ANGEL WITH TWO FACES  INTERVIEW

Interview

An Expert in Murder was the first in a series of crime novels featuring the real-life character, Josephine Tey; this had a lavish backdrop of London theatreland in the 1930s – why did you decide to set the new book in Cornwall?

Because this part of Cornwall – the Loe Pool and Penrose Estate, just outside Porthleven – is a place I know well and love. About ten years ago, my partner and I hired a National Trust cottage on the Penrose Estate and it was there that the idea for the series was born; we went back a few times and came to be so attached to it that we bought a cottage in Porthleven and spend much of our time there. It was a rash decision at the time, but it’s proved to be one of the best things we ever did because it’s a peaceful place to write and a wonderful setting. Loe Bar, which is a stretch of sand that separates the sea from a lake, is one of the most beautiful places I know – and the contrast of that beauty with the power of the sea and the harshness of life in Cornwall at that time was an irresistible place to start.

I also thought the characters deserved a bit of summer in their lives after the tragedy of the first book - but, if anything, I’m afraid Angel With Two Faces is darker still.

Photograph: The Loe Pool, Penrose Estate, near Porthleven, Cornwall

Does it have any biographical significance to Tey?

I don’t have any evidence that Tey spent a great deal of time in Cornwall – she was very fond of the south east of England rather than the west; however, from her letters, she always seems to be packing or unpacking from a holiday, and there’s no reason to suppose she shouldn’t spend some of her time in Cornwall. There is a link though, in the fact that Tey supported the National Trust, and the Penrose Estate is a National Trust property.

As well as Josephine, you’ve transported other characters from the first book to holiday in Cornwall, giving them a dramatic and different theatre backdrop; what made you choose the Minack Theatre?

The books all have a theatre link, because it’s a passion of mine and a lifelong connection for Tey, which gave her some of her closest friends. I don’t think anyone who’s ever been to the Minack could imagine a more dramatic setting - an open-air theatre quite literally carved from the rock, where the action on stage has to compete with a backdrop of rugged Cornish coast, basking sharks in the bay and - more often than not - a beautiful moonlit night. Part of the attraction for me, though, was that the Minack was created by one woman, Rowena Cade, who owned the cliff and built the theatre herself with the help of two gardeners. It opened in 1932, and they used to light the stage with car headlamps! That, to me, is what theatre’s all about and one of the aims of the series is to pay tribute to people with that sort of spirit. The Motley sisters - who are based on a real-life design team who took the West End by storm – typify it perfectly. The play that I’ve put into the book is The Jackdaw of Rheims, which was the play actually staged at the Minack in 1935 – although fortunately without the dramatic death which occurs in my production.

As well as the Minack, much of the drama revolves around everyday life on a 1930s Cornish Estate – how difficult was that to recreate?

The setting was a joy, because very little has changed, but the people really started with the undertaker! Even before the plot came together, I knew I wanted to open the book with a funeral (partly because whenever we arrive in Cornwall, there seems to be one going on) and so my partner and I went to see a man in the village whose family has been in undertaking for decades, and he and his wife told us an afternoon‘s worth of stories which set the tone for the book. It sounds strange, but my sense of everyday life grew almost entirely from the attitudes to death – a great respect and strength which nevertheless existed alongside humour and a remarkable practicality, which all seems a far cry from today, where the undertakers at the bottom of my road call themselves memorial consultants. The themes of the book – love and secrets, and a slow unravelling of both – came from talking to many of the older Porthleveners about life when they were young, and it’s a tribute to that past community which nevertheless looks at the darker side of family life. And research always has unexpected bonuses – if the writing goes badly in future, at least I can now make a coffin from scratch.

An Expert in Murder received some phenomenally positive reviews; are you bracing yourself for the reaction to Angel With Two Faces?

Yes, because I was amazed at the critical coverage which the first book got, and having the Woman’s Hour serial was more that I could have hoped for with a debut novel. What’s really pleased me, though, is the response from the readers, both those who have been lifelong Tey fans and are pleased to see her back in the limelight, and those who had never heard of her but who are now reading and loving her as a result of Expert – and those people all seem to be desperate for the sequel. Angel With Two Faces feels quite different to me – it’s still a mystery, and hopefully there will still be plenty of surprises along the way, but it’s very much a book about a place and a community, and because of that it feels very personal.

I’ve enjoyed reading both books immensely. I love the way you pay homage to the Golden Age whilst giving far more life and realism to your characters than Christie or Sayers did; what is most important to you? A satisfactory plot or a faithful depiction of real people?

The most important thing for me is to create characters whom readers don’t just believe in but care about – particularly because some of them are real people. Plots are subjective, I’ve found – what some people see as complex and clever, others dismiss as convoluted and beyond credibility, so you just have to hold your breath and hope that readers will go with the story, but it’s the characters who carry a novel. It’s easy to be patronising about period fiction and to forget that people in the 1930s and 1940s weren’t a cosy, sanitised community who knew nothing of sex and violence – if anything, having lived through two world wars, they were much closer to death and violence than we are. So Golden Age and realistic aren’t exclusive terms – you can have locked rooms and mistaken identities, but you have to have fear and love and grief as well.

What other destinations have you planned for us in subsequent books?

There’ll certainly be a Cambridge book and a Suffolk one, but the third novel goes back to London and to the Cowdray Club – a club for nurses and professional women, where Tey was a member. It deals in part with a real murder case from 1902, and Holloway Gaol is important – but Noel and Gertie make an appearance to lighten things a little along the way.

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