Sue Klauber takes us behind the scenes of ‘Cobalt’, the much-anticipated sequel to ‘Zinc’

Launching this month, Cobalt is the exciting follow-up story to Sue Klauber’s debut novel Zinc (2022), in which three Jewish siblings - John, George and Eva - continue to play key roles in the WW2 war effort, encountering high stakes and thrilling adventures in the UK and across war-torn Europe.

Like Zinc, Cobalt is based on the extraordinary real-life experiences of Sue’s father, uncle and aunt. The story highlights the positive and courageous contribution that many immigrants to the UK made during WW2 in helping to defeat the Nazis.

Over to Sue, to give us a peek behind the scenes into her family history and the sources of her inspiration for these two gripping books.

Sue Klauber

Sue Klauber: “When I was a child, we had a big old wooden chest at home that used to belong to my Hungarian grandmother, Ilonka. When she died, we kept it in our house and I used to open it on Saturday afternoons in the quiet part of the day when I was looking for something to do, hearing my mother busy in the kitchen and knowing that my father was upstairs or out. All grown up now, I still have the chest. I keep it in my own house and right now I’m looking at the flowers and patterns that decorate its dark wood, carved by someone very skilled more than a hundred years ago. I’m thinking about those childhood Saturday afternoons, when I’d open the lid and feel tingly at the thought of what was inside…

“What was inside is the inspiration for both of my books, first Zinc and now Cobalt.

“Various things had been shoved in there by Grandma over the years and sat in a jumble, including all the official papers relating to the births, marriages, travels and deaths of several generations of my family. There were also two big leather-bound albums of postcards that Grandma’s friends had sent her when she was a teenager. The pictures were of glamorous Hungarian celebrities of the time, and Grandma’s friends had written messages on the cards in curly, sloping handwriting, using proper ink pens, in a language I couldn’t understand except for her name, Ilonka.

“There was also another album of photographs from Grandma’s parents’ generation. However, most of the pictures in the chest were loose photos of my father, John, his brother, George, their sister, Eva, and their parents, Izidor and Ilonka. Looking up at me from the photographs were children my own age. And then, as I continued to leaf through the images, John, George and Eva got bigger and were teenagers, and so when I was a teenager, I looked at them still. Then they got even older and became grown-ups. A lot of the pictures were taken at a photographer’s studio and they were obviously wearing their best clothes, old-fashioned but not so different from what I might wear for a party. I used to gaze at their faces and imagine what they were thinking, what they liked doing and the games they played. I’d wonder whether they were like me and enjoyed reading and writing stories.

“The greatest treasure of all was a long cardboard box with a tightly fitting lid, which I could open to reveal a row of watches lined up carefully, the round sort without a strap, which people would keep in their pocket or clip with a chain on to their clothes. I knew these belonged to Izidor, my grandfather - the watch seller. I‘d pick them up one by one and see how delicate the Roman numerals and spindly hands were, all stopped at a different time of day, at twenty-three minutes past one, or eight minutes to eleven. Mostly they were silver, but there was one that was gold. They were all shiny and cool, and it was sometimes possible to snap open a little catch at the back to reveal the cogs and wheels that moved the hands around the face with a steady tick when they were in action.

“I know that my father, John, Uncle George and Auntie Eva were all in their twenties during the Second World War and that they achieved remarkable things. Zinc and Cobalt tell the detailed stories of what they might have done. I say might because, since they’re sadly no longer alive to recount their actual experiences to me, I’ve had make them up based on the facts that I do know about them. The events in the books didn’t happen quite as described, but they’re similar to things that did happen. I’m sure that John, George and Eva would love to know that you’re reading about them!”

Discover more about Sue Klauber and her hot-off-the-press book Cobalt.