Robert Ryan is a pretty big deal sales-wise in the UK, where his books are regular features of the Top 10 lists. Here in Australia, his fans are not quite so legion, but that may all be set to change with the Australian connection in his latest novel, After Midnight, he told Eliza Metcalfe.

Like many of Ryan’s books, the spark for After Midnight came from a Google search that turned up something extraordinary. On about page 10 of a list of search results, he came across this letter, written by an Australian World War II airman to his baby daughter Anne:

1/2/44 F/O T.R.MILLAR RAAF Aus 422612 - 104 Squadron RAF CMF Italy

My Dear Daughter,

This is the first time I have written to you and although you are as yet too young to read it perhaps mother will save it up until the time comes when you can read it yourself. In 2 days time it will be your first birthday anniversary—a great event for your parents. My regret is that I cannot personally be there to help you blow out your single candle but believe me lassie I will be there in spirit.

I am writing this from a place called Italy which is far away from our fair land—a place where I would not be by choice so far away separated from a wife & daughter so dear to me. But I am here, precious one , because there is a war on caused by certain people who wished to rule the world harshly & despotically, imperilling an intangible thing called democracy which your mother & I thought all decent people should fight for. You will understand as you grow up what democracy means for us & how it is an ideal way of life which we aspire to put into practice.

All I ask of you, Anne dear is that you stay as sweet as your mother & cling tight to the subtle thing we call Christianity, which has been the core of her way of life & her mother’s & mine. I hope that you will love & respect me as I love & respect my father.

That’s all young lady. Have a happy birthday—may they all be happy birthdays. I hope to be home again one fine day. In the meantime lots of love to you & to mother,

From Dad

Bob Millar

Millar’s plane disappeared eight months later while flying a mission in northern Italy. The plane, and the bodies of the men flying it, have never been recovered.

Ryan was in Australia recently to meet baby Anne’s mother—now an 85-year-old living in Sydney—and to bring her a copy of the book. He told AB&P, ‘I got the terrible feeling that if the book’s released in Australia … if there’s any sort of publicity about it [because of the Australian connection], then this woman in Sydney was going to be reading about her husband.’ The meeting was an emotional one, but the book has been approved by the family and they are ‘unbelievably positive,’ said Ryan.

Writing stories that use real-life events as their inspiration is not always easy, ‘I get a lot of letters,’ remarked Ryan dryly. But with a family story as personal as this one—and still unsolved—Ryan was particularly nervous. ‘I was obviously going to play pretty fast and loose with the truth … I thought they were going to say “you’re taking our family history and you’re turning it into a monster.”’

Despite the difficulties inherent in his use of fact as a starting point for fiction, Ryan persists: ‘The driving force for me is to try and tell the story.’ Events or characters from around the time of World War II have provided the starting point for three of his most recent novels—After Midnight, Blue Noon and Night Crossing (all Hodder). In each case, he has drawn on people who were involved in the event, or knew the character, to flesh out the story for him before he began writing. ‘As time goes on it’s less and less sitting in libraries reading dusty, musty books and more trying to find someone who’s still alive who actually did it … you can’t get it from the archives, they’re incredibly dry.’