"Memories of the same event often differ"

Interview: Historian and author Anne Sebba on writing, researching and her new book, The Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz.

Anne Sebba is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (FRSL) a biographer, lecturer, journalist, former Reuters foreign correspondent and author of eleven books for adults, including Ethel Rosenberg: An American Tragedy, Les Parisiennes: How the Women of Paris Lived, Loved and Died in the 1940s and That Woman: The Life of Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor. Her latest book, The Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz, is out on 27 March.

What inspires you as a historian?

Ordinary people and how they live in extraordinary times. I have written about celebrities but (while recognising the dangers of generalising) mostly I find they have superficial concerns and a much less interesting inner life. I consider Wallis Simpson, who became the Duchess of Windsor, an ordinary person caught up in circumstances of enormous historical significance; Ethel Rosenberg, electrocuted for conspiracy to commit espionage in 1953, was also ordinary yet, caught in the cross hairs of history, became extraordinary. I am a journalist by training (6 years at Reuters) so accuracy is very important. We always had to have two sources before drawing any conclusions. But at the same time I am also a storyteller. Even though I know I must have written evidence and understand the importance of diaries, archives and letters I love interviewing real people to complete the circle. The challenging part is recognising that memories of the same event often differ, and I love trying to juggle these and make sense of the patchwork. People do remember things differently. It doesn’t mean they are not each of them correct. The same event can have a different effect on a different person