CULTURE CLUB
UNRAVEL THE MYSTERY OF CRIME AUTHOR FRAN SMITH’S WRITING LIFE AS THE FIFTH BOOK IN HER FATALLY COMPELLING VITA CAREW SERIES, THE KILLING AT CROWSWOOD CASTLE, IS UNLEASHED A Cambridge WRITER’S DIARY
INTERVIEW BY MIRIAM BALANESCU
Vita Carew is a student at Cambridge University trying to study science – and I say trying because it was extremely difficult at the turn of the 20th century. The fees were often much higher for girls. I remember talking to an old lady who had been a marine biologist. She recalled having to listen to lectures from outside the door, because the lecturers would not allow women in. They sat on the stairs outside. For this book, I was interested in a setting that was particularly creepy. I haven’t written creepy stories so much before. I fancied a castle and visited a couple of stately homes that were suitably spooky. It’s always good fun to visit stately homes and imagine ways people could die – picturing what they must have been like when there was no good lighting. I have fun making the books as varied as I can. It’s tempting to think there must be a formula and you just follow it. I wish it was that easy – but no. What tends to happen is that there is a core of an idea. And, in this case, it’s about something that happened a long time before and gradually unravels while Vita is at the castle. One of the inspirations was a book I read about the men who committed their wives to asylums during the 1860s, either to get rid of them or get their hands on their fortunes. Generally speaking, the writers I know fall into two categories: the ones who plan lots in enormous detail and the ones who don’t plan at all. I’m on the not planning end. I start with an idea and
about French nightclubs of the time. I really enjoyed looking around Wimpole for Poison at Pemberton Hall . I had lots of photographs and used them for what it would be like running up and down the staircases and things like the subterranean servants’ passage at Wimpole, which goes from one end to the other. Vita lives with her aunt in the middle of Cambridge, Eden Street. In fact her number, 144, is off the end of Eden Street. I made sure there wasn’t actually a 144. Wherever she goes, she has to jump on her bike and pedal off through Cambridge. I spent a fair amount of time wandering around Cambridge imagining how she would get from A to B. That period is really interesting, because of the element of change before World War I. I started pretty late. I was one of the people who always intended to write a novel and didn’t get around to it. Then, when I did, I just thought: ‘I’ve got a head full of stories’. There’s this tremendous, lifelong backlog of stories. I love it. It’s exhausting getting it all right, but it’s the best work in the world. I have a writing friend and we have an agreement that when we’re too old to write, we’re going to work out how to dictate, so that we can carry on until we’re completely incapacitated. Blink with our eyes to communicate words. That’s what happens if you’re not able to write for a very long part of your life.
characters, then see what happens. It often results in catastrophic revisions. If I make a detailed plan and then write it, it feels like homework. I’m an early morning worker, so I’m usually starting at five. I sit down half asleep and then see where we go. It’s very tempting to do nothing but go through archives and not get around to writing a book. This morning, for example, I was looking up something MURDER MOST FOUL The fifth Vita Carew novel sees our protagonist unravel long-held secrets in a creepy, possibly haunted, locale
The Killing at Crowswood Castle is published 31 January and available to buy on Amazon
CAMBSEDITION.CO.UK FEBRUARY 2023 31
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