Summary

In the Author's Note, Kate Atkinson explains that when she set out to write a novel set in World War II, she underestimated how long of a book she would need to write. Therefore, she chose to focus on the London Blitz, which was present in one of her previous novels, "Life After Life." The London Blitz was the strategic bombing campaign against Germany. It is Teddy's war experience in "A God in Ruins." Her choice allowed her to write the impacts of the war on Teddy's life. The author thinks of "A God in Ruins" as one of Ursula's lives, since Ursula lived many versions of her life in the novel focused on her.

The author explains where she based Teddy, which is in Yorkshire where most of the Halifax airfields were situated during the war. She imagined Teddy as part of...