What inspired the idea behind this book?
The initial spark of inspiration for my book came from rereading one of my favourite novels, Voyage in the Dark by Jean Rhys. Written in 1934, Rhys’ novel is a hauntingly intense portrait of a young chorus girl falling in love with an older man, whose influence over her starts to derail her life. I was rereading it in October 2017, when the MeToo movement was taking off, and I was really struck by how modern and relevant it felt in its depiction of the power dynamics between men and women, and in its sympathetic portrayal of a disempowered woman. I was thinking about how a similar story would play out in the modern day, when I came up with the idea of making my protagonist an aspiring opera singer; I wanted to write about a young woman who was incredibly ambitious, but struggling with the emotional and financial pressures of pursuing an arts career in London, and to explore what would happen if she became involved with an older, wealthier man who started to influence her life.
What was the research process like for the book?
My protagonist, Anna, is training to be an opera singer at a conservatoire in London. I actually briefly studied singing myself at music college after university, so I was able to draw on many of my own experiences in writing about this world. But my character is on an opera school programme, which singers do right at the end of their training (far further along than I ever got), so I did go and observe some opera school classes to get a feel for the structure of the day and to remind myself of the sort of vocabulary that’s used around singing. It was also really helpful to chat to students, and to ask them about their experiences of studying at music college.
What’s the easiest and most difficult parts of your job as a writer?
I love the feeling of being totally absorbed in a project, so the easiest part of the job for me is that it’s not a struggle to find motivation. I feel very lucky to be able to spend so much of my time doing something that genuinely excites me and that feels important to me. In many ways, as a result, writing doesn’t really feel like a job – it’s more something I want to do. But I think the most difficult part of writing is probably related to this: it can be difficult to do a job that feels so all-consuming, where you invest so much of yourself in your work.
If you could give one piece of advice to aspiring writers, what would it be?
Write the book you want to write, not the one you think you should be writing. Finishing a novel is such a huge task and can take many years, so you really have to be writing characters and a story that make you excited.
Who are some of your favourite authors? Or favourite books?
I specialised in modernist writers when I was studying, and they remain some of my favourites – in particular, Elizabeth Bowen, Rosamond Lehmann, Jean Rhys and Henry Green. They’re all brilliant writers with distinctive innovate styles, and they all write with an intense focus on psychology and interiority. Contemporary writers I love include Han Kang, whose prose I find totally hypnotic, and Mary Gaitskill, for her nuanced depiction of power dynamics in relationships. I’m also a big fan of Ann Patchett, and really enjoyed how she wrote about opera in Bel Canto.
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