On 12th April I was talking crime writing with author Jane McLoughlin. Before the show I canvassed by Twitter and Facebook chums as usual  Who are your favourite crime writers? Who is the greatest fictional detective in your view? Which crime series has transferred best to small and big screens? I managed to get a few of the ideas into the show but I had such a good response I thought I would go into just a little more detail here.

Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes

So – the greatest fictional detective award goes to…who else? Sherlock Holmes. (Overwhelmingly the most popular portrayal of the great man was by Jeremy Brett). Robin Vanags, 10Radio’s voice over specialist read a short extract from A Study in Scarlet on the show,  in which we experience Holmes’ deductive powers for the first time, to Watson’s general bewilderment.  There is little to match it and such wit and originality has inspired so many subsequent writers that the respect is well-earned. However, the ‘boom’ in crime fiction started in the 1920s and 1930s and as I mention on the show there are interesting theories as to why.

Ask yourself the question (if, that is, you enjoy crime fiction) ‘why do I enjoy reading about dark mysteries and gory murders?’ For many of us it is the enjoyment gained from trying to work out ‘who dunnit’ or ‘why dunnit’. We want to engage with the detective, attempting to beat them to the solution. It is a challenge. But it is also a thrill – a safe one. In reality we would shun the criminals, hate to read about the crimes and find detectives threatening.

The work I have been doing for Shell Shocked Britain threw up an interesting theory that offers an unexpected perspective on the aftermath of the Great War. The work of Agatha Christie, Marjorie Allingham and particularly Dorothy L. Sayers were a direct response to the war. The environment all three women created was a relatively ‘safe’ old England, but underneath the cracked surfaces of the ploughed fields and old church floors horror and death lurked. Women were particularly adept at evoking this sense of domesticity threatened. They played with the role of women in society and class tensions. This is a direct response to the horrors of the Great War, during which anxiety and fear, death and loss were never out of mind. Sayers’ Lord Peter Wimsey is a shell shocked Great War veteran.

After the war ended, was there a continuing need for that sense of danger, of the unexpected and of the randomness of death? I find it a convincing argument. Many of those who enjoy reading crime fiction now love the cosy domestic settings of Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple, or more recently the Cotswolds that are home to M. C. Beaton’s Agatha Raisin. Others wish to raise their adrenaline levels higher, travelling to  Sweden to follow Wallander, or across America with Patricia Cornwell’s Kay Scarpetta. I am enjoying crime novels set in the 19th Century at them moment and got in a mention for Lynn Shepherd and D.E. Meredith, both of whom had me riveted to their books in the past year. (Neither of whom hold back when it comes to the blood and guts.)

So is there a part of the human psyche that wants to face death; to see a dead body, understand the mind of a killer and to bring him or her to justice? Or are we all potential detectives, or even killers, eager to see how it is done?

Jane McLoughlin (who writes quite dark crime fiction herself  - I shall review  the book she gave me A Nice Place to Die on here soon) and I didn’t come to any firm conclusions on the radio show, but it was a fascinating discussion which could have gone on for hours. Once again I am not sure I have got the knack of staying close enough to the microphone but I get so enthusiastic I find it hard to sit still….

Anyway, do listen if you have a moment. You can skip bits if I am waffling. I will post the next show – talking books about or set in France – later this week. Do let me know what you think, or have any hints for improving the way it is structured or how I sound. I really do want to learn. I may not make the BBC but now I know why they hold on to their jobs for as long as possible….

The ‘new’ portrait of John Keats

Two weeks ago (yes, I am a little slow getting this blog post written) the papers offered some interesting headlines for those, like me, who are fascinated by the life and writing of the poet John Keats. A ‘rare lifetime portrait’ of Keats has been found by Bonhams in America and alongside five drawings by Constable will go on sale in the summer.

One of the early posts I wrote on this blog was entitled ‘Picturing John Keats: Image or Imagination?’, and it has been one of my most-read pieces over the last two and a half years. I was curious to know, particularly in light of Ben Wishaw’s portrayal of Keats in the wonderful 2009 film ‘Bright Star’ , how important it is to us to have an ‘image’ of the physical Keats in our mind as we read his poems and letters. There are so many portraits, both contemporary and posthumous, of him that the ‘real’ John eludes us; the sensitive, frail romantic poet, dying young and eulogised by the likes of Shelley so unlike the written descriptions of the man. So when this apparently ’unique’ new image appeared it was more than intriguing.

Bonhams believe the painting was acquired by the owner, recently deceased, in the 1950s, but other than that its journey to auction is unclear. It was reproduced as a frontispiece to a biography, published by Stanford University Press, in 1933 but the artist is not known. It has been attributed, loosely, to a circle of painters around Charles Hayter, an artist of miniatures famous in the early years of the 19th century but this is by no means certain. In fact, it seems we know little about it at all, other than the ‘technique and framing’ are contemporary with the final years of Keats life.

In ‘Picturing John Keats’ I concluded that for me, the very best way to form a true and lasting ‘picture’ of Keats is to read his poetry and, most particularly, his letters. As a teenager I adopted the Hilton portrait ‘after’ a miniature by Joseph Severn as my ‘photo’ of the poet I literally adored, but as I grew older I understood more about the context behind such work, and other portraits that often spoke more of the artist than the poet himself.

Having discussed this latest portrait with many others who know something of the poet and his life, it seems I am not alone in thinking it rather feeble. Some writers have suggested he is ‘young’ and that perhaps it is an image of him whilst he was studying medicine. There are two points to consider when considering that possibility: a) he was only 25 when he died so any portrait would show him as ‘young’ and b) why would such a miniature have been taken of him, Byronic collar and all, at that stage in his life? If one examines it alongside the Severn Miniature (reproduced to the right), painted in 1818, it looks like rather a poor copy. As my Facebook friend, artist Amanda White, noticed, the parting on the hair, the collar and jacket, all show marked similarities to Severn’s work, which WAS painted from life.

In fact, it was most noted that in this portrait he has a resemblance to correspondent of the Right, Peter Hitchens, or to ex-PM Tony Blair. Neither comparison deeply flattering to Keats, in my opinion anyway.

As with the recent sale of a fragment of Keats writing, it is a testament to Keats that his life and work can still create a media stir – more so probably than many of his fellow Romantics – but I for one hope this chubby image, lacking any of the fiery passion Keats was known for, is not one that becomes a commonly used or lasting one.

It is interesting to me to try and understand why we are so keen to have an image of writers before our eyes as we read. I often flick to the back inside cover of a book to see if there is a photo of the author; I love to examine the difference between portraits, thinking about what aspect of the subject’s personality the artist was looking to convey. Am I the only person to feel this curiosity?

But going back to this portrait, and ignoring that inner voice that wants to visualise the ‘real’ Keats writing, or reading with one foot resting on his other leg, I go back to my original plea to anyone who wants to ‘know’ Keats: focus on the words, his work. Not on the imagination of others…

The debate in Parliament yesterday was full of sycophantic hypocrisy from all sides. Her gender was to the fore but the fact that she was born a woman has very little relevance to her legacy in my opinion – she didn’t exhibit any of those traits that make me proud to be female. It was likely that only those Labour members of Parliament who stayed away were expressing their true feelings and to many the gesture just looked disrespectful. But if you do feel as strongly as they do and believe someone destroyed your community it would have been impossible to sit and listen to all that tosh without a fit of apoplexy. They were looking after their health, if nothing else.

I was born and brought up in Margaret Thatcher’s constituency of Finchley in North London. When I was first able to vote, there was simply no point – she always won by a mile. However, my family did vote – Labour and more recently Lib Dem – and I distinctly remember my Mum saying that when Mrs T walked down our street she would have liked to throw a bottle of ink at her. No love lost there then. But Mum was no flag waving socialist; and my father had views I suspect would chime well with UKIP now. We lived in a relatively comfortable suburb, largely unaffected by her brand of conviction politics. Even if you weren’t a direct victim of her divisive policies there was something about her that just rubbed people up the wrong way.

And now we discover that she died at The Ritz. She is to have a ceremonial funeral that will cost millions and apparently this is being justified, financially, on the basis that she ‘saved us billions on our EU rebate’. Pardon me, but you can’t pick and choose on our austerity measures. If we are truly all in this together she should have been holding court in a Costa Coffee. Her ‘remains’ as they were frequently referred to by the ghastly Nick Witchell should be in cheap pine; the handles unscrewed and recycled before she goes through the curtain in the crem. There are many people in struggling communities quietly making this world a better place to live in who aren’t being paraded through the streets of London and eulogized before 2,000 people – including the Queen- in St Pauls. Even some of the most right-wing voices in the press are suggesting this is not appropriate. She may be an historic figure, but she was not a saint. By the end of her tenure at 10 Downing Street, even her friends knew she had become a liability.

So shouldn’t it be ‘Margaret Thatcher exits, quietly and with dignity, stage left‘?

The funeral will happen; we can’t stop it. But there has already been a backlash against the Conservatives in opinion polls as people are reminded of those years in which social cohesion was sacrificed in the name of opportunist greed. If only we could stand here and say that Tony Blair was not her direct descendant…..

But there is a tiny crumb of comfort. Let the last line of her obituary read:

“Jeremy Clarkson came to her funeral….”

After a little bit of intro, where I was myself interviewed about the programme and what I hope it will offer, I was lucky enough to have author Beth Webb as my first guest, a storyteller by trade and writer of books for children and young adults (see my previous post). Listening to it again I am very conscious that I a) waffle a bit b) sat further back from the microphone than my guest, who has the mellow tones I want to cultivate and c) giggle quite a lot and say ‘in relation to’ a little too often. It was nerves – those erudite sentences just slipped away from me. I will try and ensure I sound a little more ‘serious’ in future and will also make sure the producer of the day knows of my propensity to forget I have to talk into the mic….

So here is the link. Remember – you can listen to this live online at 10Radio.org every other Friday morning at 11am, repeated following Monday at 6pm. The next show – which will include a discussion about crime writing is on Friday 12th April. Any requests for poems, themes or discussions gratefully received. As are broadcasting tips….

Perhaps I am being a little hard on myself as I have had some really positive feedback. I certainly enjoyed it and that at least, I think, comes across. Fingers crossed people want to hear me enjoying myself every other week for the foreseeable future.

Even if you can’t listen to the whole programme, just catch the first few minutes to hear what I will be up to on the show. I will be asking for your input via Facebook, Twitter and this blog  - so please do let me know who your favourite fictional detectives are; the crime writers you most enjoy and the adaptations for large and small screen that you think work best.

Thanks for listening!

But I do have my own book show on local radio -10Radio based at the heart of a Somerset community  – and the first programme  is looming large. I go on air at 11am tomorrow (Friday 29th March 2013) to start the series of fortnightly programmes which will offer book reviews, news and interviews with writers, poets, photographers – in fact anyone with a book out that I think will interest listeners on 105.3fm in Somerset or anywhere in the world online at www.10Radio.org. I will also be recording each show and putting links up on my blog so you can listen anytime anywhere. Aren’t you lucky?!!

I am nervous, but very excited. As a writer I am also a keen reader (and think you have to be) but I also love to talk about books and think about what they mean to me. I want to focus on a different genre each time and find an author willing to come on for a chat to talk about their work and their writing life. I also want to encourage a bit of audience interaction so would love to have requests for favourite poems – there is someone with a wonderful voice at the station who does readings and voice overs professionally so I am keen to take advantage of his skills.

The show came about purely by accident. I was being interviewed at 10Radio to plug the TAP conference and had talked about my book Dandelions and Bad Hair Days when I happened to ask whether they had a book programme in the schedule. ‘No! Do you want to do one?’ came the reply. I am in the mood for new challenges at the moment and after much discussion over a title for the show, ‘Talking Books’ was commissioned. On a voluntary basis of course. The station is held together by a committed band of Directors and a lot of willing volunteers but it is really well-respected and I am keen to ensure I don’t mess up.

Beth Webb

The first show – as it is Easter hols – is on the children and young adults market. I am lucky enough to have Beth Webb as my first guest. She is a first rate storyteller and writer of books for children and teens, including the Star Dancer quartet (loved by teens and adults alike) and The Junkyard Dragon. I am hoping she will be kind – I suspect I will get so involved in our conversation I will be cut off unceremoniously at 11.30am as I overrun. Timing might be something I can only learn by experience.

So listen out for me. I would love to know what you think. Most of my readers here will have to listen online I suspect but feedback would be good (although not the kind you get from having the phone too near the radio of course…) and as each programme approaches I might be asking for your favourites in the ‘genre of the week’. So keep your fingers crossed for me. I would love a long career in radio and the chance to talk to you directly about the writing we all love.

Make a cup of tea and listen with a hob nob. Books and biscuits - what could be better?

There are three reasons for this:

1) I always find it hard to nominate people to continue the tour – it feels like sending someone a chain letter, albeit  a benign one.

2) I rarely think of myself as British, or of any nationality, unless I am filling in an official form of some kind. I like the idea of being ‘European’ and embrace the possibility of one day having the time and money to travel across the continent. Being ‘British’ at the moment sometimes seems parochial and occasionally I feel as if I am being knitted together with people who have a very different and potentially less inclusive view of Britishness than I do. It is hypocritical I realise. But then so is shouting for many of our Olympic medalists if you vote for UKIP…

3) Why would anyone want to know this stuff about me? For the same reason I want to know about them, I suppose.

So why this one? Well it is one that involves a discussion of my writing life (via the terrific Roz Morris at Nail your Novel )  and I am, now, a writer. I earn money by it and am published so it would be good to let people know I am here and what I am all about. A couple of the questions seem to directly refer to my current non-fiction writing on something I consider an important topic, and I also thought it would do me good to enjoy my ‘Britishness’ for a moment. In a house full of people who consider themselves (rightly) to be a little bit Irish, I have no such claim. If I am not British, then what am I? Embrace it girl – even with the government we have it isn’t all bad…

So here goes…..

Q: Where were you born and where do you live now?

A: I was born and brought up in North London and always considered myself a Londoner through and through. My family tree shows decades of poverty-stricken existence in Clerkenwell on both stems. However, others have done more detailed research and it seems that on both sides I have ancestors from the South West, which is where I live now (on the Somerset/Devon border). Perhaps I have been heading home all my life…

Given the chance though I would be up in the Lake District. No question.

Q Have you always lived and worked in Britain or are you based elsewhere?

A: Always Britain. I do wish I had traveled and worked abroad when I was younger though. I don’t think you can really understand your own nationality until you have lived away from it.

Q Have you highlighted or showcased any particular part of Britain in your books, a town, a city, a county, a monument, well-known place or event?

A: I write about The Lake District in my poetry, and my non-fiction is set wherever the research takes me. However, I feel drawn to use London as a backdrop to my fiction. I love the city and feel really ‘alive’ when I go back.

Q: There is an illusion – or myth if you wish - about British people that I would like to discuss. Many see Brits as ‘stiff upper lip’. Is this correct?

A: I am currently writing a social history book entitled Shell-Shocked Britain about the impact of WW1 on the mental and emotional health of the nation. My great uncle was deeply affected about one of the air raids on London in 1917 but could never talk about it. In 1922 he murdered his ex-girlfriend and then turned the cut-throat razor on himself. That event too was hushed up, only to be discovered when I was undertaking some family history research. Decades of repressed emotion explain the mental health issues many of the family experienced over the century. It was a shocking time, and I think people need to discuss pain in order to deal with it. It comes out in ways we don’t expect.

Q: Do any of the characters in your book carry the ‘stiff upper lip’ or are they all British Bulldog and unique in their own way?

A: I don’t really like either the ‘stiff upper lip’ or ‘British Bulldog’ attitudes. But in my jolly crime novel Lavender Larceny (to be published this year) the characters are two elderly ladies, one of whom shows a very feisty and undoubtedly British character!

Q: Tell us about one of your recent books

A: Dandelions and Bad Hair Days is very important to me as it is an anthology of pieces written by people who have experienced mental health issues. There is poetry and prose and some wonderfully lyrical writing which is inspiring and often full of hope. All profits go to mental health charities.

Q: What are you currently working on?

A: Shell Shocked Britain for Pen and Sword Social History mentioned above and an anthology of ghost stories that I have written over the years. They are traditional ’round the fire on a stormy night’ M.R. James inspired creepies. I hope! And Lavender Larceny, which is on the third edit. One day it will be ready…

Q: How do you spend your leisure time?

A: I muddle about a lot and the time just goes. Beating my brother at Bejewelled Blitz and my son at Scrabble on Facebook….. Seriously, I read a great deal. I have loved the poet John Keats since my early teens and read and re-read his work as a source of inspiration and to calm me when times are tough. I also read LOTS of fiction; I find it is a great way to improve my own writing.

Q Do you write for a local audience or a global audience?

A: I write because I love it and I hope others will enjoy it. I hope it is accessible to anyone, anywhere and I do have readers coming to my blog from all over the world, which is really gratifying. Thanks everyone

Q: Can you provide links to your works?

A: Dandelions and Bad Hair Days has its own website at www.dandelionsandbadhairdays.wordpress.com and is available through Amazon and all good bookshops. For details of all my current projects I have my own website at www.suziegrogan.co.uk.

Q: Who’s next?

This is the toughie. I don’t know if this is their kind of thing but I do know they are all a terrific read and have very different approaches to ‘British’ writing…. Give them a look.

Rivenrod

Sarah Cruickshank at A life more lived

Essie Fox at The Virtual Victorian

Madame Guillotine

Lorna Fergusson over at Literascribe

And me. I rarely understand any of the jargon the specialist field of psychology can employ, and have only managed to stay for the first hour of the Conference in previous years…

But that is not for want of trying, because I am actually the Administrator for TAP, a role I take as a freelancer to help support my main job as a writer. TAP was founded over 26 years ago and in addition to the conference it offers ‘an annual programme of diverse and stimulating evening talks given by people from a wide professional and geographical field on the theme of psychological understanding.’ They are a grand lot and I recommend you check out the website at www.taplimited.org.uk. But my involvement with them has highlighted to me how wide is the field of psychology and how different are the many approaches to depression and anxiety.

Vivienne Tuffnell

This year the format of the Conference was tweaked allowing time for four ‘vignettes’ to ground the conference in real experience. I had seven minutes to tell my story ‘Mental illness, motherhood and finding the real me’, which went quite well, but I felt very nervous and was glad to have lots of supportive comments afterwards. It is great to be in a room full of people who are committed to working with people with depression and anxiety without judgement. The real star was Viv Tuffnell, who read her piece ‘The Uninvited Guest’ (a moving parable about learning to understand the visitor that is your depression) and then, nearer the end ‘Dandelions and Bad Hair Days’ from the book I edited of the same title. She has written of her own impressions of Saturday in Vine leaves, dandelions and serendipity ~ my thoughts on the TAP conference and there you can see how the impact of what Martin Seager (a clinical psychologist, lecturer, broadcaster and activist on mental health issues) and Dr Christopher Irons (a clinical psychologist who works for a mental health team in East London) stirred up the audience in a way that a conference about depression could hardly hope to achieve. What is ‘compassion focused therapy?’ Is depression genetic? Is it something we ‘just can’t help’? Or is genetic expression so turned off by environmental factors that genetic predisposition theories are largely pointless?

Martin Seager

In fact, Martin Seager could have stormed Westminster by force with the support of eighty therapists by the time he had concluded, arguing that instead of bowing to the pharmaceutical and medical lobby, or hitting on the next ‘big cure’ (at this conference it was mindfulness) Government should  look at psychologically informed policies, organisational cultures, training and support. He focused on the ‘fundamental triad’ of trauma/abuse, neglect/deprivation, loss/absence in childhood as the basis of depression and expressed disappointment that no-one properly questions the ‘medical model’.

We don’t fail to value ourselves because we have a
condition called “depression”, rather we feel
depressed when our lives are not mirrored, valued or
supported – this is the human condition…. 

The presentations are available here if you would like to get a flavour of the kind of challenges the speakers posed to us all.  It was a fascinating day and unlike most conferences, there was not one point at which, even after a great lunch, I felt like falling asleep. And to top things off, TAP allowed me to sell copies of Dandelions and Bad Hair Days to attendees, who could read the twenty plus personal experiences of mental ill-health it contains and take it, and the whole day, back to inform their practice.

I enjoy working for TAP and was so pleased that all our hard work paid off this year with, on a first look, great feedback. In these difficult financial times the cost of the conference (£86) is, to many, hard to justify. But the ideas presented and the ‘dialogues’ they should inspire are SO important, as Government continues to look only at treating the symptoms of depression to ensure the fewest number of working days are lost, instead of examining the wider issues that also lead to a gang culture, the vicious circles associated with some physical and sexual abuse and lives permanently blighted by childhood trauma.

Perhaps a march on Westminster, even a virtual one, is a very good idea…

Reblogged from Zen and the art of tightrope walking:

I don't usually re-blog posts to this site, but this is a wonderful piece by my friend Viv Tuffnell (author of The Bet, Strangers & Pilgrims and Away with the Fairies) who spoke at the Taunton Association for Psychotherapy conference with me on Saturday. I am going to write my own post on the same subject, as it was an important day for my book 'Dandelions and Bad Hair Days: Untangling lives affected by depression and anxiety' (for which Viv provided the title). We sold a lot on the day and have generated a lot more interest. But importantly, as Viv describes here, we heard some interesting 'dialogues around depression', the theme for the day. Thanks Viv!

D.E Meredith

Today I am lucky enough to have a guest on my blog – the author D. E. Meredith writer of the historical crime series, The Hatton and Roumande Mysteries featuring the first forensic scientist, Professor Adolphus Hatton, and his trusty French morgue assistant, Albert Roumande.

D.E Meredith studied English at Cambridge, worked in advertising during the late 80s but soon found that world unsatisfying and embarked on a dramatic change of career working as a campaigner for conservation causes, ultimately working in the press office at the British Red Cross. She has witnessed history first hand - Afghanistan just before it fell to the Taliban and Rwanda as it was devastated by the terrible genocide in 1994 for example. Working in a field where injustice was rife and violence part of everyday life inspired her she says, to bring those themes into her crime novels and indeed they run as threads through both The Devil’s Ribbon and the first in the series, Devoured.

Here she talks of Victorian forensic science, inspiration and writing discipline, something I am more than a little short of. So thanks to D.E. Meredith for taking time out to talk to me!

I have read other interviews with you that suggest you have almost become a writer by  accident! The inspiration behind Hatton and Roumande is fascinating. Would you mind telling us again how you felt the urge to tell their story?

I read a travel diary by the great Nineteenth Century naturalist, Alfred Russel Wallace, called “The Malay Archipelago.” Russel Wallace was Darwin’s alter ego and came up with similar ideas on evolution at the same time as his more famous contemporary but history has not given Wallace the credit he surely deserves. The travelogue was full of amazing detail about taxidermy, specimen collecting, orangutan hunting and life as a Victorian scientist. Fantastic and inspiring stuff and I was sure there was a novel in it. It just so happened that I’d finished a contract for Greenpeace and was between clients, I had builders in the house so it was hard to work anyway and so I simply started to mess about on the computer, thinking why the hell not? I knew if I was ever going to write a book, it would be a murder mystery. I devoured them as a child – no pun intended – especially PD James and Agatha Christie so that’s what I started to write. As the Victorians were at the cutting edge of so much new scientific thinking, forensics seemed an obvious ingredient to add into the mix. And I guess, that’s how I created Professor Adolphus Hatton and his Chief Diener, Monsieur Albert Roumande of St Bart’s

Here I must admit to being a little squeamish…. Some of the episodes in both Devoured and The Devil’s Ribbon are very gory. How easy do you find it to imagine such scenes?

I love writing anatomy scenes. I do a lot of research to try and get them right. Not only in anatomical  terms but also to describe the bodies as a Victorian surgeon would have viewed them. I’ve seen a number of surgical operations when I worked for the Red Cross and was in and out of field hospitals, seeing the impact of war and in particular, land mines on people so I am not shocked by blood and guts. I treated myself to a copy of Grey’s Anatomy. This was the bible for surgeons in the Nineteenth Century and contains exquisite line drawings.   I often flick through my copy not just to check the inner workings of an organ  but also to wallow in the intricacies and beauty of the human body which never fails to astound me. Added to which,   it’s important we see the world through Hatton and Roumande’s eyes. Decomposition and cadavers are hardly an avoidable theme when the books you write concern a pathologist working in a morgue in Victorian England. Dissection and cutting up corpses  is Hatton’s and Roumande’s business. I see no reason to sugar-coat my descriptions. The violence I describe isn’t  gratuitous or titillating though it is macabre. I am very aware I’m writing in a period which gave us the Gothic tradition and the beginnings of the horror genre and  so it feels right that my own writing is imbued with those of sort of blood soaked drama.

The dark and seamy side of Victorian London has become a popular backdrop for new detective fiction.  I think you bring something quite new, and raw, to the environment your characters work in. Scotland Yard detectives are hard to like in your books, for example. Was it difficult to find an original ‘angle’ on Victorian crime?

I didn’t plan to be an author or do much pre-thinking about how I wanted my books to be. I  didn’t look at the genre before I started writing , so I wasn’t looking for any kind of angle and maybe for a new writer that’s liberating. I just set sail, free as the wind and followed the story. It’s only after I had my first book published and reviewers started comparing it to Michael Cox’s work in particular,  that I realised there was a whole plethora of other writers  out there doing “Victorian crime.”   I try not to read it. I don’t want other people’s work influencing mine though I do try and read contemporary thrillers to try understand the issue of pace. The only book I had in my mind when I wrote Devoured was The American Boy by Andrew Taylor , who I now follow on twitter (I love all of his books) but not because I wanted to emulate what he was doing. Taylor is a master of re-creating an authentic voice – in the case of The American Boy – a regency voice and I knew if I couldn’t do it as seamlessly as Taylor, then I didn’t want to do it at all.  I think the raw quality which others have spoken about comes, not just from the subject matter, but from my prose which tends towards the gritty.  Life was hard back then. I think of the Victorian Age as being like  Slumdog Millionaire only with top hats. It was tough and visceral on the mean streets of London. As for the police being corrupt? It went with the job. Many policemen in the 1800s often wore two hats. They worked for the Met but they also did a bit of private work for those who could afford to hire them. Corruption was rife,  so I’ve based my idea of the police force  on what I think was happening at the time.

I thoroughly enjoy your detailed plots and the way in which Hatton and Roumande’s are not only challenged by criminals but by the police. How do you keep track of the clues to ensure your reader is kept guessing to the end?

I love plotting but I do find it a challenge because for all the planning in the world, once you start writing, novels take on a life of their own and it can be hard to keep control. My plots are very intricate and complex, multi-layered with elaborate structures  but that’s how the world is, isn’t it? The world isn’t lateral and neither is the imagination – well,  mine, isn’t. I like to set lots of plates spinning but I don’t want to confuse readers or undermine the pacing. This is all part of the craft of novel writing, something a writer has to learn to do through trial and error. But I think if I can combine tangential scenes and blind alleyways with an overall story which is homogenous, then I’ll deliver something that’s rich and satisfying for the reader. I’m highly organised in life but much more freefall when I write. I  don’t like plans. I do them in advance, on a couple of sheets of paper but  then I nearly always chuck them away when I start to get into the meat of the novel. I feel over planning kills creativity.  I like the fear factor. I feel like I’m standing on the edge of a cliff edge when I begin a new chapter. Of course, I think about the characters in advance – who they are, what they look like, how they feel, how they relate to others and so forth.   As to the layering which is so crucial if you’re trying to create  a puzzle, adding or rearranging clues and red herrings can be honed (added in or cut back)  during  the process of  rewriting. The first draft is never the last draft.

I can sense that Hatton and Roumande are the natural predecessors of Sherlock Holmes. Did Mr Holmes’s perspicacity inspire you to go back into the history of his forensic techniques?

Not self consciously although I did get the idea of the tattoo on lady Bessingham’s finger in Devoured from the Holmes story but I can’t remember which one. I wrote it first and then thought – hang on a minute I’ve seen this before so I googled it, found it and decided, hell, it works,  so I’m going to use it  anyway. I hadn’t read much Sherlock Holmes but like everyone else, Holmes is just part of my psyche from a misspent youth in the suburbs  watching too much telly – old B&W films, the brilliant series with Jeremy Brett in the 80s.  And now, of course, I watch the fabulous Cumberbatch version with  my kids. My youngest son is a  big fans of the books, so I’ve got more into Conan Doyle in terms of the actual writing recently. I’ve even been to see Conan Doyle’s  house in Surrey as part of the campaign to save it from the evil hands of developers.  It was rather moving and I felt like I  was walking in the shadow of Doyle. He had an incredible imagination. Hound of the Baskervilles has to  be one of the greatest and spookiest detective stories, ever.  As for my characters, they have some similarities to Watson and Holmes in that they’re a pair working in Victorian London (although Holmes was fin de siècle) but Roumande is more than Hatton’s equal and in terms of intellectual insight. I split perspicacity between the two of them and often it’s their knowledge of the human heart which helps crack the case in the end, not just their knowledge of forensics.

From your research, what do you think (other than DNA) has been the key breakthrough in the field of forensic science and why?

Without a doubt, the invention of the microscope.  All the early microscopists saw quite distorted images due to the low quality of the glass and imperfect shape of their lenses. Little was done to improve the microscope until the middle of the 19th Century  when great strides were made and quality instruments like today’s microscope emerged. Companies in Germany like Zeiss and an American company founded by Charles Spencer began producing instruments which allowed Victorian scientists to see the world in its wonderful minute detail. Both the Zeiss and the Spencer feature as “stars” in my novels. Studying blood samples, smears  of glistening semen, hairs, human skin  or other traces left behind on a cadaver, or at crime scene, would never have been possible without an effective  microscope.

Many people, myself included, can find it hard to find the ideal place to write. Where do you find it easiest to get the word count going in the right direction? Do you write in silence or can you shut out all the background noise, or listen to music?

I wish I could listen to music but for me it has to be silence. I wrote three novels in a tiny corner of the bedroom but I have recently moved house (two weeks ago) and now have an office and so it’s bliss. I’ve already doubled my output because the house is bigger so firstly, the kids can’t track me down quite so easily asking “What is there to eat?” and secondly, I can’t hear the relentless drone of Sky Sport pummeling through the walls, because we’ve put the telly in the basement – along with  my rugby mad teenage boys and their mates. Routine is vital for writers. You have to invent your own structures. Nobody’s going to do it for you. We all have distractions. I’m a mum and I have to juggle all sorts of stuff but I religiously go for a run or a bike ride after my kids have been waved off to school – “Adios amigos!” -  and park my butt on a seat in front of my laptop by 10.00am with a coffee LATEST. I don’t do anything else till the kids get home at three-ish. I don’t meet friends, I don’t have coffee or do lunch. I block the internet out increasingly using the download “Freedom” if I seem to lack focus (hello twitter!) and find that I can do 4 hours good work (ie: actual writing) and then the rest of the day is spent doing general PR, writing features, posts etc  or my favourite bit, the research – there’s a huge amount of research in my books and it all takes time. Writing requires discipline and it doesn’t require you to be a social butterfly. In fact, it demands withdrawal.

Can you tell us a little more about your future writing plans?  Is there another Hatton and Roumande planned for the near future? And will you ever write contemporary fiction?

I am currently writing the next Hatton and Roumande  book called The Butcher of Smithfield (working title) which is  set in 1863, so five years on from The Devil’s Ribbon. It’s been a really interesting challenge picking up the characters and their lives from where I left them. I’m having great fun – though it’s demanding. You’re creating something out of nothing. I spent a long time  researching the Jewish community living in London in the 1860s and the German community which was huge and centred around Whitechapel and Dalston. I’ve also been looking at mind doctoring, early attempts at brain surgery and the beginnings  of neurology along with colonial exploits in Africa and The Crimean War – quite a lot of material but the story is working really well and it’s all coming together. Huzza!

I wrote initial drafts for a contemporary novel set in Rwanda against backdrop of genocide but have put it in a pending tray till later. I found it difficult to write because the material was too  close to the bone but I am more experienced  writer now, and fully intend to go back to this book and deliver a contemporary thriller based on some of my own personal experiences during my time as an aid worker. The material is too good to ignore.  But for the time being I am fully immersed in my Victorian world and will be there for some time, I suspect. And I adore it.

I’ve done a little bit of flash fiction and I really enjoyed it. I don’t have time at the moment to pursue it but for budding writers out there, it’s a really interesting challenge. To tell a story in less than 500 words, means every word counts. This is a good thing to remember even when you are working across say, 100k words which is the usual length of my novels.

In a recent interview I asked author Lynn Shepherd (Tom All Alone’s, A Treacherous Likeness) who she thought should play the part of her detective, Charles Maddox, if we were to be allowed to enjoy the books adapted for television or on the big screen. She sees Tom Hiddleston in the role and has him in her head as she writes.  Who can you see as Hatton? Roumande?

Adolphus Hatton has to be played by Ed Norton just as he appeared  in The Painted Veil. He’s fabulously repressed, quintessentially English, uptight, work obsessed, wiry but sexy as he appears in that film and if we can’t get him,  then James McAvoy would be good. Roumande MUST be played by the uber gorgeous Javier Bardem because he’s the right “look” (big, dark and burly) and all my mates will pay me good money to meet him if he accepts the part which I’m sure is only a matter of time. I’m ever hopeful. And clearly,  completely delusional.

The Devil’s Ribbon is the second book in the acclaimed Hatton & Roumande series, by D E Meredith and is out now in hardback, publishing by Allison & Busby priced £19.99. The first book Devoured is also out now in paperback, price £7.99.

The week that has just evaporated – a vapour trail behind me as I have rushed from one task to another, has been doubly frustrating knowing as I do now how much I can get done away from my home environment. I sit down to undertake some research on the ‘first blitz’ on Britain in WW1, or how the conflict between ‘manliness’ and ‘masculinity’ impacted on the view of those men who broke down in the face of war trauma and the dog will need to go out. My daughter will ring with earache, my son with news from London – I am glad they still turn to me of course, but another 30 minutes will be gone. I start typing away, marveling at the word count as it increases by the minute, and an email will pop up about another job that needs doing NOW. In all likelihood it could wait, but of course it has broken my concentration and suddenly becomes more important than anything else to hand. Sometimes it is very hard to take a deep breath and resist the temptation to email them back and say ‘you aren’t the only person I work for you know!!’ or ‘get to the back of the queue…’, but that is not the way to run a successful writing life and when the spell is broken I find it best to get the ‘emergency’ off my mind. The average word count falls again.

I know quite a few of my readers are also writers, authors, journalists, poets. Wordsmiths all, generally working from home. Many of them find that an opportunity to procrastinate lurks in every corner of their own household. Children are, of course, bound to take your mind off the moment – however creative it might be. ‘Mummy I need a wee’ followed by ‘hang on a minute dear’ can only result in disaster. Even those with older or no children find  the phrase ‘I’ll just do…’ or ‘maybe a cup of coffee before I get started’, come all too readily to their lips. Even the hoovering can sometimes seem more appealing than staring at a blank page. Social media can take over your life, masquerading as it does as ‘raising your profile’, or keeping up to date with your mates. The lowest of the low is, of course, resorting to Bejeweled Blitz or similar online, mindless game. It does reduce stress, honestly. But it also reduces the amount of potentially productive time in the day. I have written before of my mild addiction, and the realization that the score board shows I am up against many of my online writing friends.

Sarah Cruickshank, a writer friend who is also terrific on the administrative and time management side of working from home, gave me some great advice about prioritising my workload and is one person I know who can block out tranches of time in the diary and stick to the plan. I try to follow her example, but have found that the only way to run a diary is to fill it all in with pencil and get used to rubbing stuff out and moving it on to the next day…

I love writing. This blog post for example is really getting the grey cells fired up for more serious work later on this afternoon. Research is part of my way of life, even if it doesn’t relate to work. But I live with my family of non-writer types – a husband and daughter who are athletes, interested in sports and who consider reading as a pastime for those who have nothing better to do. I find myself excluded by virtue of my sedentary job and the need to write when they are chilling, just because I haven’t managed to get myself motivated earlier in the day.

So what stops you from getting creative? How do you divert yourself away from actually getting the work done? Short of leaving home, what do you think is the solution to the writing conundrum? How do you ensure that your time is well spent?  Do you get up early or stay up late? Listen to the radio, music or simply sit in silence? Have you found that holy grail of the freelancer – a 36 hour day?

Let me know your views – I would love to write another post in a few days full of your issues, or tips to keep you on track.

As long as they aren’t ‘don’t write blog posts’……………….