Jane Steele by Lyndsay Faye

Lyndsay Faye has produced an audacious homage to Jane Eyre just in time for Charlotte Brontë’s 200th birthday. Unlike recent books which re-write a classic from the point of view of another character, Faye gives us another Jane altogether, one who is entirely aware of Brontë’s heroine and aware of how that story mirrors her own but only in the broad sweep of the tale; in detail Jane Steele is a very different heroine, a murderess, a liar and a teller of tales.

Jane suffers at the hands of her aggressive cousin, her cruel aunt and her even crueler headmaster, and like Jane Eyre she is called wicked, but for Jane Steele this accusation is true because she takes revenge on those who threaten her and her loved ones. When Jane applies for a governess job at Highgate House, she sees a chance to regain her lost inheritance, but what she finds is a new family and the love of Mr. Thornfield. Added to this is a high-octane crime caper involving the Anglo-Sikh wars, lost jewels and some dastardly East India Company men.

Lyndsay Faye has created an enthralling gothic tale which is both a tongue-in-cheek homage to the Victorian novel and a superbly crafted, plot-twisting crime thriller. She has pulled off a masterstroke with this book, perfect for fans of Charlotte Brontë and Arthur Conan Doyle. Published by Headline.

I reviewed this book for The Historical Novel Society Magazine. See the original review online Here

Friday Feature Author Antonia Hodgson

I am so sorry I am late with the Friday Feature this week but better late than never and I am delighted to have had award winning and bestselling author Antonia Hodgson agree to take part. Antonia's debut The Devil in the Marshalsea has won The CWA Historical Dagger award and is featuring in The Waterstones and the Richard and Judy bookclubs. 

The book is a riveting tale set in London's Marshalsea prison for debtors in 1727. So we have moved on less than twenty years from the world of last week's featured book but a world away from the isolated Ulster Scots community to the filth, noise and bustle of London.

Q&A

1. Do you plan the story first and then do the research or does reading and research spark ideas.


The initial spark always seems to come from the research - at least is has done for the first two books I’ve written, and I’m just starting to think about the third! It’s quite intuitive - and is also driven in part by character. Tom Hawkins, my protagonist, is a risk taker and very bad with money. So when I first started thinking of him and a possible novel, I decided he would probably be in a debtors’ gaol in the opening pages. Then I stumbled across the story of the Marshalsea and realised I had to set the whole novel in there.

I do plot out a fair bit before I start and I do a lot of thinking about all the main characters. I’ll jot down detailed notes on them and develop the plot as I’m creating character. And vice versa. They’re very much intertwined.

Then I’ll trick myself into thinking I’ve got the whole plot ready and get to work. After about five or six chapters I’ll realise that it’s not fully plotted at all, that characters are doing all sorts of surprising things or the plot I’ve put together doesn’t actually work. Then the fun begins. (And by ‘fun’ I mean agonising self-doubt, chronic pacing about the room and the occasional happy moment of resolution.)

For me, one of the great joys of writing is the way a novel develops as I write. So while I need a plan of some sort, and often have lots of ideas about plot twists, murders, the killer - nothing is sacred. I’ll pull it all apart if need be - and actually that can be fascinating and thrilling.


2. Do you think historical fiction is enjoying a resurgence and why is that?


I think it’s always been popular. I love it because it allows me to escape into a different world while also learning about a moment in history. And then there’s that thrill of connection and understanding - it’s a very powerful thing, to discover how far we’ve changed and how much we’ve stayed the same.


3. What draws you to writing about the past?


I think for the same reasons I’ve described above. Also I really enjoy the research. I like taking what I’ve learned and turning it around in my imagination. I learn a lot, both at the research stage and in its transformation into fiction.


4. Do you have a typical working day?

Write, write, stretch, coffee, write, lunch, coffee, write, write, stretch, write, stop.


5. What are you working on now?

I’m just redrafting my second novel. It’s a sequel to The Devil in the Marshalsea and it needs a title. So I’m working on that, too... I already have an idea for book three and can’t wait to start the research on that. 

Antonia's Top Five Favourite Books

Of course I reserve the right to name five different books tomorrow. It changes all the time.


The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
Heartbreaking.

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Also heartbreaking.

A Place of Greater Safety by Hilary Mantel
A theme is developing...

Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
Not entirely devastating.

Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
Pure joy.

Antonia's Top Five Writing Tips

1) Give yourself the space to dream. Walk to work if you can. Stare into space. Empty hours are precious and vital. You need to be on friendly terms with your subconscious and give it room to play.


2) Read. Would you trust a singer who doesn’t listen to music?


3) Love writing - or at least feel compelled to do it. If it feels like a chore, or forced, you’ve probably picked the wrong story. If this keeps happening, or you keep finding excuses not to write... maybe try something else. Life is short and there are lots of other pleasant things to do.


4) Be resilient. Rejection is tough but inevitable at some point - everyone goes through it.


5) Agents and editors are not intentionally scary. They genuinely want to find the next great writer. The process of submitting material is terrifying (I know, I’ve been there and I still feel it whenever I hand my editor something new). It’s perfectly normal and indeed rational to feel vulnerable and anxious when you send work out into the world. But don’t feel intimidated by anyone in the industry. They’re just a bunch of people - and most of them are very nice and friendly. Also, their jobs don’t exist without authors. So ‘who’s queen’ now?



Thanks a million Antonia for taking part. The Devil in the Marshalsea is available in paperback now.

Blog Tour for The Long Fall by Julia Crouch

Today I am delighted to be taking part in the blog tour for Julia Crouch's latest novel which is published today in TPB and e-book. Get you hands on a copy now. Julia writes thrilling creepy stories about trust and relationships that are simply unputdownable. Follow her on twitter @thatjuliacrouch. Thanks so much to Elizabeth Masters at Headline and Bookbridgr for the chance to take part. I will be reviewing this book later today so stay tuned.

I asked Julia about her favourite "domestic noir" novels and she sent the most amazing reply (see below), so get ready to add oddles of books to your wish list.

My Top Five Domestic Noir Novels
Julia Crouch

This task has been both completely enjoyable and utterly impossible. Just five? Give me a break.

Looking back over my crammed bookshelves – like most writers, I have more books than available walls – I realised that almost every single book I have loved, whatever the publisher’s classification, could fit into my definition of Domestic Noir.

Domestic Noir is about the things people do to each other in the name of love. It’s about the levels at which we can deceive ourselves and others, and how we manage to live with our secrets. It can include police and murders, but that’s certainly not essential. The mystery lies in the why- rather than the whodunnit.

So, for example, I could include Wuthering Heights, one of my all time favourite novels. But I’m not going to, because a) there are another five that I’d put in front of that now and b) I may have read it about ten times, but that was in my teens and twenties, so it’s not so terribly fresh in my mind.

Also missing from this list are any Barbara Vine books, simply because to choose one favourite is like choosing your favourite child. It’s simply not on. However, flicking through my well-thumbed copies, I realise how formative her writing has been for me – subconsciously I have picked up some very similar themes in my own work.

Another more controversial contender was Ian McEwan. I love his work, particularly his early novels such as The Comfort of Strangers, A Child in Time and The Cement Garden – they are dark, about the outer limits of relationships and sexuality, and explore love and loss. I often wonder, if he were to start writing today, how a publisher would sell him – would he be on the New Blood panel at Harrogate, for example?

Anyway. Enough about what isn’t on the list. Here’s what is, in no particular order.

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
I love the first person narration, the fact that we only see events through the eyes of the nameless second Mrs de Winter, so, although we learn early on not to completely trust her world view, we are still surprised at how events unfold. There are great set pieces too – the drama of the burning house, the mystery and the placing of the action set up by the first line: Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again... and the sea salted, foggy atmosphere that permeates the book.

The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford
I adapted this for the stage many years ago, so it is really quite intimately in my blood. Again, we’re dealing with an unreliable narrator, and again with a famous, scene setting first line: This is the saddest story I have ever heard. If you haven’t
read it, do. It’s like a quadrille: four people dancing around each other, changing partners, looking for happiness and love, and failing catastrophically.

Something might Happen by Julie Myerson
I love Julie Myerson’s work. It was reading this particular book that made me want to write. I particularly admire the sparseness of her writing, and the way in which she manages even so to capture so much domestic detail. This is the story of the brutal murder of a woman in a Suffolk seaside town, and the effect it has on her closest friends. As Alfred Hickling put it in The Guardian: ‘while we are offered the paraphernalia of detective inspectors, sniffer dogs and bereavement counsellors, the reassuring certainty of conventional crime fiction is disturbingly absent.’ It is cruel, unflinching, yet also compassionate.

The Poison Tree by Erin Kelly
Erin is such a fantastic writer and I love all of her books. I had to choose just one, and it was really hard, but The Poison Tree is so dark and mysterious, so witty and so lusciously written, that it had to be the one. Also, it came out about the same time as my own first novel, Cuckoo. I didn’t know Erin at the time, but we are now good friends and have often remarked how close the worlds of our books are. Erin’s Biba and my Polly could even be sisters under the skin. It’s often why we love particular books, isn’t it? Because we just get what the writer is doing.

We Need to Talk about Kevin by Lionel Shriver
Such a chilling story, so brilliantly told. Because of the structure, where Eva is trying to work out things for herself, the reader is constantly asking questions – What happened? What’s going to happen? Who did it? Why? Like all the books on my list, Kevin offers no easy answers. It’s up to the reader to do a bit of work as well.

So, that’s the five.

But hold on. What about Before I go to Sleep by SJ Watson? Or Room by Emma Donoghue? Or Tideline by Penny Hancock? Or Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn? or…

Oh no. Have I got to start all over again?

**************

So what you think of Julia's selection? Which have you read? Which are you hoping to get your hands on? I have only read two on this list The Poison Tree and Rebecca both of which are fantastic dark and thrilling reads. I will be looking out for the other three as soon as possible.

Thanks so much Julia for coming up with this great list.