright, The Girl From The Papers, (A Bonnie and Clyde story – to be released in August.)
https://jennwrightwrites.com/the-girl-from-the-papers
Where to find Amanda Barratt on line
Website: https://amandabarratt.net/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amandabarrattauthor/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AmandaBarrattAuthor/
Introducing inspirational author Amanda Barratt
Amanda Barratt – inspirational historical fiction
Jenny Wheeler: But now here’s Amanda. Hello there, Amanda, and welcome to the show. It’s great to have you with us.
Amanda Barratt: Thank you so much. It is such a joy to be here.
Jenny Wheeler: We’re talking about The Warsaw Sisters today. You’ve got a real track record with inspirational historical fiction. The Warsaw Sisters is set in Warsaw during the Second World War, as the ghetto is being set up, that notorious ghetto, a very dark time in Polish history.
What attracted you to this story?
Amanda Barratt: So, writing this novel came out of my previous novel, the research from my previous novel, Within These Walls Of Sorrow, which was set in the ghetto in Kraków, Poland.
And while there I researching that novel, I uncovered all of these incredible stories of women in the Resistance. And there were so many that I couldn’t possibly include them in that book.
A lot of them dealt with Warsaw and as I researched them, as I began to explore them as I explored the daring network of women who rescued Jewish children from the Warsaw ghetto, and the heroic fighters, women who were fighters in the Warsaw uprising… the more I began to want to bring their stories,
I always return to the theme of women’s experiences in war.
That’s something many of my novels explore, and that’s something I’m very passionate about exploring. Their courage, their sacrifice, their stories have often been underrepresented, and I think it’s so important to be illuminating their stories and bringing them out of their shadows where they deserve to be.
Shining a light in dark places
Jenny Wheeler: Now you do describe it as inspirational fiction and although it is a dark story, you do find strong redemptive elements in it. Is that an important aspect for you?
Amanda Barratt: Absolutely. It’s always important to me because even in the midst of the darkness. that’s often when those spark what I call the sparks of light in the night of war, when those shine the brightest.
And as I researched and as I uncovered stories of ordinary people faced with these unfathomable, unthinkable, circumstances and yet they chose not to turn away from the evil that was unfolding.
They chose to take action. And to me, those stories are extraordinarily compelling and they are stories of people who were a light in the midst of these very dark times.
Jenny Wheeler: Do you find it difficult to spend so much time amongst these grim events? I wondered how you kept your own spirits up as you were writing.
Amanda Barratt: It is very dark. The research is very dark. Spending often years immersed in this subject matter, pouring over research books, pouring over archives… It can be very emotionally draining.
But I’m so passionate about sharing these sorts of stories and exploring and illuminating these heroes that I think more people need to know about.
So, for me, in those moments, when it gets that dark, I always just return to where my passion is.
For Amanda, research is favourite part
Jenny Wheeler: You have got a lot of praise for your historical research. These books are very close to what factually happened, and I wondered how you managed to get that research. How did you put it all together?
Amanda Barratt: Research for me is, it’s my favorite part of the whole process. It’s really being able to delve into the history.
For this book, I relied on more than a hundred nonfiction titles, and I always seek out, not just historical treatises, but the memoirs, the firsthand accounts, those deeply personal experiences of individuals and within those are often where I find the most surprising, the most astonishing things.
Those often become what makes it into my novel. I was also really fortunate to be able to access a lot of transcribed interviews with veterans of the Home Army, those who fought in the Warsaw Uprising, the women who were part of the Polish Resistance.
Those were absolutely invaluable. Being able to hear in their own words what they experienced and how it affected them.
And that was also the same in depicting the Warsaw Ghetto. I listened to countless interviews with Jewish survivors and also non-Jews who worked in the Resistance movement to shelter them.
And those were again, a gold mine of information.
One of my favorite experiences of this entire process was though I wrote the novel in the midst of the Pandemic, so I wasn’t able to travel over to Poland as I would’ve loved to, but I was able to go to a museum a couple of hours from where I lived.
It housed a collection of artifacts and documents related to the Warsaw Uprising and the Polish Resistance, including holding a cap worn by a soldier who fought in the Uprising, looking at copies of the newspaper that these young courier girls used to carry throughout the city to distribute these words of freedom and truth.
It brought to me in such a tangible way, reminding me that these were real people with these real tangible objects, and it made it so much more personal.
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The heroic exploits of ‘ordinary’ women
Jenny Wheeler: Did you say you’d consulted 100 nonfiction books?
Amanda Barratt: Yes, I did. I always want to make sure in case my editor ever asks me, for a source when she’s reading the manuscript. I always keep a list of every book I read, and so I counted what I read for The Warsaw Sisters. And yes, it was over a hundred titles.
Jenny Wheeler: My gosh, that’s amazing. This story involves two sisters, Helena and Antonina.
They have different ways of dealing with the events that are facing them, and. that difference the story creates some distance and conflict between them.
As it progresses, can you outline for us a little bit of what those dilemmas were without giving away too much of the story?
Amanda Barratt: Yes. They each go on separate journeys and journeys that take them apart, but throughout the course of the novel, the enduring bond of sisterhood is something that the novel really explores and something I really love delving into.
So, my character of Antonina, she is works with a network organized and operated primarily by women, the most famous of whom is Irena Sendler.
And many people have heard of her and she is part of that network which rescued Jewish children from the Warsaw Ghetto and sheltered them on the outside of the city.
Antonina ends up using her flat as a hiding place for these Jewish children in their first hours and days out of the ghetto as they’re adjusting to the shock and the trauma of all of that.
Irena’s story is so inspiring, so I really love being able to draw in and include her as a cameo character in the novel.
And then also through my own character of Antonina, celebrate and honor the other women who worked so courageously and risked so much to shelter these children.
And then my other character, Helena, she is, as I’ve said, inspired by the women who worked in the Polish resistance movement.
Illuminating Warsaw at a horrific period
Most of these women who were these key figures in this organization were in their late teens, in their early twenties.
And before the actual uprising broke out in Warsaw, they served as couriers and they would carry messages all across the city and deposits them in these secret letter boxes and be organizing these meetings between various cells.
It was extraordinarily dangerous work, ‘because often they were carrying the materials on their person. And if they were stopped, as was so often happened in Warsaw, by a German policeman, and discovered with this, it would be an immediate arrest and imprisonment.
And then finally, when the. Warsaw Uprising breaks out these women become fighters on the front lines.
They served as couriers and nurses and many, some of them even combatants, fighting with arms and hand.
These are young women who are suffering and sacrificing as soldiers, and their stories are extraordinary. They’re remarkable, and that they did this… And that they survived this…
I really love just being able to bring them to light, to illuminate their stories and to illuminate the story of the Warsaw Uprising through their stories, which is something I think a lot of people may, especially in North America, where I live, may not have heard of.
Smuggling in food, smuggling out children
Jenny Wheeler: Now you mentioned that social worker, Irena, she is a real true life character, isn’t she?
Amanda Barratt: Yes. Her name is Irena Sendler and she was one of the leaders in what became a very vast network of people who were helping the Jewish inhabitants of the Warsaw Ghetto.
Irena, from the very beginning of the ghetto almost, she was entering the ghetto. And at first, she and her few female colleagues who were allowed to enter the ghetto.
They were smuggling in food. They were smuggling in medicine. They were smuggling in typhus vaccines, mostly at first, just for their acquaintances whom they known before the war, whom they were desperate to help.
And it grew. And finally, when, as the situation in the ghetto grew more dire, and then as the deportations of the Treblinka extermination camp began, where train loads of Jewish men, women, and children were daily being sent out of the ghetto to be murdered.
Then Irena and her colleagues began to embark on an even more dangerous mission, smuggling out these children and knowing that if they couldn’t save, the hundreds of thousands of those who were in the ghetto, they could do what they could for the most vulnerable.
And together this group of women saved it’s estimated as many as 2,500 Jewish children.
The Warsaw playlist – a lot of Chopin
Jenny Wheeler: Yes, fantastic. Two of your characters are gifted musicians,
The link between them, the thing that absolutely draws them together, is their shared passion and talent for music. And I noticed that you do have a playlist for this book on YouTube. Tell us a bit about that playlist.
Amanda Barratt: I loved creating the playlist. I listen to so much music as I write and as I’m thinking about the story, and it provides such inspiration for me.
I wanted to be able to make that accessible to readers. It includes lots of Chopin, which is my character Antonina’s favorite piece.
And she and her boyfriend, who is a Jewish and a musician, really share a special bond with Chopin. What I also loved was including was songs from the Warsaw Uprising. During the fighting and in the days before, there were a lot of musicians who were composing these patriotic songs.
And they became famous and I loved listening to them. They were inspiring as I brought that journey of my characters together. The playlist includes a lot of that and also includes some music soundtracks from some films that were inspiring. It helped to create the atmosphere of the novel.
Jenny Wheeler: Look, you did mention the book before this one. Within These Walls Of Sorrow, also set in Warsaw, as you’ve mentioned. Is there something about Poland that particularly draws you? You don’t have family links or anything like that?
Amanda Barratt: Yes, I’m of Polish heritage, so it’s very special to me to be able to explore these stories because, although I don’t believe that my immediate relatives were there during the war, they came and were living in America at the time, it’s definitely possible that there were extended family over there.
To think about what they must have endured and the stories of ordinary people…
The Polish narrative and what Poland endured and also the story of the Polish resistance is something that I did not know a lot about.
I certainly didn’t learn a lot about it in school, and so to be able to explore that story, explore both what Poland suffered and both the incredible courage of the Polish people.
I’m really passionate about being able to illuminate and explore that.
Putting women on the billboards
Jenny Wheeler: It is interesting how a number of these important stories of these kinds of events have featured men, but I can’t think of any that, like an international movie, that has really highlighted women’s efforts.
Amanda Barratt: Yes, I completely agree. There was a Hallmark Hall of Fame film about Irena Sendler, but I would really love to see her story on the big screen in rather a Schindler’s List budget sort of way.
Because the story of her is just so remarkable. And I think that yes, I’d love to see more women’s stories illuminated in that way.
Jenny Wheeler: Your books have won important awards Within These Walls Of Sorrow won two Christie awards for Book of the Year and Best Historical Fiction.
And the story before that one, The White Rose Resists also won a Christie Award for historical fiction. Tell us a bit about the Christies for people who might not understand the significance.
Amanda Barratt: So, the Christie Awards, which I was just completely stunned, still stunned, and so honored by those, is a very large award in the inspirational Christian fiction community.
They are held once a year at a gala. And it was really special.
I have many authors whom I admire who have been honored with the Christie in the years past. So to share that was really meaningful.
Jenny Wheeler: Fantastic. The White Rose Resists was another World War II story. You obviously love this World War II period, and that one as well was based on a true story about students who resisted Hitler.
I had no idea there were students who resisted Hitler, so tell us a little about that one.
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The students who challenged Hitler
Amanda Barratt: Yes. So that novel is inspired by the true story of a young woman named Sophie Scholl who was a college student in Munich, and together with her brother Hans, they formed a group which was called The White Rose.
And this group wrote, printed and distributed leaflets calling on the German people to rise up against Hitler, telling the truth about German crime.
This was very daring material that they were publishing in these leaflets, and they distributed them all across Munich and even beyond in cities throughout Germany.
Exploring that story of these college students who were looking at what was unfolding in their country, and they knew, unlike many of their peers, they could not remain silently complicit.
They took action and eventually this action led to their being arrested. And eventually many of the members of the group were unfortunately executed as a result of their activities.
But I really love being able to blend Sophie’s story with a couple fictional characters and as well, who become part of the group.
And again, it’s a story of young people and of women. I loved really being able to highlight Sophie’s role in this resistance group?
Jenny Wheeler: Have said you love writing about the forgotten heroes of history. One of your stories has featured somebody who’s far more famous, but an aspect of his life that I don’t think many people are really aware of, and that is the story of the internationally acclaimed theologian and Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and a love story that took place in the later years of his life.
Tell us a bit about that book.
Dietrich Bonhoffeur’s dearest love
Amanda Barratt: I had been familiar with this with the story of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. I had read some things about him, but I had no idea he was engaged. And then I came across a book called Love Letters from Cell 92. And in that volume is the correspondence between Dietrich and his fiancée, Maria von Wedemeyer.
And as I read that, I was absolutely stunned and absolutely very moved by this extraordinary young woman and the role she played in Dietrich’s life. And she really has very much been in the shadows,
In the first major biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer she’s mentioned on only like four pages, which is terrible because she was such an important, pivotal figure in his life.
Through my novel, My Dearest Dietrich, I was able to really delve into her life in the role she played in Bonhoeffer’s life, and also bringing in a more human side to Dietrich. Bonhoeffer, a side of not only this great theologian, this great member of the Resistance, but this man in love, this very human man experiencing these very, human emotions was very moving to me and was very special.
And I enjoyed hearing from readers who have been touched by exploring this side of his life.
Jenny Wheeler: What drew you to fiction? Was there a Eureka moment when you thought, I’ve just got to write about World War ii, or how did it all happen?
Amanda Barratt: My fascination with World War II and my passion for the human stories of the Second World War and the human stories of the Holocaust started very young.
I was around, seven, eight years old and I discovered a copy of The Diary of Anne Frank in my local library. And I was immediately drawn into her story, her very personal story, this very personal aspect of history, this young woman’s thoughts as she’s writing about what she’s going through.
It was her story brought me to the Second World War and it sparked a lifelong fascination for these stories, which continued.
And though my very first published works weren’t World War II, when I came across the story of Bonhoeffer and his fiancée… That was really a moment when all of that research that I had spent so much time just doing and reading memoirs and books, it really culminated in being able to use that and build upon that in this, in bringing Dietrich’s story.
Amanda Barratt has always loved history
Jenny Wheeler: Give us bit of an idea of how your life developed pre your writing career, and then after. How did that junction take place?
Amanda Barratt: My very first published work was a novella in a historical romance anthology called Most Eligible Bachelor Collection.
I was able to submit for that and my road to publication before that took many years. It was a road paved with a lot of rejections, a lot of doubt, a lot of my agents sending my books to publishers and receiving rejections, and it was a very difficult journey.
It was very hard, going through all of this. But I always return to my love for story, my love for bringing history to life through a narrative format, whether that was what I was writing back then, which was more the historical romance, or now I write historical fiction. But my love for story has really remained unchanged.
Jenny Wheeler: It always has been historical?
Amanda Barratt: Yes, it always has been. When I was very young reading my first books, the ones that captioned my heart were always historical. There was Anne Of Green Gables, Little Women. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. History has always just been such a huge part of my life.
It was my favorite subject in school, and nothing really has changed.
Jenny Wheeler: Oh, that’s great. Did you do any real work before you began writing? Or have you been more or less a writer your whole life?
Amanda Barratt: I was a librarian, so I worked at a library and again, being surrounded by books all day was absolutely incredible and I was often my best customer, pouring over the new releases and saying, oh, this one looks good and this one looks good. And yes, that led to then I began my writing career.
An element of faith important in every story
Jenny Wheeler: Obviously a great place for research as well, being in a library.
Amanda Barratt: Yes, absolutely. It really was. Yes.
Jenny Wheeler: What was your goal when you first started writing, and have you achieved it yet?
Amanda Barratt: I feel that my goal has always been to explore the human sides of history and illuminate little known or forgotten stories. I think that with each of my novels, I’m really privileged to be able to do that, to explore a new angle of what may be a familiar historical narrative.Returning to the Second World War, those stories have often been the story of the men’s war, the story of the battles fought, the things that we read about in history books,
But there were so many forgotten stories and often women’s stories are the ones that are forgotten. And so that’s really where I’ve turned to.
That really is where my passion is bringing those stories to life.
Jenny Wheeler: You are published now by an inspirational publisher, a Christian publisher. Do you find it a challenge to balance your interest in faith with just keeping the story going? How do you find that balance?
Amanda Barratt: For me that’s very important to me to include an element of faith in every novel.
And I think that these stories, these very dark stories are often the perfect place to do that. How do human beings wrestle with difficult situations, with tragic situations and where is God in all of that?
It’s very personal to me and with every novel I write God, teaches me throughout that process and speaks something new to me.
I’m really be privileged to be able to explore that and also to explore it in a historically authentic way.
Reading about people in the past who were sustained by their deep faith in God and how that got them through these really unfathomable circumstances.
Advice for young writers from a pro
Jenny Wheeler: You’ve mentioned that it was a difficult journey to getting published. If there’s one thing that you would say was the quote secret of your success as an author in your creative career, what would it be?
Amanda Barratt: It would be perseverance. I would think it would be staying the course. So many times. along the road I considered; should I continue to do this? Should I have my agent send out proposals and receive rejections? And for me it was really just persevering in the midst of that, knowing that these stories were on my heart.
I wanted to keep writing. I felt I’ve always loved writing and wanted to pursue that. And so just to not give up, and that’s really the advice I always give to aspiring authors.
If story is something that you’re passionate about, that you believe that is, is a heart calling for you, don’t give up.
Keep going. Continue.
Jenny Wheeler: Fantastic. We always like to ask our guests about their own reading taste. The podcast is called The Joys of Binge Reading. Are you a binge reader at all and what books, fiction books, are you reading at the moment that you might like to recommend for others?
Amanda Barratt: I love reading. Reading is one of my very favorite things. There’s nothing but that I love more than sitting down with a book and a cup of tea at the end of a long day.
I love historical fiction and there are so many fantastic, incredible historical fiction novels being released right now.
I have a copy that I just got of Kristin Hannah’s new novel, The Women about the courageous nurses in the Vietnam War, and I’m very excited about reading that. Kristen is an author I admire. I adore her books, the way that she brings history to life and women’s stories to life.
I’m really excited to read that.
And then I’m also just finishing up a novel called The Girl From the Papers by Jennifer Alwright.
And that is a story inspired by the notorious couple, Bonnie and Clyde. Jennifer took and wrote of a couple rather inspired by that story, pulling in some of their true events with an element of fiction and it’s excellent.
It’s mesmerizing writing and I wish I could sit and read it all day.
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Looking back, what would Amanda change?
Jenny Wheeler: I must say that it seems to me there’s a wave of mainly female writers writing about these forgotten women of history at the moment, isn’t there? There’s just a feast of material out there.
Amanda Barratt: Yes, it’s wonderful. I love that. It feels like it’s that moment for these stories that haven’t maybe been told before to, or maybe not been told through fiction.
I love the way that fiction can bring history to a new audience. People who might not pick up a biography or something, but they can still, through a novel, they can learn and they can really be inspired by these remarkable stories.
And so I’m loving it.
Jenny Wheeler: Looking back down the tunnel of time, if there’s one thing you’d change about your writing career, what would it be?
Amanda Barratt: Goodness. I think I’m really grateful for the journey that I’ve been on. I’m not sure that there’s anything I would’ve changed about it. I think I would tell myself to just to enjoy the journey.
To enjoy the process, to not rush, try to rush it and, leap forward before you’re ready.
But just to savor every moment and every part of the process,
I feel that as we write and as we continue to write for years and years, it makes us deeper people. It stretches us as human beings. I‘ve really have loved that process of the way writing has changed me as a person.
What’s next for Amanda Barratt author?
Jenny Wheeler: Perhaps just not questioning yourself like you might have done.
Amanda Barratt: Yes. That’s that. Yes, I would definitely, yes, I would say that’s true.
Jenny Wheeler: What’s next for Amanda as author? What have you got on your desk that you’re working on in the next 12 months?
Amanda Barratt: I’m currently researching another novel set in Poland during the Second World War. I
It’s another little-known story, something that I stumbled upon while researching The Warsaw Sisters, and I’m very excited.
I don’t have a title or anything like that, but if readers, follow me on my newsletter or on my other social media accounts, as soon as I have exciting news to share, they will be the first to know.
And I’m very excited about continuing to delve into this story and explore it as I begin the process of the writing It.
Jenny Wheeler: Oh, that’s wonderful when we likely to see that one?
Amanda Barratt: Probably in the next couple of years. The research is usually around a year and the writing round a year. So yes, probably within the next two or three years.
Jenny Wheeler: You mentioned your readers interacting with your newsletter. I imagine that you do like to interact with your readers. Where can they find you online?
Amanda Barratt: I love interacting in readers is one of the greatest joys of this journey. Just being able to connect and hear how their stories have touched and. their hearts and to form friendships. That’s been wonderful. I hang out mostly on Instagram. I love the Instagram community and I’m also on Facebook.
And then I always do invite readers to sign up for my [email protected], where I only send out newsletters a few times a year. I don’t overwhelm anyone’s inboxes, but it’s the perfect place for them to find out all the exciting news cover reveals, sneak peeks, and all of that.
The reception in Poland…
Jenny Wheeler: Are you at all literate in the Polish language? I just noticed that on your playlist, there’s a tremendous number of comments in Polish, and it’s obvious that a lot of your readers appreciate these Polish stories and are actually either Polish speakers or living in Poland.
Amanda Barratt: Yes, I’ve been fortunate to connect with a lot of readers who have read the novel in Poland, which is extremely special to me when I receive emails from someone who said that my mother fought in the Warsaw uprising and lived in Warsaw during the events of your novel.
That’s really special to be able to be able to know that I’m honoring the, their history and their experiences. I’ve loved the friendships I’ve made there, the connections that have come from that and from people in Poland.
Jenny Wheeler: Have the books been published in Polish?
Amanda Barratt: That’s something that’s currently I’m hoping we’ll will come to pass in the next year or so, as we’ve definitely had a lot of interest from readers over there. But readers have been able to pick up the novel in English, which has been wonderful.
Jenny Wheeler: That’s great and I hope sometime that international movie is coming too.
Amanda Barratt: Oh, that would be incredible. I keep having readers say that I would love to see The Warsaw Sisters on the big screen. That would be wonderful.
Jenny Wheeler: I think it’ll make a great movie. Look, thanks so much, Amanda. It’s been wonderful to talk.
Thank you for your time today, and we’ll include links for everything that we’ve discussed in the show notes so that if people want to follow up on some of this, there’ll be links to things like the Dietrich Bonhoeffer story and other things that we’ve been talking about.
Amanda Barratt: Thank you. This has been such a pleasure. It’s been so wonderful to spend time here with you today.
Jenny Wheeler: Amanda, thanks a lot. Bye now.
If you enjoyed Amanda you might also enjoy…
Patti Callahan’s two wonderful biographical fiction stories abased around about popular theologian C. S. Lewis and his love affair with Joy Davidson and his magical Narnia series: Becoming Mrs. Lewis and Once Upon a Wardrobe.
The first, Becoming Mrs Lewis, tells the story of the precious years of love and marriage the two authors shared before they were separated by Joy’s early death.
The second, Once Upon a Wardrobe, delves into the inspiration behind the magical Narnia children’s series. I couldn’t think of a more uplifting story to feature on our 200th episode or a better Christmas book to talk about. If you’re anything like me, you will find that Once Upon a Wardrobe makes you laugh and cry, sometimes even at the same time.
Next Time On Binge Reading
Bringing the New Testament alive at Easter
We’re all set for Easter, with an Easter story from a different angle, bringing alive New Testament times.
New York Times best-selling author Angela Hunt has a compelling new book out.
She’s our guests talking about The Sisters Of Corinth. Once again, two sisters, the daughters of a high-ranking Corinthian magistrate. One is a devotee of the goddess Aphrodite, the other a follower of the newly resurrected Christ.
They’re destined to have different ambitions and colliding life paths. That’s next time on The Joys Of Binge Reading.
Remember we are fortnightly this year, so that’ll be in two weeks on March the 26th.
And just a final reminder before we go. Leave us a review if you like the show. so others will find us too. Word of mouth is still the best way to discover a podcast. And to find great books, they will love to read. That’s it for today.
See you next time and happy reading.