historical mystery 1920s

Hooray! After the wettest January and February I can remember, the sun is finally making an appearance and the spring flowers are starting to bloom.

I’ve almost finished the research for my next book, and I’m focused on doing all the preparation so I’ll be ready to start writing soon. If you’re interested in how I research and plan a book, read on for a behind-the-scenes insight into the process.

I also have information about a book fair in London where I’m making an appearance, and all the usual recommendations and promotions.

Book news

My next book will be set in the world of espionage. I’ve loved spy thrillers since I was a child, when I was glued to James Bond films on the TV at Christmas. More recently I’ve come to appreciate John Le Carré’s less glamorous but more cerebral George Smiley, and the hapless reject spooks of Mick Herron’s Slow Horses series.

However, watching the films is one thing. Writing about the secret service is another. Since my visit to the National Archives’ excellent MI5: Official Secrets exhibition last year, I’ve read histories of Britain’s secret service (MI6) and counter-espionage (MI5) services, especially those that look at the role of women in the services. Some in the services favoured using women in secretarial posts, because they could blend into the background. However, sexist attitudes persisted: Dick White, head of MI6 in 1956, said: “Our secretaries need only two things: good legs and a good upbringing.”

I also took a trip to Bletchley Park, where the largely female code-breakers of the second world war worked in absolute secrecy to decipher intercepted messages about German U-boat activity, some in the ‘temporary’ huts that outlasted the war by decades, others in the grand old house itself.

And I returned to the National Archives to pore over recently declassified documents about the ‘Third Man’, Harold ‘Kim’ Philby, who worked at the highest levels of the UK secret service while all the time betraying secrets to the Soviet Union. Those documents led me to read Philby’s own account, My Secret War, and his wife Eleanor Philby’s account of their life in Beirut before he disappeared to the Soviet Union in 1963.

This is the way I like to research a topic – a mixture of reading and making notes, visits to important places or exhibitions, then branching off into particular stories that catch my eye. At some point, an idea for a story starts to form…

Once I have that, I begin by writing down the kernel of the idea, then start to think about characters and places. I then spend a lot of time working on the plot and the overarching shape of the novel, before I start to write chapter one. I’m almost ready – exciting times!

Beckenham Book Fayre

Have you ever wanted to write a book? With 10 books under my belt, I know a thing or two about how to get started. I’ll be sharing my tips for writing your first book at Beckenham Library on Saturday 7 March, as part of the library’s Book Fayre. I’ll be joined by several other local authors and there will be plenty of time for questions at the end.

Where? Beckenham Library, 22 Beckenham Road, BR3 4PE

When? Saturday 7 March, 2pm to 5pm

Why? Because it would be lovely to see you!

Recommendations

March’s Mystery Of The Month is Magda Alexander’s cracking tale of 1920s shenanigans, Murder At The Jazz Club.

London 1924. A birthday celebration at Gennaro’s, London’s swankiest jazz club, is just the ticket for Kitty Worthington. What could be more fun than dancing the Charleston with her fiancé, Chief Inspector Robert Crawford Sinclair?

But an argument erupts between the jazz singer’s brother and a marquis. Before long, the aristocrat is dead, and the brother’s been arrested. Wrongfully, his sister claims as she begs Kitty to investigate.
As Kitty navigates the seedy underbelly of the London jazz scene, she uncovers a web of secrets that leads all the way to the palace…

And if you can wait a couple of weeks, it’ll be on offer for just 99p/99c from March 26 to 31. Put it in your diary!

Next, a television recommendation. I’ve been a fan of the actor and writer Mackenzie Crook since he played the unforgettable Gareth in the original UK version of The Office. Since then I’ve fallen in love with the gentle comedy of Detectorists, about two men who navigate their friendship via the medium of metal detecting. His writing is delicate, beautifully observed and full of heart.

His latest short series, Small Prophets, is a also delight. It defies description and sounds a bit twee, but centres again around friendship. Michael, a man grieving for a partner who suddenly disappeared one Christmas is given hope by his father’s tall tales of growing ‘homunculi’, the small prophets of the title, who can tell you the truth of anything, past or future.

Again the observation is spot on, from the neighbours obsessed with what exactly Michael is doing in his shed, to the hapless manager of the DIY store where Michael works, and the bored shop assistant Kacey who becomes Michael’s friend and conspirator in homunculi. Grief, friendship, yearning and the trivia of modern life combine into a superb show. The actors are amazing. Watch it on i-Player in the UK.

Finally, one reader contacted me after last month’s newsletter to tell me ‘I’ve read all the Marjorie Swallow books – what do I do now?’

Well, there’s a whole new series if you’d like to try it. Have you read the Helen Oddfellow books? My contemporary thrillers, published from 2018 to 2022, follow literary researcher and London tour guide Helen, as she unravels mysteries from the past while getting tangled up with some unpleasant people in the present day. A word of warning: these are not cozy crime and are a lot harder-edged than the Marjorie Swallow books. But if you like a bit of grit with your thrillers, why not give them a try?