Emily, like most women of her generation, does not demand the limelight. She does not scream and shout and insist that she's better than everyone at everything! She prefers to be polite and discreet and cooperative, while hoping that competence and dedication will bring her recognition and rewards. That approach doesn't always work. By the time "Cold Peace" opens in 1947, Emily has had her share of disappointments. Yet when an unexpected opportunity presents itself, she seizes it -- and her role in Bridge to Tomorrow is as crucial as it is to the sick and injured in blockaded Berlin.
Excerpt 1: (Reflecting on her husband and marriage)
From the moment Robin had walked through the door with a bottle of champagne to celebrate his posting, she’d known that she had no choice but to pretend she was delighted, too. Robin had been miserable in staff work, and he saw this new posting as his escape to a better, more interesting future. He’d explained to her it was a stepping-stone to other overseas assignments. He’d sketched out a future in Singapore and Hong Kong, Rangoon and Bombay, Cape Town and Nairobi. He’d talked of servants and sailing and the wonders of the wide world.
That was so like him! From their first date, Robin had opened doors for her. He had not only rescued her from a dead-end job, he had also rescued her from her loveless and dreary parental home. He had replaced drudgery and duty with excitement and glamour. She laughed inwardly at the memory of a squadron party that Vivien Leigh, Lawrence Olivier and Rex Harrison had crashed. She’d found herself at the bar chatting with Rex Harrison as if they were old friends. For a girl from the slums of Portsmouth that was heady indeed! Robin had literally shown her the sky, and their shared love of flying had always been a bond between them.
She glanced up from her magazine to steal a sidelong glance at her husband. She loved the way he looked in his best blues with the three full stripes restored to his sleeve. He had always stolen the show when they were together, she thought with an indulgent smile. Never having been particularly vain, it did not bother her that most people had eyes only for Robin.
She’d been delighted to see his enthusiasm for this new posting. Shows of exuberance had been sorely missing since the end of the war. In place of keenness, apathy and mute resentment had festered. She had sensed his simmering bitterness in a job that brought him neither satisfaction nor apparent rewards. And while she knew his discontent was not directed at her, it had left her in the cold, all the same. She had felt as if they were standing on different ice floes, drifting farther and farther apart on divergent, underwater currents. Her disappointments and frustrations about not finding meaningful work and not getting pregnant had only compounded things. Rather than riding out the tide of their dejection and despondency together, they had fallen into the habit of hiding their feelings from one another through fear of making things worse. This new posting had blown away their mutual and separate dissatisfaction like a fresh gale. It was a reprieve not just for Robin’s career but for their marriage, as well. Emily was determined to make the most of it.
Yet this new assignment was fundamentally political and diplomatic, and that was what frightened Emily. Robin had talked blithely about the representational duties they would have, stressing that the burden would be upon her to host dinners and entertain their counterparts. He’d made it sound like it was important and fun and she should look forward to it all. All she saw were chances to make a fool of herself and wreck his career.
Emily Priestman is the daughter of Communist activists. She has been raised in the slums of Portsmouth, where her parents were intent on "revolutionizing the proletariat." Yet she is sent to fee-paying schools and wins a scholarship to Cambridge. There she finds an emotional home with a crowd of intellectual pacifists desperate to prevent a new world war. She also develops sympathy for German demands that the "Diktat" of Versailles be revised. She marches in the demonstrations where her friends shout "hell no, we won't go" to express their refusal to be "cannon fodder" in a new war. And then Hitler starts to show his fangs...
By the start of WWII, Emily has learned that a failure to stand up to aggressors invites more aggressio, and also discovered that even a First Class degree in medieval history doesn't generate many employment opportunities. Meanwhile, her parent's sudden support of Hitler (because he is an ally of Stalin) increases her alienation from her parental home. With most of her pacifist friends volunteering for the armed forces, she is left without an ideological home as well. She tries to do her bit by helping out in a Salvation Army seaman's mission.
That's where Robin Priestman limps in on a crutch one day and her life takes wing. Robin brings Emily more than romance and marriage. He gives her new self-confidence and a new career: flying for the Air Transport Auxiliary. Here she proves herself and during 18 months of separation after Robin is shot down and taken prisoner in Germany, she learns emotional and financial independence. She is a stronger and more mature woman at the end of WWII.
Yet the very magnitude of her success during the war makes the lack of work, purpose and appreciation after the war particularly painful. She embraces the chance for a new start that the Robin's posting to Berlin brings, but she dreads being nothing but a "hostess." It is her longing for a more meaningful role that causes her to subtly guide her houseguest David Goldman to consider establishing his new business in Berlin. She volunteers to undertake the market studies necessary to test the viability of the concept. In doing so, she explores a Berlin her husband -- and most of the occupation forces -- know nothing about: the desperate situation of Berlin's health care institutions.
Thus Emily plays a critical role in the launch of the air ambulance in Berlin -- and is soon taking on more and more responsibility. Yet her personal involvement doesn't make her blind to what his going on around her. Emily's sharp brain and powers of observation are an asset that benefits her, the company she works for , and her husband in his capacity as RAF Station Commander at Gatow.
Excerpt 2:
The young Dr Sauerbruch maintained a pseudo smile and a forced friendliness as he escorted them. He made small talk with Emily without listening to her answers. When they reached the reception, they signed out while he waited for them. To Emily’s surprise, he did not simply see them through the door, he came out to the car with them.
As Emily dropped into the back seat, he leaned down and spoke through the open door. “If you want my advice, Mrs Priestman, you will not try to start this business.”
She was provoked enough to ask, “Why ever not?”
“Because, Mrs Priestman, it is only viable as long as the Western Allies have a military presence and control airfields in Berlin. Yet the imperialist powers have no business here whatsoever, and we Germans are fed up with them — most especially your air forces, which we came to know all too well when you rained terror on us day and night. We do not want your air ambulance or any other patronizing charities. Just leave and let us build back our country the way we want it.” Then he slammed the door shut before she could answer.
“I’m sorry,” Charlotte whispered as they drove away.
“I’m not,” Emily retorted. “That was a highly interesting and most educational meeting. Besides, you were right about the elder Dr Sauerbruch. I no longer believe he knowingly advocated cruel and painful experiments on living humans. We will, however, have to tell David what the younger Sauerbruch said.”
Charlotte lifted her head in alarm and asked, “Must we? I mean, as you said yourself, the need for the ambulance from the West is great enough to justify the ambulance service. Dr Sauerbruch senior confirmed that. His son is just trying to frighten us. He is a Soviet stooge! Did you see his party pin? He does not represent the real Berlin.” Charlotte was emphatic both from conviction and fear that David might change his mind.
Emily nodded, “I suppose you’re right, but we will still have to tell David.”
Charlotte nodded unhappily, and they fell silent, lost in their separate thoughts.
After dropping Charlotte at her apartment house, Emily rode alone in the backseat of her car as her driver took her home. As the broken masonry of the battered city rolled by, her inner apprehension grew. She couldn’t escape the feeling that Berlin was seething beneath the crust of its wounds. On the surface lay a dry, broken wasteland, inhabited by ordinary people struggling to survive, but underneath, like a festering wound, poisonous forces were at work — the black market, the prostitution of young mothers, kidnapping, institutionalised theft on the part of the Soviet state, sanctioned theft by the ordinary Soviet soldier and a clandestine campaign by Stalin to change the post-war balance of power by seizing control of Germany — if not the entire continent. The more she thought about it, the more absurd it seemed to try to start a business in this environment. Indeed, for the first time since their arrival, she wondered if it had been the right decision to come to Berlin at all. More than David’s business was a risk. The Western Allies were under threat and RAF Gatow would be a prime target.
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