Salisbury Literary Festival: Q&A with Richard Roper

Today I have a bonus Q&A today with Richard Roper ahead of his appearance at Salisbury Literary Festival this weekend.

Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your writing journey? 
Absolutely. Something to Live For is technically my debut but I wrote a couple of books before this which didn’t make it. I had decided that my third attempt was probably going to be my last, so thankfully it was the one that made came off! I was lucky enough to get a brilliant agent – Laura Williams at Greene & Heaton – and within a week of the book going out on submission I was in the mad position of having a UK and US book deal, with some European ones on the way. It made all the rejection and early morning starts worthwhile!

I'm looking forward to your panel at this year's Salisbury Literary Festival, how did you feel to be invited to be part of the festival? And what are you most looking forward to about your event? 
Thank you! I’m really looking forward to it, and I’m really flattered to have been asked. I’ve done a few festivals in the last month or so and it’s just the nicest thing to be given the opportunity to talk about your book, hear from other authors, and get to meet lots of lovely readers.

If  you had to give an elevator pitch for Something to Live For, what would it be?
A darkly comic, ultimately uplifting tale of a man who is faced with a dilemma: to carry on living a lie, or risk losing everything to have another shot at living life to the full.    

Sometimes you have to risk everything to find your something...

All Andrew wants is to be normal. He has the perfect wife and 2.4 children waiting at home for him after a long day. At least, that's what he's told people.

The truth is, his life isn't exactly as people think and his little white lie is about to catch up with him.

Because in all Andrew's efforts to fit in, he's forgotten one important thing: how to really live. And maybe, it's about time for him to start.

Loneliness and living  alone is at the heart of Something to Live For, both for Andrew with his fictional family and the people who have died with no next of kin, where did the inspiration come from for these storylines?    
What sparked the story was an article I read about the council workers who have to deal with the situation when someone dies alone. I knew I wanted to follow a character who did that job. And then I started to think about periods of loneliness I had been through myself, which had led to experiences both comic and sad, and decided to explore that further with my protagonist, Andrew.

Salisbury Literary Festival: Introducing the Salisbury Greats by Tom Bromley

It's almost time for this year's Salisbury Literary Festival to begin so for the final post for this year it's my pleasure to hand the blog over to festival director Tom Bromley to introduce this year's Salisbury Greats.

One of the reasons for setting up the Salisbury Literary Festival was in order to celebrate its rich and varied literary heritage. Each year, the festival includes a Salisbury Greats strand, where we look in detail at the work of some of these authors, and the 2019 festival is no exception.

Over the centuries Salisbury and the surrounding area has provided both a setting for a number of wonderful novels, and also a home to many great writers themselves. Most recently, the playwright Barney Norris, who grew up in Salisbury, published his debut novel, Five Rivers Met On A Wooded Plain. At the heart of his book is the place he describes as ‘this quiet city, where the spire soars into the blue, where rivers and stories weave into one another, where lives intertwine.’

But Barney Norris is by no means the first writer to write about Salisbury. Norris attended Bishop Wordsworth’s School, which from 1945 to 1961 was famously graced with the presence of William Golding – one of the rare handful of novelists to have won both the Booker Prize and the Nobel Prize for Literature. It was while Golding was a teacher at the school that he wrote his most famous book, Lord of the Flies. However much his observations of pupil behaviour fed into that novel, the setting of Bishop Wordsworth’s certainly influenced his 1964 novel, The Spire. As well as working in such close proximity to the cathedral, Golding’s time at Bishop Wordsworth’s coincided with the rebuilding of the top of the spire between 1945 and 1951 – an echo of his own novel about the building of the medieval cathedral.

Giveaway: Win a pair of tickets to see Keith Stuart & Richard Roper at Salisbury Literary Festival

This time next week it will be the main and busy day of events at Salisbury Literary Festival and kicking off the events at Salisbury Playhouse will be Keith Stuart and Richard Roper in conversation.

Keith Stuart is a journalist who has been covering video games and digital culture for over 20 years, he has written for numerous publications and is the video games correspondent for The Guardian. His bestselling debut novel, A Boy Made of Blocks, which was inspired by Keith’s relationship with his autistic son, was selected for the Richard and Judy Book Club. His second novel, Days of Wonder, was published in February.

Tom, devoted single father to Hannah, is the manager of a tiny local theatre. On each of her birthdays, its colourful cast of part-time actors have staged a fantastical production just for her - a day of wonder. However hard life gets, all Tom wants to do is make every moment magical for her.

Now, as Hannah begins to spread her wings, the theatre comes under threat of closure and the two could lose one another. But maybe, just maybe, one final day of magic might just save them both.

Richard Roper is a non-fiction editor at Headline. His debut novel, Something To Live For, was inspired by an article he read about the council workers who deal with situations when someone dies alone. A warm-hearted and humorous novel in the vein of David Nicholls and Nick Hornby, it was published by Orion in June.

Salisbury Literary Festival: Q&A with Ayisha Malik

Today I'm delighted to welcome Ayisha Malik to the blog to chat about her latest book This Green and Pleasant Land as well as her appearance at Salisbury Literary Festival later this month.

Welcome back to the blog Ayisha, I can't believe it's been 4 years since I hosted a Q&A with you on publication day for your debut novel.  Can you give us a brief recap/intro to yourself and your writing journey.  Thanks for having me back! My debut novel was Sofia Khan is not Obliged and it was followed by its sequel, The Other Half of Happiness. SKINO was a CityRead London book this year so it was nice to relive talking about my first book. More recently, my third novel, This Green and Pleasant Land, was published. 

I’d always wanted to be a writer and I’d been told that the best way to get published is to work in a publishing house… I guess it worked since I spent several years working in publishing. First as a publicist at Penguin Random House and then as an editor at Cornerstones Literary Consultancy. 

How did you feel to be invited to be a part of this year's Salisbury Literary Festival?  And what are you most looking forward to about your event? (Sadly I cannot attend your event due to a scheduling clash so hope to hear all about it from a friend instead).

It's lovely to be invited to a festival so close to Dorset, which is where I went to research This Green and Pleasant Land – though it’s not explicitly set there, it is very much based on West Dorset. I’m looking forward to chatting to readers and the audience about the book and the writing process.  

If  you had to give an elevator pitch for This Green and Pleasant Land, what would it be?
When I first told my agent about the story I had in mind she called it a cross between The Vicar of Dibley and The Casual Vacancy. This was pleasing. 

Everyone has a place they call home. But who gets to decide where you belong?

Salisbury Literary Festival: Q&A with Paul Burston

Today it's my pleasure to welcome Paul Burston, author of The Closer I Get, to the blog ahead of his appearance at next month's Salisbury Literary Festival.

Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your writing journey.
I’ve always written stories, since I was a small child. I wrote short stories and puppet shows for my marionettes Goofy, Pinky and Perky, Ermentrude and The Witch. I had a very vivid imagination! I tried writing several novels as a teenager - all abandoned. I then studied English Literature and Drama at university and wrote and directed a few fringe productions. In my mid 20s, the AIDS crisis impacted on my circle of friends and I became very politicised. I joined the AIDS activist group ACT-UP and started writing opinion pieces for various newspapers and magazines. 

I later became an editor at Time Out and co-founded Attitude magazine. I also published four non-fiction books. Then in 1999 my editor suggested I write a novel and in 2001 my gay rom-com Shameless was published. I wrote three more novels in a similar vein before turning to crime fiction in 2016 with The Black Path.

If  you had to give an elevator pitch for The Closer I Get, what would it be?
A novelist with writer’s block attracts the attention of an online admirer and is drawn into the dark side of social media. 

Tom is a successful author, but he’s struggling to finish his novel. His main distraction is an online admirer, Evie, who simply won’t leave him alone.

Evie is smart, well read and unstable; she lives with her father and her social-media friendships are not only her escape, but everything she has.

When she’s hit with a restraining order, her world is turned upside down, and Tom is free to live his life again, to concentrate on writing.

But things aren’t really adding up. For Tom is distracted but also addicted to his online relationships, and when they take a darker, more menacing turn, he feels powerless to change things. Because maybe he needs Evie more than he’s letting on.

They say write what you know and for you this was scarily the case, did you find it cathartic to use your own experiences of online trolling to write this story?
Yes, very much so. I had a few doubts at first. The real life experience was deeply unsettling and traumatic and I feared I might reopen old wounds. But in order for the book to work, I had to get inside the head of the stalker and discover what made them tick. Writing the book became a way of working through my emotions. I went from being very angry with the person who stalked me to feeling sorry for them. 

Spotlight on Salisbury Literary Festival 2019

Next month sees the return of Salisbury Literary Festival which is now in its third year of running, it's great having a festival featuring something I love 📚 in my home city that I can support. I've already bought tickets for a couple of events on the Saturday and have a few other events that I still need to buy tickets for. Last year festival director Tom Bromley wrote a post talking about how the festival came to fruition, which you can read here, so today I have decided to shine the spotlight on a few of the events that are taking place this year (full schedule of events can be downloaded here).

The festival kicks off on Friday 18th October with three events; a Walking Book Group tour of Avebury with local archeologist and author Nicola Ford talking about the inspiration of her novel The Hidden Bones, a 'Salisbury Greats' talk at the library about Michael Gilbert, founder of the Crime Writers' Association, and the headliner event, and one my friend wants me to go to with her, is Jung Chang at Salisbury Cathedral.

Jung Chang is the author of the award-winning bestseller Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China which has sold over 13 million copies to date. Jung Chang’s latest book, published in October, is Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister, telling the story of the influential Soong sisters, three women who in their different ways shaped the course of modern Chinese history.

Blogiversary Giveaway: Win a signed copy of Killing It by Asia Mackay

I recently did a Q&A with Asia Mackay as part of the Salisbury Literary Festival promo, which you can read here, and on Saturday I headed off to the Salisbury Playhouse for a day of events including Asia and Gill Sims in conversation with Christina Bunce, director of the Professional Writing Academy.

Despite the event being the first one of the day, it was well attended and was one of the most entertaining sessions I went to all weekend.  I still can't believe that Asia is the mother of 4 young kids and still manages to find the time to write, she's currently working on a sequel to her debut novel Killing It yet I still haven't managed to find the time to read her book!

When I knew I was going to be seeing Asia at the festival, I bought a copy of Killing It which she kindly signed for me on Saturday for a lucky follower to win as part of these blogiversary celebrations.

Every working mum has had to face it.

The guilt-fuelled, anxiety-filled first day back in the office after maternity leave.

But this working mum is one of a kind.

Meet Alexis Tyler.

An elite covert agent within Her Majesty's Secret Service.

Blogiversary Giveaway: Win a signed copy of Why Mummy Drinks by Gill Sims

On Saturday I went to a few events as part of Salisbury Literary Festival and the first event of the day was Gill Sims & Asia Mackay in conversation with Christina Bunce.  Both authors books couldn't be more different, I recently did a Q&A with Asia which you can read here, and yet the combination worked really well.

Although I had seen Gill's books talked about on social media I've not read either Why Mummy Drinks or her latest book Why Mummy Swears as I didn't think they would appeal to me as I'm not a mother myself but yet I could totally relate to some of the topics that were discussed on the day.

So today's giveaway is for this signed copy of Why Mummy Drinks (there might be a giveaway later in the week for a signed copy of Asia's book Killing It 😉).

It is Mummy’s 39th birthday. She is staring down the barrel of a future of people asking if she wants to come to their advanced yoga classes, and polite book clubs where everyone claims to be tiddly after a glass of Pinot Grigio and says things like ‘Oooh gosh, are you having another glass?’

Salisbury Literary Festival: The Write Stuff with... Richard Skinner

Today is the final feature for Salisbury Literary Festival ahead of the first event which starts on Wednesday.  I'm really looking forward to the mix of events I'm going to, I currently have tickets to 6 events and I'm still at this late stage thinking of buying 1 more!

It's my pleasure today to hand the blog over to Richard Skinner to introduce the event he is chairing, Food and Fiction at Fisherton Mill, which is a on the road version of the Vanguard Reading sessions that he set up.

I started Vanguard Readings because, at Faber Academy, I continually meet a lot of brilliant new writers who, as long as they remain unpublished, receive very few invitations to read their work. So, in 2011, I decided to do something about that and set up a monthly series of readings as a platform for new writers to read their work. The idea immediately struck a chord, our audience quickly grew and, seven years later,  Vanguard is now a thriving community of writers who meet once a month to share their experiences and support Vanguard and its ethos of promoting new work.

The set-up at Vanguard is simple: 6 readers per event reading alphabetically for around 10 minutes each. It doesn’t matter if you’re an unpublished writer or Ian McEwan, it’s done alphabetically and democratically. Over time, the 10 events held every year have shaped themselves into different kinds of event. For instance, I put aside four events per year for my Faber Academy alumni to read. I make sure to programme two poetry-only events per year, which tend to be very special nights. Also, a few years ago, I started to offer half the slots per event to small presses so that they could showcase their authors. So far, among others, we have hosted Galley Beggar Press and Boiler House Press from Norwich, the Smith Doorstop Laureate’s Choices series from Sheffield and Smokestack Books from Middlesbrough.

Salisbury Literary Festival: Q&A with Karen Hamilton

Today is the final Q&A as part of the Salisbury Literary Festival features, although I do have one more guest post coming up on Monday, so it's my absolute pleasure to welcome Karen Hamilton back to the blog to talk about her debut novel The Perfect Girlfriend and her appearance at the festival next week. 

Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your writing journey?
Thank you. To be a writer was always 'the dream' however I didn't take it seriously until after my middle son was born. I worked as a long-haul flight attendant, however it was becoming harder for me to leave my children as I missed them when I went away, so I thought it was time to concentrate on writing. It took nine years of learning by attending literary or book festivals, practising (I wrote two books) rejections, lots of reading and determination before The Perfect Girlfriend was published. Something that really gave me a confidence boost was coming second in a first chapter competition for Grazia magazine a few years after I began writing. 

If you had to give an elevator pitch for The Perfect Girlfriend, what would it be? 
It's about a women who obtains a job as a flight attendant to win back the affections of her pilot ex-lover. 

Juliette really was an unhinged woman on a mission to win back her man, did she turn out the way you originally intended or did her character take a path of her own once the writing process began? 
I sensed her as incredibly damaged, so I always knew she'd be utterly ruthless and determined. In the original drafts, she was worse (which is a bit scary) and I'd 'toned' her behaviour down by the final draft! 

Juliette loves Nate.
She will follow him anywhere. She's even become a flight
attendant for his airline, so she can keep a closer eye on him.

They are meant to be.
The fact that Nate broke up with her six months ago means nothing.
Because Juliette has a plan to win him back.

She is the perfect girlfriend.
And she'll make sure no one stops her from
getting exactly what she wants.

True love hurts, but Juliette knows it's worth all the pain...

How did you feel to be invited to be a part of Salisbury Literary Festival? 
I was delighted to be asked.  It's always a genuine pleasure to be given an opportunity such as this. I don't live too far away from Salisbury and I spent some of my teenage years there, so it's always great place to visit. 

Salisbury Literary Festival: Q&A with C.J. Tudor

There's just over a week to go until the first event starts at this year's Salisbury Literary Festival but I still have a couple more feature posts to share with you.  Today it's my absolute pleasure to welcome C.J. Tudor to the blog to talk about her debut novel The Chalk Man, which I'll be reviewing later, and her event with Stuart Turton.

Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your writing journey? 
Well, it’s been a long journey! I didn’t knuckle down to try and write properly until my mid-thirties. I suppose, like a lot of people, I thought I would write a book, immediately get an agent and publishing deal. Ten years, many books and rejections later, that’s exactly what happened!

If you had to give an elevator pitch for your debut novel The Chalk Man, what would it be? 
IT meets Stranger Things in a small English market town. Chills, twists and creepy chalk drawings.

The cover of The Chalk Man alone conjures up a creepy image of the story that is about to unfold, where did the inspiration come from? 
The inspiration came from a box of coloured chalks that a friend bought for my daughter’s second birthday. We spent the afternoon drawing stick figures all over the driveway. Then we went inside and forgot about them. Later that night, I opened the back door and I was confronted by all these weird chalk drawings. In the darkness, they suddenly looked incredibly sinister. I called out to my partner: ‘These chalk men look really creepy in the dark.’ 

It was only meant to be a game . . .

None of us ever agreed on the exact beginning.

Was it when we started drawing the chalk figures, or when they started to appear on their own?

Was it the terrible accident?

Or when they found the first body?

I’m looking forward to your panel at this year’s Salisbury Literary Festival, how did you feel to be invited to be part of the festival? 
Thank you. It felt brilliant!! Especially as it’s in my home town where I was born. It’s a massive honour!!

Have you been on a panel at a festival event before? 
Yes, I’ve done a few now and they’re always fun. I love talking about my book. After all, for ten years no one wanted to hear about my writing, so I’m making the most of it now!

What are you most looking forward to about your event?
Having a laugh with Stu Turton and listening to him talk because he is very talented and hugely funny. Also, talking about my book in my home town.

Salisbury Literary Festival: Q&A with Libby Page

As I've had such a great response from authors I'm delighted to be hosting a second author Q&A this week as part of my Salisbury Literature Festival features.  So today it's my pleasure to welcome Libby Page to talk about her debut novel The Lido which Emma reviewed earlier in the Summer here, her writing and of course her event at the festival. 

Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your writing journey? 
I have always wanted to be an author. When I was little I was always writing stories and poems. As I got a bit older I realised that becoming an author isn’t always straight-forward, so I decided to study journalism at university. I still wanted to write but thought journalism might be more of a steady career. After graduating I worked for a year as a journalist at the Guardian but found that writing as a job every day meant I had no time or headspace left to write creatively, which has always been my main passion.

I decided to leave journalism and worked for the next couple of years in marketing. The move worked for me – I found that I suddenly had more motivation to write in my free time and that’s when I started writing The Lido. It took me a year to write, fitting it around my full-time job, and then another year to find an agent and get my publishing deal. 

If you had to give an elevator pitch for your debut novel The Lido, what would it be? 
The Lido is a story about the unlikely friendship between 86-year-old Rosemary and 26-year-old Kate as they come together to try to save their local lido from closure. It’s about community, friendship and will hopefully leave you feeling uplifted and ready for a swim! 

Where did the inspiration for The Lido come from?  
I first moved to London from a small town when I was 18. At first I found it very overwhelming – I was used to saying ‘hello’ to people in the street. In my second year of university I lived in Brixton, in South London, where the Lido is set. It was in Brixton that I found a real sense of community that made me really fall in love with the city. But I noticed it was a community that was under threat, with big chains moving in and pushing out small businesses and community spaces. It made me think about how much we lose when we lose those spaces where people of all backgrounds come together. I am a keen outdoor swimmer so to me the beautiful lido in Brockwell Park seemed the perfect place to set the novel and be able to talk about this issue of community and its importance. 

The Lido has created such a buzz since it was first published in April, what is it do you think that has drawn people to this book and given them such a good feeling while reading it ?
The book centers around normal people who are trying to fight for something they truly care about. I think this is something a lot of people can relate to. And in a time when news headlines are so dominated by bad news, I think people are probably seeking out positive stories as an antidote. The feelgood nature of the book is certainly something readers comment on, which makes me very happy – it’s a wonderful feeling to feel like you’re able to make someone feel uplifted. 

Salisbury Literary Festival: Q&A with Clare Empson

There's just over 2 weeks to go until the start of this year's Salisbury Literary Festival and I for one am looking forward to attending quite a few events.  One of the events I have already bought a ticket for is the Crime Writers Panel so it's my pleasure to welcome Clare Empson to the blog to talk about her debut novel Him and her festival appearance.

Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your writing journey? 
Well it’s been a long one! I’ve spent my career as a journalist but have been writing novels in one form or another for almost two decades.

Twelve years ago I had a manuscript picked up off the slush pile by an agent but it didn’t get a deal. That was a sharp learning curve because really it was just a very unpolished first draft. I realised that if I wanted to write the kind of novel I like to read then I needed to spend more time crafting it. It took almost nine years to get HIM into shape but when I finally did the agent and publishing deal came pretty quickly. I signed with Orion in the UK and 7 other European territories in 2017.

If you had to give an elevator pitch for Him, what would it be? 
An author recently described HIM as ‘Brideshead Revisited meets Big Little Lies’ which sums it up so well I have pinched it as my elevator pitch. It’s the story of a woman who becomes mute after witnessing a traumatic event and must revisit a passionate love affair from the past to heal herself.  HIM is about  those choices and decisions we make, often with little thought, and they end up imploding our lives.

Where did the inspiration for the central character Catherine to suffer Elective Mutism come from?   
Years ago a teacher told us our daughter had Selective Mutism (she didn’t) but it triggered an interest in mutism and how it affects a wide range of people for many different reasons. I’m lucky enough to have a very learned psychiatrist friend who was able to help me research this condition in depth.

'You're stuck there, aren't you? Right at the end. And I wonder if it might help to go back to the beginning, to put everything in some kind of order.'

Catherine has witnessed something so traumatic that she can't speak. Or won't speak.The doctors say the only way forward is to look into her past.

Catherine needs to start with HIM .

Fifteen years ago she met Lucian at university and fell into a passionate love affair. They were meant to be together forever. But something happened. Something that destroyed them.

Catherine married someone else. Had two children. She moved on - or so she thought. Now Lucian is back, showing her how different life could have been.

But going back to the beginning won't change the ending.
In fact, it might be the thing that finally breaks her...

I'm looking forward to your panel at this year's Salisbury Literary Festival, how did you feel to be invited to be part of the festival? 
I’m so thrilled to be invited, it’s such a great festival and also local to me which makes it special.  The author line up is amazing this year and I’ve booked in for quite a few events.

Salisbury Literary Festival: Q&A with Asia Mackay

It's the start of a new week so it must be time for the next Salisbury Literary Festival post.  Today I'm delighted to welcome Asia Mackay to the blog to talk about her debut novel Killing It and her appearance at the festival next month.

Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your writing journey?
I’m a mum of four and Killing It is my first book. As much as I loved writing at school I’d never really pursued it. Then one night I was crawling across my kids’ bedroom floor trying not to wake the baby and I thought if only I had some kind of special ops training, maybe I’d manage to get out of here without him waking. It sparked the idea of a hard-core secret agent busy on important missions for the good of the country, but still having to rush home in time for bath time. 

I found myself jotting down notes on my phone when feeding - ‘Gun in nappy bag, pretend formula is cocaine, does breast milk have DNA in?’ – the mad ramblings of a sleep-deprived mother. After a few months of this I realised I needed to either make a go of it or just forget about it. I sat down one evening and started writing and the very first paragraph I ever wrote is still the opening to Killing It. I took the little I had written and a rough plot outline to a seven-month online Writing a Novel course at the amazing Faber Academy - and by the end of it I had a very rough first draft.

How did it feel to be shortlisted and eventual runner up in the Richard and Judy Search for a Bestseller competition?
When you’re spending evenings alone typing away into your laptop it’s very easy to be swallowed up by self-doubt and fear you’re spending time on something that no one will ever read let alone enjoy. Therefore being shortlisted meant everything to me – it was much-needed validation that my writing might actually have some potential. Becoming the eventual runner-up and being offered a two-book deal was more than I ever could’ve hoped for when I first thought of my gun-toting lactating heroine, so I feel very very lucky.

If you had to give an elevator pitch for Killing It, what would it be?
When an assassin returns to work after maternity leave, she must juggle her latest high-stakes mission with rushing home for bath-time. 

Salisbury Literary Festival: Q&A with Claire Fuller

Today I'm delighted to welcome Claire Fuller to the blog to chat about her latest book Bitter Orange as well as her appearance at Salisbury Literary Festival next month.

Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your writing journey? 
I started writing short stories when I was forty. In the eleven years since, I’ve had three novels published (Our Endless Numbered Days, Swimming Lessons, and Bitter Orange) and have continued to write short stories as well as flash fiction. While studying for an MA in creative writing I wrote my first novel, which was subsequently bought by Penguin. 

If you had to give an elevator pitch for Bitter Orange, what would it be? 
I’ve been practicing but it’s difficult! Frances Jellico is dying and remembering twenty years previously, to the summer of 1969 when she was commissioned to write a report on the follies in the grounds of a dilapidated country house. For a month or so she stays in the attics and meets Cara and Peter, a bohemian couple staying in the rooms below hers. She becomes dazzled by their way of life (drinking, smoking, staying up late) and the stories they tell. But Frances discovers a spyhole in her bathroom floor and she cannot resist spying on her new friends. As the hot summer rolls on and the stories become more outlandish, a small crime brings on another which will change all three of their lives forever.

How did the title Bitter Orange come about? 
For a long time while I was writing, the book was going to be called Blood Orange, because there is an orangery in the novel, with one old orange tree growing in it. But just as I was doing final edits for my Penguin editor we learned that another book was going to be published called Blood Orange, and I had to change my title and some of the story. In the end, I’ve found I prefer Bitter Orange; Blood Orange seems to suggest a crime novel, and although there are crimes in the book, it’s not really that genre. 

Bitter Orange features a socially awkward spinster and a hedonistic young couple whose paths cross whilst staying in a dilapidated country house, where did the inspiration come from? 
It started with a flash fiction story of 100 words, about a man spying through a hole in a ceiling-rose onto a woman in the flat below his. I thought it would be interesting to make the person doing the spying a woman and the person below, a man. 

From the attic of a dilapidated English country house, she sees them - Cara first: dark and beautiful, clinging to a marble fountain of Cupid, and Peter, an Apollo. It is 1969 and they are spending the summer in the rooms below hers while Frances writes a report on the follies in the garden for the absent American owner. But she is distracted. Beneath a floorboard in her bathroom, she discovers a peephole which gives her access to her neighbours' private lives.

To Frances' surprise, Cara and Peter are keen to spend time with her. It is the first occasion that she has had anybody to call a friend, and before long they are spending every day together: eating lavish dinners, drinking bottle after bottle of wine, and smoking cigarettes till the ash piles up on the crumbling furniture. Frances is dazzled.

But as the hot summer rolls lazily on, it becomes clear that not everything is right between Cara and Peter. The stories that Cara tells don't quite add up - and as Frances becomes increasingly entangled in the lives of the glamorous, hedonistic couple, the boundaries between truth and lies, right and wrong, begin to blur. Amid the decadence of that summer, a small crime brings on a bigger one: a crime so terrible that it will brand all their lives forever.

I'm looking forward to your panel at this year's Salisbury Literary Festival, how did you feel to be invited to be part of the festival? 
I was absolutely delighted. Salisbury is a wonderful city, and a lovely place to visit. And there are some really interesting writers speaking. I’m also excited to be judging the adult category for the Salisbury Story Prize; I’m looking forward to finding some gems amongst the entries. 

Salisbury Literary Festival: The Write Stuff with... Tom Bromley

As I live and work in Salisbury it seemed only fitting that I should run some regular features on the blog to help support and promote this year's Salisbury Literary Festival which is taking place next month.  Over the next 6 weeks I'll be running weekly features on Mondays with guest posts, Q&A's with some of the authors taking part as well as a couple of giveaways for a pair of tickets.

First up it's my my absolute pleasure to welcome festival director Tom Bromley to the blog to talk about how the Salisbury Literary Festival came about, an insight to the challenges faced with organising this year's festival and an introduction to a few of the events.

Paul Clifton Photography

There’s a great early 1980s song by the singer Jona Lewie called You’ll Always Find Me In The Kitchen At Parties. Jona Lewie might not have been there in this particular case, but it was in the kitchen at a friend’s party that the seeds of the Salisbury Literary were sown.

The discussion started over why Salisbury had never had a literary festival. There are lots of place near Salisbury that do – Marlborough, Winchester, Bath, even Mere, yet Salisbury was oddly absent, despite having a literary heritage that was second to none, from William Golding to Terry Pratchett, Dorothy L Sayers to Thomas Hardy. That talk became a reality and the literary festival was born.

The inaugural literary festival took place in October 2017. We tried to create a literary festival that wasn’t too ‘literary’ if that doesn’t sound too counter-intuitive, but one that felt friendly and accessible, with writers from across the genres. We wanted to focus primarily on fiction and to avoid the circuit of celebrities selling their memoirs. We wanted, too, to have a strong local content – not just celebrating the writers of Salisbury past, but those of Salisbury’s present and, through creative writing workshops, those of the future too.

There were many highlights of that first year, with a string of fantastic authors including Joanna Cannon, Sarah Winman and Gail Honeyman, but one of the highlights was undoubtedly Philippa Gregory, who drew a crowd of just under 500 in Salisbury Cathedral. We were privileged, too, to have William Golding’s daughter, Judy, talk about her father and Rob Wilkins, Terry Pratchett’s manager, speaking about his long-time friend. We were also lucky in terms of the weather and also the support of those who helped with the festival – the event is one staffed and organised entirely by volunteers, and their passion and enthusiasm helped make the festival the success it was.