BOOK CLUB
CAMBRIDGE LITERARY FESTIVAL
If you’re a fan of gripping thrillers and intricately plotted crime fiction, don’t miss License to Thrill on 17 April at this year’s Spring Cambridge Literary Festival. Sophie Hannah is joining Christobel Kent and Gytha Lodge on stage at St John’s College, when the trio will introduce their latest novels and share the secrets of writing suspense and intrigue. Elsewhere on the line-up, catch Marian Keyes, Caroline Lucas, Hadley Freeman, Jacqueline Wilson and lots more. Booking now open. cambridgeliteraryfestival.com
“I feel much happier writing a book if I’ve got a solid plan”
IMAGE Sophie Hannah, author of Haven’t They Grown, moved to Cambridge in 2010 after falling in love with the city during her fellowship at Trinity College
had no practical reason for living here,” she explains. “I had a fellowship at Trinity College from 1997 to 1999, which was just heaven. Working there was probably my single most life-changing experience – they were so welcoming, they gave me everything they possibly could and created this amazing environment for me to do my writing – I will always adore Trinity College. We fell in love with Cambridge then, and always thought we’d want to move back – but were finally able to in 2010.” Aside from Trinity, there are plenty of places that Sophie adores. When she nears the end of a book, she retreats to Lucy Cavendish College and the Anna Bidder Room that overlooks the college’s extensive gardens. “It’s a more modern college than Trinity, but so beautiful,” Sophie says. “Lucy Cavendish offered me a fellowship, so I go and work there – once I get to a stage of a book where I can’t cope with the normal distractions of being at home, I’ll hide myself away at Lucy Cavendish. But I also love the Botanic Gardens, and St Botolph’s Church, it’s such a beautiful building... I love Parker’s Piece – I just love Cambridge.”
to a scheduling challenge, Sophie found herself having to deliver the fourth Poirot novel at the same time as the residential course was taking place. “Every night when I went back to my room, I was writing thousands of words of Poirot denouements: I decided to think of this as a good thing, because the students were then able to see all that happen – every morning they’d ask ‘How many words did you write? Are you going to make the deadline?’ – and although I was exhausted by the end of the week, I did manage to get the book in, and it added a certain je ne sais quoi, a little excitement and adrenalin to the first teaching module. Though I wouldn’t want to do it every time...” she laughs. With her next Poirot project moving into editing mode, and her next thriller not due to begin writing until May or June, Sophie has a little time to enjoy the city she calls home – and it’s definitely an understatement to say that she loves Cambridge. “We’re just coming up to our ten-year anniversary of living here. The only reason we moved here was because it was our favourite place in the world, we
sometimes have ideas for changes to my plan, and if I prefer the new ideas then I’ll change things, but I’m definitely a planner – I feel much happier writing a book if I’ve got a solid plan,” she says. “I don’t know how people do it [without a plan] and so many crime writers do: they just have an idea for chapter one, and take it from there – and that would fill me with so much anxiety...” It’s fair to say that Sophie is a busy person: as well as her much-loved thriller series, she’s also behind the new Poirot novels, with the next due to arrive on shelves in the summer, and has written extensive collections of poetry as well as two non-fiction books, the latest of which will be published in May. Sophie is also running a coaching programme for writers called Dream Author, and is leading a brand new Master of Studies (MSt) course in Crime and Thriller Writing at Cambridge’s Institute of Continuing Education, where the writers will be guided through the process of creating a crime or thriller novel from initial beginnings to dramatic conclusions. The first cohort had their first residential module in January this year: due
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