The title of my novel Infinite Stakes comes from Winston Churchill’s description of the Battle of Britain in 1940 —“the odds were great; our margins small; the stakes infinite.” In this battle, which lasted from July until September, 1940, Hitler’s Luftwaffe air force attempted to destroy the British RAF air force, so that Nazi Germany could invade England across the English Channel.

Infinite Stakes is a sequel to my novel Breaking Point (also from a Churchill quotation) and describes the climatic day of the battle when Hitler sent hundreds of bombers against England to no avail, but suffered grievous losses.

I placed my imaginary protagonist, Eleanor, a 22-year-old mathematician, inside RAF Fighter Command Headquarters, where she observed the battle with Churchill and other commanders. The events of the day played out exactly as they did in history—the ‘facts’—but we see them through Eleanor’s eyes—the ‘fiction.’ She is a senior intelligence officer, a self-taught expert in fighter strategies and tactics; we see her explaining the battle to Churchill and his reactions.

My purpose in all of this was to escape from a dry historical narrative and instead to offer a more dramatic ‘real time’ version of history, a more welcoming introduction to the subject matter. That gave me the wiggle room to tell the story, but it also created the obligation to be true and fair—for example, to put dialog in Churchill’s mouth that he really might have said.

I have an enormous respect for the women of that era. World War II was a pivot point in history: women entered it in their traditional domestic homemaker, caregiving mother, subordinated wife categories, and emerged as independent and self-supporting. Eleanor enters my novels thinking of herself as a failure, not as a brilliant mathematician holding her own in a male-dominated world: she sees herself as a failure because she is already 22 and has not yet found a suitable husband. But, as the story evolves, she too evolves, and emerges with the confidence and accomplishment of a ‘Rosie the Riveter:’ her own person.

Just as the people in a ‘faction’ book must act and think like the ‘real’ people really did, the situations and places and things around them must also be authentic. I have a fighter pilot in a Spitfire; his ability to maneuver is limited to the technical specifications of Spitfires which are no better than the aircraft he is fighting. In ‘faction’ he must make the best of what he’s got; in ‘fiction’ his aircraft could suddenly be more powerful and in ‘fantasy’ he could swap his Spitfire for an F-16.

I sometimes wonder if docudramas and other ways of playing with facts help or hinder our understanding of people and events. Some people in 1938 really thought that Martians were invading New Jersey as they listened to Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds radio program, and some people today believe that Queen Elizabeth really did say the things she is given to say in The Crown.

On balance I would rather that people have heard of the Battle of Britain than not; if my ‘faction’ introduces them to this fascinating and important piece of history, so be it.

About the Author

John Rhodes is the Author of Breaking Point and Infinite Stakes; Remy is just a good ole boy who appears as the character ‘Charlie’