Writing the activist novel

Between The Wars is a novel based on the life and work of pacifist and social reformer Muriel Lester. An early member of anti-war organisation The Fellowship of Reconciliation, Lester was also a friend of Gandhi and a founder of the East London church and community centre Kingsley Hall. Between The Wars is an interrogation of the beliefs that inspired her, the Christian pacifist movement she was a part of, and the challenge of living out the values of peace through two world wars. It is also an exploration of the relationship between activism and fiction, and the possibility of representing Lester’s ideas in fictional form. This paper examines the process of writing an activist novel that seeks change and yet allows, indeed encourages, the reader to question its beliefs, tracing the connections between the activism of Muriel Lester and the form and style of the novel she inspired.