I was captivated by the idea that these men, so far from everything and everyone they knew, had worked together to build something beautiful and hopeful, in a time of conflict and division, and using the scrap and debris of war.
But it was when I found out about the Italian Chapel in the wild and remote setting of the Orkney islands that the novel really came to life. I had an idea for a wartime love story, with all its inherent turmoil, conflicts and divided loyalties, and I wanted to place that against the close relationship of two sisters, and the way that both love and war might affect them. As Lea explains, “I always find true stories an inspirational place to start with historical fiction and it was the incredible tale behind the building of the Italian Chapel in Orkney that first appealed to me. and that his sensuous little 'jailer' will be the one to free his heart.The Love Remains: The Metal Heart by Caroline LeaĬaroline Lea admits that The Metal Heart (Harper Perennial, 2021) is, without doubt, “a love story, but this wasn’t necessarily what I set out to write.” The love between the two twin sisters, Dorothy and Constance, and the love between Dorothy and Cesare, the Italian prisoner of war during World War II, “emerged more on each draft … This, perhaps, is what took the longest to tease out: love is such a complicated, multifaceted beast and I wanted the relationships in the novel to be entirely convincing and compelling.”Īlthough the characters in the book are fictional, as is Selkie Holm, the Orkney island where the sisters live, the church built by the Italian prisoners of war in 1943 is based on fact. He never imagines that his pretend bride will become the most magnificent woman he's ever met. Jordan Yancey would do anything to get out of prison, and the arrangement with the pretty, but prim Elizabeth seems like a good bet - his freedom for a little farm work, and a wife on paper.
But what Elizabeth never expects is that this former prisoner will arouse the kind of passion and desire she's only heard about and capture her instead. Desperate to stay in the only home she ever loved, the resourceful Elizabeth agrees to marry a prisoner, Jordan Yancey - an arrangement that will set him free while affording her the farm help that she so urgently needs. "Beverly Jenkins is renowned for her historical romances." - Romantic Times "Beverly Jenkins has reached romance superstardom!" - Detroit Free Press Kansas, 1884 Abandoned by her husband, Elizabeth Franklin is struggling to keep up with the chores on her 60-acre farm.
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