March is Women’s History Month and to mark its significance, the Farnham Herald spoke to a local author about her work.

Louise Morrish is a historical fiction author and librarian from Alton, and is the mastermind behind the novel Operation Moonlight.

She will be speaking about her upcoming novel, Women of War, at Farnham Literary Festival’s History Day on Sunday, March 9 at Waverley Abbey.

“I was dreaming of one day shelving my own book,” Louise said.

“It finally came true when I won quite a big competition with Penguin Random House in 2019.

“A couple of years after that, we published Operation Moonlight and the main spark behind it was Eileen Nearne.”

Operation Moonlight by Louise Morrish.
Louise's first novel follows the story of a SOE agent in France during WWII (Louise Morrish)

Eileen, known as Didi, was a secret agent for the Special Operations Executive (SOE) during World War II and Louise didn’t know about her story until she stumbled across it in some newspaper stacks at work.

Louse explained: “As I dug a bit deeper, I discovered that there were 39 female secret agents with the SOE that had been recruited, gone through training and then had gone on to missions.

“People like Virginia Hall, Noor Inayat Khan, Odette Sansom and Yvonne Cormeau, some of these names are in the public domain, but most of them have just fallen into obscurity.

“So I thought, ‘these women need to be remembered’ and the novel won the competition and Operation Moonlight came out in 2022.”

Louise’s upcoming novel, Women of War, will be her topic of discussion at the Literary Festival and it focuses on Dorothy Lawrence and Dr Lucinda Garland. The book is due for release on March 27.

Dorothy wanted to be a journalist in World War I and when she couldn’t do this, she dressed as a British Army soldier and went into the trenches with the men, to try and become the first female war correspondent.

Lucinda is based on Dr Louisa Garrett Anderson, who saved thousands of doctors and soldiers in the war with her colleague and partner, Flora Murray.

Women of War by Louise Morrish
Unlike Louise's first novel, Women of War takes place during WWI. (Louise Morrish)

“They were ordinary women but they weren't really, because they turned out to be extraordinary women,” Louse added.

“In the SOE, the youngest was 19 and the oldest was 51, and one of them was even a grandmother. They were just so brave and they parachuted in, and I do a lot of practical research for my novels.

“I knew that I had to parachute to find out what that was like, I have a visceral fear of heights, I nearly fainted!”

Speaking about International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month, Louise says it is important to remember women from the past who have done as much as the men.

She said: “We just have completely forgotten stories written out of history and all we can do is keep making our voices heard in any way that we can.

“I think having your voice heard through fiction is so powerful, people still read stories and they learn from them.

“If I can keep these women's stories alive in my fiction, then I will die a happy woman.”