Interview for the Troubador Highlights magazine
September 2024 interview with publisher Troubador for their 2024 Winter Highlights Magazine.
Tell us about your book
Coming Clean is a political thriller in which a Bulgarian maid working for a British MP uncovers secrets about his personal life that could ruin his aspirations to become Prime Minister. But in working out whether she can reveal his deception to the world, she has to come to terms with the deception in her own life. The story is told from four perspectives – Veselina (the maid), Gerard (the MP) Alison (his wife, also an MP) and Olivia (his ambitious speechwriter.) Their lives interweave through the novel.
While I wanted to write a story which has pace and intrigue, I also wanted to explore some themes which are important in my writing: complex family relationships, flawed human beings, failure, forgiveness and redemption. And also humour in adversity.
When did you realise that you wanted to write a book?
I completed my debut novel, Melting in the Middle, in 2020 and already had this idea for another novel about an apparently powerless maid working for a powerful man, what she sees and how it starts to change the power relationship between them. In telling the story of a maid, I was inspired by conversations I had with several cleaners who had come to the UK from elsewhere. Many were educated young women who felt their work opportunities were limited in their own country. Others, often older, had left home to support the family they had left behind. I mused on what they made of our lives as they clean our bathrooms and dust our photograph frames. I have also always been interested in politics and the characters who inhabit that world. So bringing cleaning and politics together seemed like an interesting juxtaposition!
How long did it take you to write Coming Clean?
About four years from inception to publication. I like to rework every scene several times to get it right, and then weaving together the four stories and making sure all the timelines fitted together took a lot of thinking through.
What is the most important thing you have learned while publishing the book?
I think resisting the urge to rush to the end is crucial. By that, I mean not rushing to the end of the story but also not taking short cuts on reviewing the text, editing, refining and so on. And if my first novel was more written about what I know, this one is definitely exploring a world I know less well, despite my research. It’s therefore inevitably required more imagination and inviting the reader to share that world.
What do you think are the common traps for aspiring writers?
I think it’s possible to have an idea or concept for a novel, but I think it’s important to think through if you really have a synopsis and can write characters who don’t all talk the same way. I find my plot might change as I embark on the novel (that’s the excitement of writing – you never quite know what your characters will do), but it’s still important to start with a broad sense of a beginning, middle and end in view.
What do you think makes a good story?
I do think pace is important for the modern novel, and leaving a reader at the end of each chapter wanting to turn the page. But I don’t think pace should be at the expense of being able to really become immersed in characters and their moments of reflection. I need to feel invested in characters, to care what happens to them.
What was the first thing you wrote and were proud of?
I’ve always enjoyed writing stories since I was a little lad growing up in Wensleydale, in the Yorkshire Dales, but I did get immense pride and satisfaction from having my first novel published. I scaled down on my career a bit to take an MA in Creative Writing, and without making that decision, I’m not sure I’d have ever finished a novel.