Lesley Thomson is the prize-winning author whose work includes the bestselling The Detective’s Daughter series published by Head of Zeus who have also just released her latest novel, Death of a Mermaid.
Lesley how lovely to see you in my virtual cocktail lounge. What can I get you at the bar?
L: Ooh thanks Anne, please could I have a G and T in a lovely ice filled globe glass with a few drops of lavender essence?
Lavender essence in a G&T is new on me so I think I’ll join you. Can you remember where we first met?
L: My memory has got worse since #Lockdown (not sure why I feel it has # – perhaps because it’s a concept as well as a way of life) so I can’t give a time, date place etc. It was many years ago on the crime-writing circuit where I always perceive you as a warm supportive presence.
I think we first met at an event in Brighton but the last time was at the Morecambe & Vice festival, which is sadly not going ahead this year. I was so pleased you remembered me! Do we have any points in common?
L: We both write fiction and we have written characters whose lives are set in London where, I for one, lived for the first four decades of my life and which will be forever in my bones.
Mine too and I’m still in London. Tell me about your latest book which I am just about to read.
L: Death of a Mermaid is a standalone set in Newhaven. It features three women who went to the Convent School in the town. It’s a murder story revolving around trawler-fishing, the tumultuous sea that encompasses themes of greed and betrayal
L: Mags, a librarian is a devout Catholic, Toni is now a detective in the Sussex Police who shoplifts confectionery and Freddy, daughter of five generations of fishery owners, whose father threw her out when she tells him she loves a woman. I’m thrilled to say it’s been very well received by readers and is a #1 bestseller.
Congratulations! What are you working on now?
L: I’m halfway through the eighth in The Detective’s Daughter series. It gets a new title every other day and I suspect it will be my gimlet-thinking editor, Laura Palmer who, as she so often does, finally names it.
L: A Christie-esque tale, I’ve set it within the ancient walls of Tewkesbury’s Abbey in Gloucestershire, it owes much to the creepy atmosphere of Charles Dickens’ shadowed cloisters in The Mystery of Edwin Drood. The story traces the fatally desperate lengths, which those with dark secrets will go to ensure those secrets stay hidden. The novel spans the London Blitz in 1940 to All Souls Night in 2019. It will be published by Head of Zeus in May 2021.
Sounds intriguing. Thinking about the events and festival we’re missing, what would be your dream panel (at any event) – subject, fellow panelists or a Q&A with someone you have met or would love to meet?
L: I’d love to have had a Q and A with Ruth Rendell. Although I’ve been lucky enough to meet her more than once, it would have been special to share a stage with her.
L: When I read The Fatal Inversion in the Barbara Vine series I understood the kind of novel I wanted to write. These stories explore the why of a murder not only the who. Two of my novels owe much to her novel set during the draught of 1976. A kind of Vanishing – a standalone set in an abandoned village near Newhaven in a 1968 summer drenched in sunlight and The House With No Rooms which also takes place during the 1976 parched summer.
What are you most looking forward to when lockdown is finally lifted?
L: I look forward to a day when I can amble along the street without anxiously dodging those who pass too close. When there’s no more stepping out into the road to avoid a jogger – into the path of a car going too fast. I will be ambling along that street to Libby’s Patisseries opposite Lewes castle to get a latte, a brioche and a chat before I return to writing my unnamed novel. Right now it seems an impossible dream to dream.
Is there anything lockdown has made you think about/want to do?
L: Since my twenties, on and off – mostly off – I’ve done meditation with the intention of living more in the moment. The only actual moment we have. During these months my plans have rarely extended beyond the end of the week. I am lucky enough to have a garden and have relished sitting in dappled shade watching a robin hop from a hollyhock to a lupin. In the moment. I hope as life evolves to a new normal, I will retain this finally found ability.
Something else we have in common, Lesley. I too have been trying to concentrate on living in the moment and my garden has aided this.
Thank you so much for joining me. It’s been really lovely to catch up over a (virtual) drink and now I’m off to read Death of a Mermaid.
You can find out more about Lesley Thomson’s books on her website and can follow her on Twitter @LesleyjmThomson