Your latest novel JSS Bach is about the generational implications of the Holocaust and garnered  praise from the Morning Star as “a masterful, wonderful novel.” How did you come about writing it and what did you draw on?

The basic idea slammed into me while walking in the mountains. In a bid to keep close to historical record, most literary references were non-fiction, mounds of history and memoirs from Ruth Kluger. Laurent Binet’s HHhH touched it a little and other references were derived from site visits – Dachau, a week in Auschwitz, walking through Terezin. WG Sebald shows how you have to walk your way through history.

The novel is the story of of three generations of women living through the horrors of 20th-century German history. In it, a Jewish family is linked to a nazi adjutant at Dachau concentration camp through a shared love of music. How challenging was it to write “another” account of the Holocaust? What were you keen to do differently or avoid?