Come and chat to the phenomenal SARAH WATERS, Booker-nominated author of The Paying Guests, The Night Watch and Fingersmith (among others) on Tuesday 29 September, 9-10pm

[TillyMumsnetBookClub]

August's author, Sarah Waters, is simply incomparable. She is a writer who can deliver pulse-racing, page-turning blockbusters that also become contenders for the Man Booker Prize. Her historical accuracy and mastery of atmosphere places her reader directly in the scene, whether it be a Victorian asylum or a London bomb shelter.

Her new novel, The Paying Guests, conjures a shifting, uneasy post-WWI London, where men and servants are thin on the ground, and attitudes to class and gender are in a state of flux. Impoverished aristocrat Frances and her widowed mother are forced to take in lodgers to pay the bills in their crumbling Camberwell mansion. But when the young married couple arrive, a simmering tension begins to brew between Frances, Mrs Barber and her husband, pulling everyone towards a passionate and devastating crime.

As previous Mumsnet guest Rachel Joyce put it, the story is "so evocative and compelling that all the time I was reading, I had a feeling it was me who had done something terrible, instead of her characters".
Many Mumsnetters have already given their approval: "One of her best yet. Very Waters-ish…I was completely utterly gripped." (FrancesHB).

Virago have 50 copies of The Paying Guests to give to Mumsnetters: to claim your copy please fill in your details on the book of the month page. We’ll post on the thread when all the copies have gone. If you’re not lucky enough to bag one of those, you can always get a Kindle version here or paperback here.

We are delighted that Sarah will be joining us on Tuesday 29 September, 9-10pm to discuss The Paying Guests, her many award-winning novels and her writing career. Please feel free to discuss the book here throughout the month and then come and meet Sarah on the night, and ask her a question or simply tell her what you thought of the book. Look forward to seeing you on the 29th…

I love that you want people to read rather than critique your books.

@BearAusten

Thank you for my copy of The Paying Guests. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. This is the first time that I have read any novel by Sarah Waters. Consequently, I was unprepared for the twists and turns, changes in pace. I read the first part which covered the development of Frances and Lilian's relationship very quickly, then started to lose interest in part two until there was a major shift in what I thought was going to happen. (Trying to be vague so as not to reveal anything.)

It came as no surprise to me to find that the author had previously been in academia. Whilst my knowledge of the period after the First World War is limited, the characters' turn of phrase had an air of authenticity about it, as did the general social setting of the novel.

My questions:
Do you take as much enjoyment out of researching a particular period or person as writing your own work? Where do you do your research?

What aroused your interest in 'high-profile British murder cases of the twenties and thirties'?

Glad you enjoyed it. Yes, I really love the research. I used to read in the British Library quite a lot, but these days I use the London Library – a glorious institution that’s the nearest I’ll ever come to a Mayfair club. They have shelves and shelves of just the sort of thing (eg lesser-known mid-20th C fiction) that’s really useful for me – and the brilliant thing is, you can take the books home. Local archives are good too – eg the fabulous Southwark local history archives, which were a fantastic resource for The PGs.

It was the case of Edith Thompson that first grabbed me, really. She was a lower-middle-class woman whose younger male lover murdered her husband, but she was put on trial on a charge of incitement and found guilty, and hanged – a case that really electrified the nation, in 1922. I began to think about the reality of being in a story like that – being plunged into nightmare and tragedy because of a moment’s criminal stupidity. And I was intrigued by what would happen to the story if it had a lesbian element – how that might change the outcome for the two lovers involved. I loved exploring that.

Thanks so much Sarah for answering my question. I had a feeling you described Lillian and her family of having pointy features, got confused with Leonard's foxiness, yes Lillian was certainly a foxy lady :)

Thank you for my copy, I really enjoyed it :-) my question is that the paying guests has been nominated and won so many accolades, is it intimidating starting a new novel and how do you start?

@RingInTheNew

Sarah - I really enjoyed The Little Stranger and The Paying Guests (especially the latter, as it is not far from where I live! - In fact I wondered if the house where Frances and her mother live is based on a real house that still exists or not??) I am interested in your writing process and how much you plan in advance. Are all the strands of your story plotted out or are there some elements that just develop as you go? Thank you!

Hello there. No, the house isn’t based on an actual one, though I have a very clear image in my head of the kind of house I mean, and there are lots of them in south London... In terms of planning, I am most comfortable when I have a lot of the plot of the novel mapped out in advance: I like to know where I’m heading when I start. What you can never really know, however, is how your characters feel: you have to figure that out as you get to know them, and it’s one of the most exciting aspects of writing, for me. For example, with The PGs I wasn’t sure, for the first couple of years of writing, how ‘true’ the love between Frances and Lilian was. But the book wasn’t working – wasn’t feeling right. So then I made them proper lovers – and realise that that was what I wanted. Other things fell into place then, that hadn’t before.

I'm going to sneak in another question: when I read your post about academia giving you discipline, I wondered if you could quickly describe your writing day for us: where you write, your hours and what you write with, and how many edits you usually do...

When I read your books they seem particularly effortless, so perfectly formed and easy in their skin, if that makes sense.

@TheCommoner

I'm a member of the Merton Local Mumsnet book club and I read The Paying Guests for our September meeting.

The Paying Guests is, for me, the perfect book. I'll say that again: perfect. A literary page-turner, written with such warmth, and love, and historical accuracy; I was totally submerged in it. Perfect.

Fingersmith was the same.

My question is: have you ever done a public event with Jeannette Winterson? I went to a Guardian event with Jeannette and Helen MacDonald and they sparked off each other so brilliantly, it was electrifying. I think you and Jeannette could be similar.

Wow - thank you. No, I haven’t ever done an event with Jeannette. It’s a nice idea!

@LocalEditorMerton

Hi Sarah

Just finished reading The Paying Guests for our Mumsnet Merton & Wimbledon Book Group.

I felt that both Frances and Lilian were bound by the mores of the era in which they lived. Frances we felt great sympathy for all thro' the novel but Lilian less so. Was this how you intended the reader to view the characters?

Also, they got away with murder which I wasn't expecting. Did you envisage a 'happy ever after' for Lilian and Frances? I suspect that the murder would always weigh heavily over their relationship but bind them together forever...

Could you tell us anything about what you're currently working on?

Thanks.

I talk a bit about Lilian above. Yes, I definitely intended Frances to be sympathetic - though she becomes less so for a while.

The weight of the murder - yes, I suspect that too. But I like to think they have a proper future. They’ve seen each other at their absolute lowest, so perhaps the only way is up. Apart from any other challenges, they’ve got to go home and face their families. They really need to get out of those houses. For some reason, I imagine them going to Paris – at least for a mini-break.

Current project: see above.

@magicmoon

The characters in your books always come across as so real but also very of the time. I'd love to know how your novels take shape. Do the characters come first or do you decide on an era and then write the characters to fit?

Hello magicmoon. It has usually been a bit of both. The Night Watch, say, was fairly typical: I knew enough about women’s experiences during and just after WW2 to begin to get a sense of the characters and story I might explore in the book before I even started; as I did research, then, I came across details (eg ambulance driving) that suggested new things about the characters, and nudged me in certain directions. The PGs was the only novel in which the period really came first: I went to the 1920s wanting to see what would turn up, and the reading led me to murder – which is where the book began.

@lesleypowers

Ms Waters, you were instrumental in helping me to understand my sexuality and form my identity. And also responsible for my penchant for women in period dress. Now your books are like a familiar comfort blanket (and an endless source of style inspiration) to me. I?d like to ask you- what advice do you have for aspiring writers who want to believably reference queer sexuality in a historical context?

Yours with warmth and gratitude,
Sofie

Hi Sofie – thanks so much for your kind words. I think anyone who’s going to write about sexuality in other eras needs to really get to grips with the extent to which sexual categories, identities etc are really modern concepts. The very words ‘homosexual’ and ‘heterosexual’ weren’t coined until the 1860s, and the further back in time you go the more opaque (and fascinating!) questions of sexual identity become. It’s worth taking a look at historians of sexuality like Jeffrey Weeks, David Halperin and Laura Doan to get a sense of how new our notions of sexuality are (and how Western).

@frogletsmum

I so enjoyed this book and like lots of other readers was fascinated by the period details - especially the dialogue which felt wonderfully authentic. I read Virginia Woolf's Night and Day recently which was written just after WW1 and the portrayal of young, clever, middle class women looking for a purpose in life beyond marriage reminded me a lot of Frances and Christina. My question for Sarah is, did you draw on any particular novels/writers from the period while you were writing The Paying Guests, and if so which ones would you recommend?

Hello. Actually, I haven’t read Night and Day (though you really make me want to), but I did read a lot of Woolf’s other writing, and her fabulous dairies and letters were particularly inspiring – as were the letters of Katherine Mansfield. (Christina has Mansfield’s startling haircut.) Vera Brittain’s Testament of Friendship was a good model, too. Fiction-wise, I looked at HG Wells, Arnold Bennett, EM Delafield, May Sinclair – and many now deeply unfashionable but once bestselling authors like Warwick Deeping, ASM Hutchinson and Philip Gibbs. I can particularly recommend FM Mayor’s The Rector’s Daughter, and Elizabeth von Arnim’s Vera. Also Arnold Bennett’s wonderful London novel, Riceyman Steps.

@southeastdweller

Hi Sarah. I loved this book which helped me get through a difficult Christmas last year. The suspense in the book was almost overwhelming to read at times (in a good way) especially during the part about the trial. My question is how did you research that part of the book?

So sorry about your difficult Christmas... I looked at newspaper reports, as I mention above. I looked at books about some of the famous trials of the period – eg Rene Weis’s excellent Criminal Justice, about Edith Thompson. And I looked at books from the fabulous Notable British Trials series, which contain transcripts of the court proceedings, and are really riveting.

Thank you for answering my questions. Poor Edith. Horrendous really.
I don't like the sound of Every Woman’s Problems Solved Inside.
Do you sleep well?

I like your comment of 'just read it and enjoy it'.

How did you become a judge for the Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books?

We 'reinvent the past all the time' only to indirectly comment on our own times and self?

@edwardrocks

Thanks Mumsnet and Virago for my copy. This was my first Sarah Waters novel and I really enjoyed it. I liked the fact it turned into a totally different novel from the one it seemed to be at the start. I wondered if the characters might be revisited in a future novel, either as main characters or as part of a sub-plot?

Ah - no, I've never wanted to write a sequel to any of my novels; I think of them as complete, just as they are.

@edwardrocks

One more question if that is okay? Having never read your work before, I wondered if there are any themes from The Paying Guests that are echoed in your earlier books?

Hmm. Claustrophobia? Secrets and lies. The spilling of blood, the erupting of passion... things getting out of control. And forbidden sexuality.

Sarah, thank you for answering my question and for the book recommendations! They'll be going on my to read list :)

I'd like to ask another question: how do you balance research and writing? Do you research as much as possible before starting a new novel, or are you continuing to research and write at the same time?

Hello
I loved the Night Watch and the Little Stranger, which I read twice. Do you have favourite among your books?

Oh my giddy aunt! Sarah Waters answered my question! Swooning and weeping with joy. I LOVE Angela Carter and Kazuo Ishiguro too. Will read others you've mentioned.
Thank you Sarah, lovely answers on this chat. Really enjoying reading them all.

@SallySwann

Sarah, I think that you are most probably best known for Tipping The Velvet. When you wrote that book, did you at any time think that it might be adapted for television and how much input did you have into that production? I think that The Paying Guests would also make marvellous TV, or even a film. Is there any possibility that this might be the case?

I had no idea that Tipping would even be published, let alone that it would one day be projected into people's living rooms by the BBC... That adaptation was a very happy experience for me. No, I wasn't creatively involved, but felt very included in the process by the generous production team and actors. The PGs, as I mention above, has been optioned for tv too.

@Arti

Hello Sarah. Firstly, I really enjoyed reading The Paying Guests. I find it quite hard to concentrate for long periods at the moment as my 5mth old is up a lot at night. But I found your book so engaging and absorbing with exactly the right pace that concentration was not an issue! One question from me-the book left me curious to hear the story from the perspectives of the other main characters. Is this something you would ever consider developing?

Thank you! No, as I explained above, I've never been tempted to do a sequel or parallel narrative. But I did give a lot of thought to what those narratives might contain. I was very conscious of those four unhappy people in that house - Frances, Lilian, Leonard and Mrs Wray - and tried to be mindful of how their stories were intersecting, even though we were only really seeing Frances's.

@SallySwann

From where do you draw your inspiration for your books and how did you come to choose this particular time period please?

I chose the period because I just didn't know much about it and wanted to explore it. Inspiration comes from all sorts of places - from research, primarily, but also just from life - from things I read in the paper or comments I overhear on the bus. And other people's novels! - which, when they're good, I find endlessly inspiring.

@SkaterGrrrrl

Sarah, your writing is divine.

Have a and a .

Thank you! Much appreciated.

@TillyMumsnetBookClub

I'm fascinated that you devoured sci-fi as a child - do you think you may swap the past for the future at some point, and write some speculative fiction (as Margaret Atwood calls it)? Do you think you would feel very strange having to predict things to come, having spent so much time deeply immersed in researching the past?

Oh, I think you need a certain kind of brain to write speculative fiction - a big, roomy brain, and I just don't think I've got one... And I'm too fascinated by the worlds of the past really to want to spend time imagining one from the future.

@whatwoulddexterdo

Hi Sarah Thank you so much for writing such a beautiful book. It's the first of yours I have read, and also I must thank Mumsnet for sending me a copy. I loved your story and the way you write. I found Frances to be a depressing character, but very convincing , I think it would have been interesting to have heard things from Lilians point of view. My question for you would be do you read whilst you are writing and if so what? Do you have a "guilty pleasure" author that you just read f or enjoyment? Thank you for coming to talk to us and good luck with y our next work.

I read for research during the working day, but in bed, and on the bus, I read anything that catches my eye. But, rather tragically, I find it quite hard to read historical fiction - it's just a bit too close to home.

@gailforce1

I would like to ask Sarah which authors she is currently reading and which book is her "comfort read"?

Comfort read = old girls' annuals, eg Bunty and Crystal. Currently (re-)reading The Go-Between - fab.