I had a great time taking part in a panel on crime fiction at my local arts festival alongside author William Shaw. I’m a big fan of his books so it was thrilling to share a stage with him and journalist Amanda Holloway. We talked about devious crimes, how to create a scary villain, and why seaside locations in Kent make for particularly good settings for crime novels! There were some excellent questions and I had a lot of fun. This was the first year Deal has had a literary strand to its arts festival, so I hope we can all do it again next year!
July newsletter: Blackmail In Bloomsbury cover design
I hope you enjoyed Murder At The Ritz, the first Marjorie Swallow adventure. Blackmail In Bloomsbury, the first full-length novel in the series, is on track to publish in October. Here’s the cover! Thanks to Donna Rogers, my amazing cover designer, for another beautiful design.
A bohemian party, a handsome artist – and murder
At her first Bloomsbury party, Marjorie Swallow enjoys dancing, conversation, and the attentions of a handsome artist.
But for one guest, the night ends in murder – and Marjorie’s artist friend is a prime suspect. From the garden squares of Bloomsbury to the seedy backstreets of Soho, trainee detective Marjorie and her employer Mrs Jameson undertake a perilous hunt for the killer.
Can they save an innocent man from the gallows? Is it ever a good idea to blackmail a murderer? And will Marjorie’s new satin T-strap shoes be ruined forever?
If you enjoyed Murder At The Ritz, I think you’re going to love Blackmail In Bloomsbury.
Join my advance readers club!
I’m looking for more readers to join my advance readers club. How does it work? You get a free advance e-book copy of Blackmail In Bloomsbury, in return for letting me have your feedback within two weeks. That helps me to spot any clangers that have got past me and my editors. Then, when the book is published, I’d be most grateful if you could post an honest review on websites like Amazon and Goodreads. Fancy getting involved? Hit ‘return’ and let me know.
More about Marjorie
So who is Marjorie Swallow, my new sleuth? Marjorie seemed to spring to life almost fully-formed, perhaps because I drew on my own family for inspiration. For a start, Marjorie is my middle name. I hated it at school, I love it now!
My grandmother Marjorie Swaddling (born Marjorie Ball) grew up in South London, one of 10 children. She’s bottom right in the photo. She grew up in the 1920s and 1930s, living above the builder’s yard in Lee High Road. After working as a hairdresser she met and married my grandfather Dave Swaddling, who had a bicycle and toy shop in Catford. So my mother – like Marjorie Swallow – was the daughter of a Catford shop-keeper and also won a scholarship to Sydenham High School for Girls.
My grandmother and mother grew up in the aftermath of the two world wars that shaped the 20th century. As a child, I learned about Auntie Vi (the child on her mother’s knee), whose fiancé died in the second world war, and Auntie Dulcie (bottom left), whose husband was also killed. My grandfather was away fighting in France when my mother was a small child. It’s this aftermath of war, and the changes it brought, that first sparked my interest in writing about the 1920s.
What I love most about Marjorie Swallow is her mixture of innocence and quick-wittedness. She enjoys life, she’s kind and courageous – and she has a great sense of humour. Perhaps the many excellent women in my family history were peering over my shoulder while I wrote?
What I’ve enjoyed this month
The book I’ve enjoyed most this month is Stephen Bates’ fascinating The Poisonous Solicitor, a true-life 1920s murder mystery investigation. Did the mild-mannered small-town solicitor poison his wife with arsenic? Or was he really intending to use it to eradicate the dandelions in the lawn?
I’m also getting into the Shedunnit podcast by Caroline Crampton, which unravels the mysteries behind classic detective stories. From the forensics of Agatha Christie to 1920s slang, it’s a treasure trove for aspiring classic crime authors.
Free cozy crime and historical mysteries
There’s a banquet of crime and historical mysteries this month! I’m taking part in three promotions via Bookfunnel. Murder At The Ritz will be featured, along with lots more e-book free novels and novellas. Why not take a look?
The big question!
What did you think of Murder At The Ritz? I love hearing from readers, so do let me know.
Haven’t downloaded your copy yet? Sign up below.
June newsletter: your exclusive free novella
It’s finally here – the first Marjorie Swallow adventure. Murder at the Ritz will be the first in a new series of murder mysteries set in 1920s London. The novella is available free to all newsletter subscribers.
Tea, cucumber sandwiches and a sprinkle of cyanide…
October 1922. Marjorie Swallow isn’t a regular at The Ritz. But she really, really wants this job. She’s been summoned to an interview to become a personal secretary to the mysterious Mrs Jameson, who wants assistance with ‘social engagements and private investigations’.
Over afternoon tea in the Palm Court, Marjorie’s detective skills are put to the test when a fellow guest keels over in suspicious fashion. Who killed the colonel? There are no shortage of people who wanted him dead. But which of them managed to slip a spoonful of poison into his Darjeeling?
Murder At The Ritz is exclusive to newsletter subscribers – if you’re not already on the list, sign up below.
Deal Festival reminder
Tickets are selling like hot cakes for my panel session at the Deal Music and Arts Festival! If you want to hear me and William Shaw talking about crime writing by the seaside, you’ll need to book soon. Check out the website here: https://dealmusicandarts.com/festival/
Research
While the first full book in the series, Blackmail in Bloomsbury, was with the editor, I took the opportunity to do some in-person research in London. I enjoyed a (rather damp) tour of London’s West End crime hotspots, and a trip to the Bow Street police museum, tucked around the back of what was formerly Bow Street police station and magistrates court.
The eye-opening tour taught me about the close working relationship between police at Bow Street and the various nightclub owners, criminal gangs and pornographers of Soho. Apparently businesses only got raided if they weren’t sufficiently generous in their hospitality to certain policemen. Oddly enough, Bow Street museum didn’t make much of this – but you can see the original cells where the likes of the Pankhursts, Oscar Wilde and the Kray twins were held before their appearance before the magistrates.
Recommendations
Staying with the 1920s crime and nightlife theme, I’m really enjoying Kate Atkinson’s Shrines of Gaiety, a novel set among the women running and working for 1920s nightclubs. It owes a lot to the true history of Kate Meyrick, the Soho ‘Queen of Clubs’ I heard all about on my West End walk.
May newsletter: writing news and spring recommendations
Book news
I’ve been busy finishing the first in my new series of 1920s murder mysteries, Blackmail in Bloomsbury. The manuscript is off to my editor next week.
It’s my first historical mystery and I’ve discovered a few challenges along the way. For example, in one scene a man arranges to meet somebody at Piccadilly Circus, by the statue that Londoners call Eros. I wanted to check people used that name in 1922, so I looked it up – only to discover that Eros was removed from his pedestal in 1922 for the building of the new Piccadilly Circus underground station! Cue some hasty re-writing.
Next month you’ll receive Murder at the Ritz, the prequel novella which introduces the series. My beta reader team has been busy checking it through and I’ve been delighted with their responses.
Here’s a taster of comments: “Hugely enjoyed it… I really liked all the characters, especially Marjorie Swallow and Mrs Jamieson, and the story was fantastic… It is a great start to a very promising series… I loved the setting of a luxury London hotel.”
I hope you’ll enjoy it just as much.
Deal Music and Arts Festival
I’m thrilled to be appearing at the Deal Arts Festival in my home town of Deal in Kent in July. I’ll be on a panel with one of my favourite crime writers, William Shaw, to talk about writing crime by the seaside! The box office opens on 9 May if you’re interested in coming along. Link here: https://dealmusicandarts.com/festival/
What I’ve enjoyed this month
On TV, I loved watching The Gold, a dramatization of the aftermath of the massive Brinks Matt gold robbery which took place in London in the early 1980s. I grew up in south London at the time, so a lot of the pleasure was from recognising places, faces and fashions. I didn’t know that development of the area of London now known as Docklands was funded from the heist. I remember going for a ride on the brand-new Docklands Light Railway in the early 80s, across acres of derelict former docks and building sites. It’s now home to half of London’s biggest banks, not to mention very posh flats.
The novel Godmersham Park, by Gill Hornby, was another peek into English history. This was a bit longer ago, and a bit more decorous than the 1980s criminal underworld. It tells the imagined story of the real-life Anne Sharp, a governess to the family of Jane Austen’s brother Edward. The difficult position of an independently-minded (but unfortunately not independently-funded) woman in Georgian England is keenly exposed. It includes tantalising glimpses of Jane Austen herself, who understood only too well the perils of her situation.
The big question!
What have you been reading or watching this month? Hit ‘reply’ and let me know.
Have a wonderful May, and happy reading.
Subscribe to my newsletter here: https://annasayburnlane.com/newsletter/
April newsletter: Meet my new sleuth, Marjorie Swallow!
Meet Marjorie Swallow: grammar-school girl, draper’s daughter and apprentice sleuth.
When Marjorie is invited to tea with a mysterious American lady at The Ritz Hotel, she’s hoping for an exciting new career (and maybe one of the chocolate fondant cakes). But she is soon helping her new employer to solve a case of murder among the cucumber sandwiches. Will she get the job? Will she ever taste the chocolate fondant? And who slipped cyanide into the colonel’s tea?
Read on for an exclusive extract of my new novella Murder at the Ritz. This will be the first book in the light-hearted 1920s murder mystery series I plan to launch in the autumn. The novella will be exclusive to my mailing list – you won’t be able to buy it anywhere.
I’ll be sending a free copy to my mailing list as soon as its finished.
Murder at the Ritz (extract)
‘Miss Swallow. I have an appointment with Mrs Jameson, one of your guests,’ I told the uniformed boy. I flourished the card, in case he didn’t believe me.
‘One moment.’ He checked a ledger on the reception desk, running his finger down the thick cream pages.
‘Please follow me to the Palm Lounge, Miss Swallow. Mrs Jameson will join you there for afternoon tea.’
I really, really wanted this job, and not just for the tea.
This was my third interview since signing up with the employment agency on Shaftesbury Avenue. With my newly-acquired Pitman’s shorthand and typing qualifications, I had rather assumed I would walk straight into a secretarial post. But at my first interview, a government department on Whitehall, the Gorgon who interviewed me made me so nervous that I flunked my typing test.
And the second… well. The sales manager at the Daimler showroom had been less interested in my typing speed, and more interested in how fast I could dodge around the motorcars while he tried to explore my coachwork. Fortunately I’m a sporty little model with excellent acceleration. I may have broken the land speed record on my way back to the employment agency.
‘Very well, Miss Swallow. Try this one. Mrs Iris Jameson, an American lady newly arrived in London. Personal secretary, duties include social correspondence and…’ The woman in the agency had frowned at the card. ‘Assistance with discreet private investigations. Whatever that means.’
***
‘Now, I have a few questions, regarding your experience.’
I split open a warm fruit scone and scraped butter across it. Strawberry jam, too, not the endless rhubarb we’d been eating at home. Delicious. I tried to keep my mind on the interview.
‘Of course, madam.’
‘Don’t madam me. My name is Mrs Jameson. You’re not serving me in a shop.’ Goodness, she had a sharp tongue. If she had been in our shop, I’d have enjoyed watching her try to best my father.
‘How are you with blood?’
‘Blood?’ Oh Lord, did she have some gruesome illness that required dressing? I looked in regret at the scarlet strawberry piled onto my scone.
‘I have worked in a hospital, Mrs Jameson. I don’t faint, and I know how to get the stains out. But I don’t particularly enjoy dealing with it,’ I said firmly. ‘If there is a choice.’
She laughed. ‘Well said. Have you ever fired a shotgun or a pistol?’
My eyebrows shot up. ‘Never.’
‘That’s a pity. Never mind; I can show you. Can you drive?’
I smiled proudly. ‘I learned while I was at the hospital, on the ambulances. And a motor-cycle, so I could carry urgent messages to the surgeons at home.’ The motor-cycling had been terrifying, but also the most fun I’d ever had. I’d never dared tell my parents about it, or let them see me in the britches that I wore to ride.
‘Oh, that’s excellent. Good woman. How are you with cocktails? Can you mix a decent French ’75?’
The background to our rather alarming conversation had been most refined up to this point. A murmur of conversation, a gentle clink of tea cups being lifted and set down in saucers, and a soothing wash of piano music. The pianist was running smoothly through a repertoire of light classics and popular songs from the shows.
Then suddenly, he wasn’t. There was a loud crash of discordant notes. The young man playing the piano slammed the lid closed and stood, glaring right at us.
‘No,’ he shouted. ‘I won’t play for them.’
[Read more…] about April newsletter: Meet my new sleuth, Marjorie Swallow!
March newsletter: writing news and a box-set bargain
I spent February in a flurry of writing activity. I’m working on a new crime fiction series that I’m very excited about. I’ll be sharing more news (and hopefully a novella to whet your appetite) next month. It will feature glamorous London locations, sassy lady detectives, and a sprinkling of murder and mayhem. I think you’re going to like it.
However, that means that the Helen Oddfellow series is on hold for now. Apologies to anyone waiting for news of her next adventure – I hope to come back to Helen at some point.
But there’s also good news if you’ve dipped into one or two of the Helen books and would like to read them all. I’m releasing books 1 to 4 in a new e-book collection, available on Kindle today. For 5 days only, this will be at the ridiculously low price of £1.99/$1.99. That’s four books for less than 50p/50c each. The price will go up on March 1, so don’t hang around!
What I’ve been up to
I had a trip to Brighton this month and finally got around to visiting the amazing Royal Pavilion, commissioned by the Prince Regent (Queen Victoria’s uncle) in 1815. The building is a wild oriental fantasy, inspired by Indian Mughal palaces on the outside, but stuffed with Chinese-style furnishings on the inside.
The lavish decoration allowed the prince, later George IV, to entertain high society in unique style. I particularly loved the Music Room (see below), with its extraordinary ceiling, and wished I could see it thronged with people in Bridgerton costumes, dancing the night away.
Upstairs a small exhibition explained how the pavilion had a very different role during World War I, as a hospital for Indian Army soldiers who had been wounded while fighting for the British in France and Belgium. The photographs of Indian soldiers lying in rows of beds beneath the extravagant chandeliers are quite surreal. I wonder what they made of it all.
What I’m enjoying
I do enjoy historian Lucy Worsley’s programmes, whether she’s investigating the murders of the Princes in the Tower, telling us what goes on behind the scenes at Hampton Court Palace or simply having fun with the BBC’s dressing up box. I particularly enjoyed her short series about the Queen of Crime, Agatha Christie, available in the UK on BBC iPlayer now. Christie became aware of the possibilities of poison during her time working as a VAD in the Torquay Town Hall Red Cross Hospital– another grand building re-used as a hospital during World War I.