The Making of Marigold McGrath
by Carrie Hayes
New York City, 1937. Seventeen-year-old Marigold McGrath is coming undone.
Her mother is dead. Her father is drawn to dangerous politics. The only place she feels joy is behind a camera — where she can frame the world on her own terms.
After a series of her own missteps, she reinvents herself in London: mentored by a celebrated émigré photographer, photographing Kindertransport children, working alongside Edward R. Murrow. She falls in love with Joop, a charming Dutch student, and shrugs off the war gathering around her.
Then the Blitz begins.
Joop vanishes into the Dutch Resistance. And Marigold — who has always preferred to photograph the world as she wishes it were — must finally decide what kind of woman, and what kind of witness, she is willing to become.
A sweeping WWII coming-of-age novel set in wartime London.
For readers of Kristin Hannah, Kate Quinn, and SL Beaumont's The War Photographers
Praise for The Making of Marigold McGrath:
I read a lot of historical novels ... this one was one of my favorites. From the characters to the setting to the actions depicted I thoroughly enjoyed the journey—I really didn’t want it to end!
~ Netgalley Review, 5*
"The Making of Marigold McGrath by Carrie Hayes is the tale of a well to do American seventeen year old sent to Europe just prior to World War II. The book is exquisitely written with a well paced dialogue. The characters are well formed and interesting. Sprinkled throughout the book are bits from news outlets that help set the larger context for the reader - they are well timed and helpful. Great read, well worth it!"
~ Goodreads Review, 5*
"The Making of Marigold McGrath explores a rarely examined aspect of WWII: the complex journeys to maturity of young adults in war-torn Europe as they seek human connection and meaning. Marigold finds both, using her skills as a photographer to document the stories of refugee children. With gobs of historical references and vivid imagery, interlaced with intrigue and romance, The Making of Marigold McGrath is a great read!"
~ Goodreads Review, 5*
~ Netgalley Review, 5*
"The Making of Marigold McGrath by Carrie Hayes is the tale of a well to do American seventeen year old sent to Europe just prior to World War II. The book is exquisitely written with a well paced dialogue. The characters are well formed and interesting. Sprinkled throughout the book are bits from news outlets that help set the larger context for the reader - they are well timed and helpful. Great read, well worth it!"
~ Goodreads Review, 5*
"The Making of Marigold McGrath explores a rarely examined aspect of WWII: the complex journeys to maturity of young adults in war-torn Europe as they seek human connection and meaning. Marigold finds both, using her skills as a photographer to document the stories of refugee children. With gobs of historical references and vivid imagery, interlaced with intrigue and romance, The Making of Marigold McGrath is a great read!"
~ Goodreads Review, 5*
The Inspiration for Marigold McGrath
Marigold is a synthesis of many characters and actual photographers. As the only child of a New York executive and his Belgian wife, her life would have been very cosseted, yet independent enough to get herself into various muddles.
Marigold is a series of contradictions which is surprisingly common amongst native New Yorkers. Deeply sophisticated, but still so sheltered as to be alarmingly naïve. She loves the cinema, enjoys fashion, fancies boys and most of all, connects with her camera and taking pictures. Hiding behind the lens, as opposed to posing in front of it, gives her the freedom to create a world which she wants to see and as she prefers to see it. At the opening of the book, this is something she hasn’t really articulated to herself. But as the story unfolds it becomes an increasingly urgent concern.
Marigold is a series of contradictions which is surprisingly common amongst native New Yorkers. Deeply sophisticated, but still so sheltered as to be alarmingly naïve. She loves the cinema, enjoys fashion, fancies boys and most of all, connects with her camera and taking pictures. Hiding behind the lens, as opposed to posing in front of it, gives her the freedom to create a world which she wants to see and as she prefers to see it. At the opening of the book, this is something she hasn’t really articulated to herself. But as the story unfolds it becomes an increasingly urgent concern.
There are two American women who really influenced me for Marigold’s aesthetic as a photographer. The first was the iconic Lee Miller who does make a brief appearance in our story. Lee’s photographs are very heavily protected, so I won’t reproduce any here. For those unfamiliar with her, Kate Winslet produced, starred (and I think directed) a fabulous portrait of her in the film Lee. Lee Miller was deeply complicated and deeply traumatized by her experience at the front. Many of us know her only through the photograph taken by a colleague of Lee bathing in what had been Hitler’s bathtub in his Berlin apartment. You can find a lot of her pictures here www.leemiller.co.uk.
The other influence was a photographer named Toni Frissell, whose work often communicates people experiencing exuberance and joy. She was older than Marigold would have been, but Toni Frissell’s work is absolutely in this vein. Luckily for us, nearly half a million of her photos have been donated to the Library of Congress and to the Public Domain, so that all of us can access them. Here is a smaller, more manageable selection: https://www.icp.org/browse/archive/constituents/toni-frissell
Like Lee, Toni went to the front, but Toni was embedded with the Tuskegee Airmen, an African American troop, which I am sure is worthy of its own story. I don’t believe that she went into the concentration camps the way that Lee did, so her creative arc went in a very different direction than Lee’s. Here are a few of Toni’s pictures which crackle with life. I cannot say enough good things about the humanity which jumps out from her photographs.
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| Fashion, for Harper's Bazaar, 1935. (c) Toni Frissell. Public domain. |
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| Model Dorian Lee, New York, 1949. (c) Toni Frissell. Public domain. |
This title is available to read on #KindleUnlimited.
Carrie Hayes
Carrie’s first two novels, Naked Truth or Equality and Well Dressed Lies, follow the lives of the iconoclastic suffragist sisters, Victoria Woodhull and Tennessee Claflin.
Carrie lives with her husband and two spoiled dogs in a rambling Victorian house just outside of New York City.
Connect with Carrie:
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