RESTLESS by William Boyd

Do you have a view about what happens to Ruth at the end of the book? I was rather hoping she was going to end up with the academic, Thomas or whatever he was called.

Hi, is it true that you make wine? Are you very hands on? And is the wine you produce any good?!

The spy story is a genre but restless doesn't really feel like a genre novel. Do you like using genre as a basis for writing and how much of a struggle is it to escape the conventions and do something different?

Were you a spy? How do you know so much about that world?

Hello William

I really loved Restless and would love to read more of your work. Where would you recommend I start, given that Restless was definitely my type of thing? Are your other books similar?

For a literary novelist, you are very good at plot. I do like a book with plot!

Do you have it all worked out before you start writing - and if so, how do you then stop the writing process from feeling formulaic?

Hi William,

I am a big fan of your books. What is the secret of longevity for a novelist? Does it get easier or harder?

What were the biggest challenges you faced in adapting the book? I found Romer's sending Eva to La Cruces rather perplexing without all the backstory of Russia's changing fortunes in the war.

And what did you make of the direction? I couldn't understand what that weird country house was where Ruth went to interview Romer. In the book she goes to his club, I think, which makes far more sense.

Both your central characters seem psychologically denuded. Eva doesn't really react when Romer pimps her, although she is in love with him, she says.

Well, OK, it's wartime and there's a bigger picture - but also Ruth hardly reacts when she finds out her mother is a completely different person from the one she thought. A modern character might have been expected to have a crisis about her own identity.

I wondered why, as someone who has actually put Freud in a novel in the past, you decided to do without the expected psychological responses in Restless? Were you making a particular point?

I think - especially if flopsybunny's suggestion is right - that your books are very well-researched. So were there really loose canons like Romer operating more or less as freelances under SIS at that time? It seems extraordinary!

I loved the fact that the modern part of the book was set in Oxford in the summer of 1976, because I was in Oxford that summer. I was young and I think assumed that all summers were like that.

I wondered why both the central characters are so emotionally detached? Were you saying something about the qualities needed for spying (except Ruth wasn't really a spy, of course)?

I think the Prenslo incident in the book is based on the real-life Venlo incident on the Dutch-German border?

What I wanted to ask is why the agent gave Eva the wrong code word? Surely if it was all a set-up he would have given her the one she was expecting? I know this is a point of detail but it is really bothering me!

And why does her explanation have such a positive impact on the top brass? The Brits were duped and it's hard to see why the fact the agent said Amsterdam rather than Paris (or possibly the other way round) would have improved the situation.

Thanks - I really enjoyed the book.

Found it a gripping story which I thoroughly enjoyed especially the way the lives of the two generations came together for the climax. Any reason you decided on a mother and daughter as the main characters and had you given any thought to making the two characters males before plumping for females? Hope you answer Heather84's question as I had the same thought.
Is there any basis in fact of the work Eva and her colleagues did in America before the USA came into the Second World War although it would not surprise me in the least if it was true?

having read "Restless" and watched the tv adaptation i loved them both and intend to read more of William Boyd's books.......however i have a freind who insists that the story ending is indication that it is all the wanderings of a elderly lady with dementia,re-reading the last part of the book i can see how she is seeing this but my version was that it is all true...does anyone one else see it this way....Lillian

Hi, William, thanks for coming here. I was interested to know that our British spies worked in the States, New York (?) during the war. Was this rare? it made a good story.
And the apparent suicides --- was this based on fact, meaning had this really happened to our British Spies during the war?
I am always keen to know what is fact and what is fiction -- apologies if this wish of mine produces a strange question.
However, I loved the atmosphere of this book. and found it to be a new 'take' on 2WW stories, and very interesting as as result.
Kind regards Jane Lewis

Question for William Boyd:

Both your protagonists in RESTLESS are female. How far do you feel male and female narrative voices differ? How easy do you find it, as a writer, to inhabit a female persona?

Thank you so much for my copy of "Restless"; it took me a couple of days to work out who had sent it to me. Unfortunately I did not see the BBC programme - too busy with my family - and have only just started to read the book. It is fascinating...

Hello, I am great admirer of your work especially Any Human Heart which I have read several times but I love Restless too. These two books are wholly or partly set in one or both of the two World Wars and their aftermath as is An Ice Cream War. The way you write about these periods and the people in them feels very real. What triggered your interest in these periods in history and did you have to do a lot of research for the background?

I received my book before Christmas so recorded the TV version so I could watch it after I had finished the book. I'll watch it later this week.
I enjoyed the book very much- I have been very interested in spies & WW2 since visiting Bletchley Park last year- I knew very little about the subject until then. Very interesting that Ian Fleming was an spy so not a surprise he wrote James Bond later. Pretty obviously his alter ego!
I really did not know that we had covert organisations trying to get USA into the war- I can see it made sense but my generation know very little about the war as our parents were involved & did not much want to talk about it afterwards- my Mum was a school girl but my Father was a Japanese POW in Changai Jail & on Burma Railway so naturally did not want to re-live any of those memories.
I'd like to ask William Boyd if in his research he discovered roughly how many secret organisations were working in 'friendly' countries & if UK government were fully in the picture or if they were controlled by other factions.
Also - when a book gets chosen for a TV series or a film, how much input do you get in the making of it? I have so often seen a book I really enjoyed totally ruined by film makers- Captain Corelli's Mandolin was a travesty- it broke my heart to see that sensitive, beautiful ending commercialised into a 'Hollywood Happy Ending'. Do you get any say in what they do or do you have to sign over the rights & let them do their worst? I do so hope I will not be disappointed with the TV version of Restless when I get round to watching it-I never do it the other way round if I can help it. The book is always better!

I am about half-way through the book and am gripped by the story. I was going to watch the BBC adaptation on iplayer but after reading some of the comments above, am not sure whether to or not! It's made me want to read other novels by him though.
Question for William Boyd - which is your favourite of your own novels?