Faber & Faber

Q. In An Expert in Murder the much loved author Josephine Tey crops up as a central character - what sort of reaction have you had from her fans to your book?

I was certainly apprehensive when the book came out because Tey is so well-loved; she may not be as prolific or as widely-read as some of her contemporaries, but the readers who know about her rate her so highly that it did feel a little bit dangerous. I've been thrilled with the response, though; the fact/fiction element of the books really seems to have captured people's imagination and fans of Tey's detective novels have been very interested in the other side of her writing life - her plays - and in the biographical thread which will run and develop throughout the books.

One lady did come up to me at an event and tell me that I was brave even to show my face in a room full of crime fiction fans, but that's the only warning I've had so far!
 
Most of the reviews, both here and particularly in the US, where Tey is hugely popular, have recognised that the series does genuinely stem from a love of her work and an interest in those times, and that's important to me. Significantly, people who haven't come across her work before are now buying her books as a result of reading An Expert in Murder or listening to the Woman's Hour adaptation, and that's a wonderful feeling, even if I do envy them - I would love to be opening The Franchise Affair for the very first time.
 
Q. Are there advantages and disadvantages to using a real historical figure in a novel?

Definitely. I've been fortunate enough to have had access to many letters and archives relating to Josephine Tey - or Elizabeth Mackintosh, as she was really called - as well as having talked to people who knew her, and the more I find out, the more I realise what a complex woman she was.

She's often judged on the few facts that are in the public domain, but this is a very small part of the picture; she changed a lot during the years between her first big success with Richard of Bordeaux and her death in 1952, and I'm looking forward to reflecting that in subsequent books; the development of her character is central to the momentum of the series, and she lived through years that have a great hold on our imaginations today. Because so little is known about her, though, a mythology has grown up over the years and one of the most interesting things that has emerged from reactions to An Expert in Murder is that the bits people assume I've made up are invariably the truth.
 
There's no question that I feel a responsibility to do her justice, and although that's not a disadvantage, it is something I'm very conscious of when I'm writing. That's also true of other figures in the book who are based on real people, particularly because crime novels demand some really unpleasant qualities from their characters.

I had a nervous moment the other day when I realised that the daughter of one of the Motleys had commented on An Expert in Murder on her blog; I've taken a few liberties with her mother in the book, but I'm pleased to say that she liked it enough to agree to meet me and give me some more information for future books.
 
Q. An Expert in Murder is very atmospheric. How much research about the period did you have to do?

An awful lot, and it's a joy. My partner, Mandy, is a BBC arts journalist with a great passion for social history, and we do a lot of the background work for the novels together. It's a really exciting part of the whole process and so much more turns up than we expect; both the plots to date have stemmed from things that really happened.
 
Because I began work on the book in one form or another several years ago, I was lucky enough to be able to talk to many of the key people who shaped the West End in the 1930s and 1940s - people such as Sir John Gielgud and Margaret Harris, one of the design team 'Motley' - and their comments have helped give an authenticity to the character of Josephine Tey and to the feel of the period in general. And there's no shortage of research material available on the policing of the time, as all the Inspectors of Scotland Yard seem to have had the sort of egos that made an autobiography an essential part of retirement.
 
The second book is set in Cornwall, which is somewhere we know well and love. The research has involved spending a lot of time with a good friend of ours whose family has been involved in undertaking for many years; it's been quite detailed so, if the writing goes badly, I can now make a coffin from scratch.

Q. You’ve recently completed your second novel. How do you go about plotting your books - do you have all of the questions answered before you start or do you have room for improvisation as you write?

The two books have evolved quite differently, but both started with the setting, then the victim and the rest was created from there. Mandy and I spend a lot of time at the beginning talking about the plot, but I have to start writing before it can be fully developed because there's usually one character who ends up taking on a far greater significance than was originally planned. The one thing I have learnt, though, is that the questions are never all answered early on, even if I think they are.
 
Q. Apart from Josephine Tey, have any other crime writers been a major influence on your work?

P. D. James has always been a significant influence for me, particularly in terms of the depth of her characterisation and the way in which she fuses theme and setting in her work. She has played a major part in raising the profile of the genre and increasing its popularity - and that has created opportunities for new writers which might otherwise not have existed.

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