The Secret Sister by Jan Baynham

“Travel from wartime Wales to sixties Sicily in this breath taking cross-generational saga about a daughter rocked by her family's secret"

One of the things I love about writing my Blog is some of the wonderful emails and messages I receive from all over the world.

Last year I received a message from one of my lovely followers author Jan Baynham who explained that she would be travelling to Sicily with her daughter on holiday and also for research into her fourth novel.

I was thrilled as I was already a fan of Jan's novels after she had previously recommended to me to read her second novel ‘Her Sisters Secret’ which ended in the Sicilian town of Messina.

Fascinated by family secrets and "skeletons lurking in cupboards" Jan's dual narrative, dual timeline novels explore how decisions and actions made by family members from one generation impact on the rest of the next. Her first three novels look at the bond between mothers and daughters as well as forbidden love. Setting and sense of place plays an important part in all Jan's stories and as well as her native mid-Wales there are always contrasting locations like Greece, northern France and Sicily.

Jan explained that her characters would include a Sicilian Italian prisoner of war in Wales during World War II and that later in the novel his daughter would travel to Sicily to discover his secret past. Jan wanted to get a feeling of what wartime on the island would have been like for the Sicilians during the Allied invasion of Sicily in 1943. Basing herself in Catania she told me that she was hoping to explore the city of Catania and visit the island of Ortigia in Syracuse and also Taormina and Mount Etna. Jan asked if I could recommend a tour guide in Syracuse and I knew just the perfect person to help her.

The Allied Invasion of Sicily, code named Operation Husky, was a major campaign of World War II in which the Allied forces invaded the island in 1943 and took control of Sicily from Axis powers (Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany). It began with a large amphibious (by sea) and airborne operation, followed by a six week land campaign. The 38 day battle for Sicily was one of the most dramatic of the entire Second World War and the island acted as a strategic stepping stone to Hitler's fortress Europe.

In the first years of the war Italian prisoners captured in North Africa were brought to Britain. This was the first major influx of prisoners brought to our country. Italian POW's presented one way of alleviating labour shortages, particularly in agriculture, after British men enlisted to fight for their country. Following the Italian surrender in 1943, Italian POW’s volunteered to work as 'co-operators'. They were given considerable freedom and mixed with local people, although initially starting romantic relationships with the local women was forbidden. At the end of the war some were even given accommodation at the farms where they worked.

Many prisoners of war were held captive in Wales and at the end of the war some decided to stay on in Wales, marrying local women. Today there is still a lot of Welsh Italians who are fully or partially Italian descent many with roots in Sicily. Italian immigrants in Wales can be thanked for a network of cafés, ice cream parlours and fish and chip shops there.

In Sicily all across the island you can find landmarks of the battles that took place during World War II including the beaches of the Allies landings, battlefields, commonwealth war cemeteries, monuments, bunkers and pillboxes, along with buildings that were used as headquarters by both the Allied and Axis powers and buildings that suffered damage from airborne raids and tank fire. There are also tunnels where the local Sicilians sheltered during the raids. Across the island in springtime you will see bright red poppies intermingled with Sicilian wild flowers in a nod to those souls who lost their lives in battle.

A World War II Tour can be a perfect addition to a trip to Sicily and so I knew one would be ideal for Jan's research. I put Jan into touch with Roberto Piccione who is a tour guide based in Syracuse who specialises in World War II in Sicily. Roberto is the son of an Italian veteran who witnessed the Allied invasion of Sicily in 1943. Since a young boy he became passionate about this part of Sicilian history, first as a collector of military memorabilia then becoming a historian and local expert guide. Roberto has assisted with research for TV channels including the History Channel and assisted the internationally acclaimed and award-winning historian, writer and broadcaster, James Holland with his book Sicily '43: the assault on Fortress Europe. You might just recognise him too from the TV series 'Ray Winstone's Sicily' where the Hollywood star and British actor and homeowner in Sicily, Ray Winstone, travels around the island and embarks on a World War II tour with Roberto.

A tour on Ortigia was arranged between Jan and Roberto and both Jan and her daughter headed off to Sicily last August.

Whilst out there it was fabulous seeing photos that Jan posted on her social media of where she had been and what she had seen and after her trip I excitedly awaited the news of the title of her new book and the publication date and earlier this year Jan messaged me to tell me the title of the book ...

The book was to be called "The Secret Sister".

So just to entice you here is the storyline ...

Wales, 1943

Sara Lewis should be heartbroken when her husband doesn't return from war. But he was never the kind husband she hoped for. And now she's stuck with her cruel mother-in-law on the family farm.

Sara must do what is best for her young son. So she leaves the farm for the safety of her sister's home. Despite herself, she begins to notice Carlo, an Italian prisoner from the war. Longing looks soon turn into love letters and a connection neither of them can sever. But fraternization between the prisoners and local women are forbidden. As their love grows, so does the danger all around them ...

Twenty-five years later, their daughter holds her fathers hand as he takes his last breath and whispers a name: Giulietta. But who is Giulietta, and who are the young woman and baby in a old photograph?

The secrets of the past collide as the family are shaken to their very core, forced to revisit memories in Sicily they'd rather forget to uncover the truth.

Jan puts a lot of love and research into her novels.

The Secret Sister starts in 1942 where Carlo, an artist from Sicily, is a prisoner of war in Wales. In the novel some of the prisoners are given the task to decorate an abandoned Nissen hut on the camp and transform it into a Roman Catholic chapel for worship for the Italian POW’s. Nissen huts were a prefabricated steel structure for military use made from a half cylindrical skin of corrugated iron and were used as accommodation in prisoner of war camps. The POW camp that Jan based her story on is now a housing estate but there are other old camps that still exist and for research for her novel Jan visited Island Farm, a former German POW camp, situated near Bridgend in Wales which set the scene for one of the biggest break outs of German POWs in Britain in WW2. It now only has one hut left standing and preserved. For her fictional chapel Jan took inspiration from an Italian Chapel on the Scottish island of Lamb Holm in Orkney which comprises of two Nissen huts turned into a chapel.

Shrouded in secrecy Carlo never wanted to return home to Sicily after the end of the war. After his death a policeman comes to visit his Welsh wife Sara and his daughter Claudia with a bottle containing a list of Italian POW's which was found buried in concrete around a window frame that was damaged during the gas blast that kills Carlo. This is actually a true story which Jan discovered whilst researching archives of a local newspaper that tells of a message in a bottle found in concrete when dismantling an old building in 1978. The message listed the names and addresses of the Italian POWs who had built it 34 years earlier. Jan was able to use this as an idea as a way for Claudia to trace where her father once lived in Sicily and three months later Claudia travels to the island to learn more about him and his family.

Claudia travels to the fictional town of Porto Montebello where she has enrolled in an art course. Claudia visits the towns cathedral (duomo) to admire the art. Jan found inspiration for her Madonna and Child artwork in her fictional Italian Chapel and her Duomo of Porto Montebello after visiting the real life cathedrals of Ortigia and Catania on her visit to Sicily.

In the book Jan brings to life the magic of Sicily including the scents, flora and fauna, the food, the culture, the terrain and the characteristics of the local people.

After discovering an old case in Carlo's former family home, Claudia discovers a diary written by her nonna (grandmother) for Carlo whilst he was away at war. In here she writes of sheltering during the Allied raids in tunnels. During World World Two, the south east corner of Sicily including Syracuse and Catania were heavily bombed by the Allied air forces owing to the presence of the two main Axis airfields in Sicily. The heaviest raids took place in the spring and summer of 1943 both before and during the Allied invasion of Sicily which prompted most of the population to flee to the countryside, those who didn't spent a lot of time in the shelters. There are networks of tunnels that run underneath the island of Ortigia in Syracuse. In The Secret Sister Jan writes about tunnels underneath the fictional cathedral of Porto Montebello. On Ortigia there are tunnels that are entered near the garden of the Archbishops Palace in Piazza del Duomo which exit onto Foro Vittorio Emanuele II, which is on the sea front. The tunnels, known as The Hypogeum, are made up of stone quarries and cisterns and supposedly date back to the Greek period. The stone was used for the façade of the cathedral in the 18th century and a water system was put in during the early 1600's which supplied all of Ortigia. The tunnels were also used as a bomb shelter during World War Two and additional 'sacred' spaces were added in 1942 to hide and protect the statue and the treasures of the cities Patron Saint Santa Lucia. A path in the tunnels is dedicated to the civilian victims of the bombing of Syracuse on 19th July 1943 and there are information boards with photos and images of that time.

The tunnels that Jan visited with tour guide Roberto are located on another site on Ortigia underneath Chiesa di (Church of) San Filippo Apostolo which was built on a medieval Synagogue and has a burial crypt, a Jewish ritual bath and a tunnel system hiding underneath. All that remains of the synagogue is a perfectly preserved 'mikvah' which is a Jewish bath used by women for purification before weddings, after childbirth and after menstrual periods. The tunnels protected thousands of citizens of Syracuse during the Allied bombings and to this day you can see graffiti depicting images of British planes and parachutes described in Sicilian which Jan used as inspiration for her story.

In the story Claudia enjoys a boat trip with her new friend Alessandro. Whilst in Ortigia, Jan embarked on a similar boat trip taking in the different colours of the sea, coastline and landscapes. During a boat trip from Ortigia you can see some of the most beautiful jewels of the Sicilian south east coastline, admiring both its historical and natural monuments. Cruising around Ortigia you can see its architecture including the exterior of Castello Maniace recently used as a location for the movie Indiana Jones and The Dial of Destiny and the musical Cyrano. You will then make your way to the sea caves north of Syracuse which Jan used as inspiration as well.

I do not want to reveal too much about the story and the plot as it will spoil the surprise for you.

Whilst in Sicily, Jan also visited Mount Etna and Taormina and whilst in Taormina she made a visit to the beautiful Casa Cuseni after I recommended reading the book 'A House in Sicily' by Daphne Phelps. This enchanting villa was designed and built for the painter Robert Hawthorn Kitson in 1905, his Taorminese house and its lush gardens are designed in an art nouveau way mixed with Sicilian style. The dining room was both conceived and designed by a friend of his Sir Frank Brangwyn who was a pupil of William Morris the famous member of the artistic movement 'Arts and Crafts' and also by Sir Alfred East who at the time was the President of the Royal Society of British Artists. After his death Roberts Kitson's niece Daphne Phelps inherited Casa Cuseni and in order to sustain the enormous cost of the house started to rent out a few of the rooms to illustrious guests who came to write and paint. The house became the favourite place for DH Lawrence and his wife to have their afternoon tea. In later life Daphne wrote a book 'A House in Sicily'. Today Casa Cuseni is a guest house and museum where you can see stunning frescoes in the dining room. Casa Cuseni was a perfect place for a writer like Jan to enjoy and I guessed that she used Casa Cuseni as inspiration for Giulietta's house, Casa Cristina.

On publication day Jan sent me a signed copy of The Secret Sister which I devoured in my garden in London on a hot late summer day.

The Secret Sister is a beautiful story with a clever plot line and a lovely ending that brought tears to my eyes. I would definitely recommend choosing this book for your visit to Sicily or even if you are not having the pleasure of visiting our beautiful island Jan will transport you there in spirit wherever you are in the world.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Jan for the beautiful acknowledgment that she wrote for me in the book and also for choosing Sicily again as a destination for her novel. Jan you were a complete pleasure to help and we look forward to seeing you in Sicily again soon.

Also a big thank you to Roberto Piccione and the Spadaro Family at Casa Cuseni for looking after Jan.

Photo credits: Jan Baynham Writer

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Also by Jan Baynham

Her Sister's Secret

How far would you travel to find the truth?

It's the 1960's and Jennifer Howells is a young woman with the world at her feet, just on the cusp of leaving her Welsh village for an exciting new life in the city.

Then the contents of an inconspicuous brown envelope turn Jennifer's world upside down. The discovery leaves her spiralling, unsure who she is. Overnight, Miss Goody Two Shoes is replaced by mini-skirted wild child who lives for parties and rock'n'roll.

But Jennifer's experience with the excesses of sixties culture leaves her no closer to her true identity. She soon realises she will have to travel further - first to Cardiff, then across the ocean to Sicily - if she wants to find out who she really is ...

To follow Jan Bayham

Visit https://janbaynham.blogspot.com/

You can also follow her on

Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

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Visit https://www.tourguideinsicily.it

for Syracuse and WW2 English speaking Tours

with Roberto Piccione

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Visits to Casa Cuseni are by appointment only

Visit https://www.fondazionecasacuseni.org/

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To discover more about the Allied Invasion of Sicily during World War Two I recommend visiting Museo Storico dello Sbarco in Sicilia 1943 (the Museum of Allied Landings in Sicily) located in Piazzale Rocco Chinnici in Catania

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World War II in Sicily ... Operation Husky https://whitealmond-privatesicily.blogspot.com/2023/08/world-war-ii-in-sicily-operation-husky.html

World War II in Sicily ... Operation Mincemeat https://whitealmond-privatesicily.blogspot.com/2021/07/operation-mincemeat.html

Casa Cuseni ... A House in Sicily https://whitealmond-privatesicily.blogspot.com/2016/08/casa-cuseni-house-in-sicily.html

My Top Syracuse Travel Tips https://whitealmond-privatesicily.blogspot.com/2022/04/my-top-syracuse-travel-tips.html

Sicily's South East Corner https://whitealmond-privatesicily.blogspot.com/2021/04/sicilys-south-east-corner.html

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