Please tell us about yourself
There is something hugely satisfying about being published in your seventies, when the commitments of work and family diminish sufficiently to focus on a long-term dream.
Originally from Northumberland, I have worked as a PA in London, lived in Africa and Peru as a UN wife, sold advertising space for a business magazine in San Francisco and, back in the UK, worked as secretary to a backbencher in the House of Commons and then as a local government officer in Kent. During much of this time I wrote short stories and managed to get a few published.
Please
tell us a little about the Servant and your inspiration for the book
In 2015, I visited London’s Foundling Museum and could not get out of my mind the poignant identifying tokens left there by mothers who hoped, one-day, to reclaim the babies that their desperate circumstances had forced them to give up. Embarrassingly, I had not previously known of the epic seventeen-year struggle of retired sea captain William Coram to provide this haven for the unwanted babies who might otherwise have been abandoned to die on London’s dung heaps.
Being a writer, this inspired a story entitled The Gingham Square which imagined the circumstances that might have forced a young woman to give up their child.
My short story failed to win prizes, but one competition judge suggested that it had the potential for a book which she felt I was capable of writing. Reader, I subsequently wrote The Servant, a historical thriller which won the Historical Writers’ Association 2020 Unpublished Novel Award and went on to be published by Sharpe Books.
What
are you working on next?
Just as The Servant evolved from research into the Foundling Hospital, my current book was inspired by the statistics about female punishment in 18th century England. I was horrified that for crimes like coining (considered at the time treason against the Crown) women (but not men) could be (and were) burned at the stake. A far cry from regency romps. My working title is False Coin but, since the plan is for another historical thriller, I would prefer not to give any more away at this stage.
Where
is your favourite place to write
My favourite and most productive place to write is in a corner of one of our lovely local coffee shops, removed from domestic chores, sociable husbands and demanding cats. Bliss, especially if a chocolate brownie accompanies my Americano.
Do you
have any tips for aspirating writers
- Perseverance. Remember, it took 19 years for Pride & Prejudice to get into print
- Use writing competitions as a sounding board before approaching agents
- Keep a lookout for competitions offering critiques of your opening chapters, often for modest sums
- Join a writing group, in person, or follow one (like my own, ninevoices.wordpress.com) on-line
TThanks, Maggie! The Servant is out now.
