Book club special: Author Sarah Waters and screen writer Lucinda Coxon join us for a webchat about their writing careers and new film adaptation of The Little Stranger: Wednesday 19 September at 12.30pm

[RachelMumsnet]

We’re delighted to welcome author Sarah Waters and screenwriter Lucinda Coxon to Mumsnet on Wednesday 19th September at 12.30pm.

Sarah’s booker shortlisted novel The Little Stranger was Mumsnet book of the month back in 2009 and has since been one of the most discussed books on the forum. The Little Stranger has been adapted by Lucinda as a screenplay which hits the big screen on 21st September, starring Domhnall Gleeson, Ruth Wilson, Will Poulter and Charlotte Rampling and directed by Lenny Abrahamsson.

Join Sarah and Lucinda to ask them questions about their writing and the film. If you’ve got a budding author or screenwriter in your family, now is your chance to get tips and advice from two leading writers in their field.

If you’re unable to join us post questions in advance on this thread and we’ll make sure they are put to Sarah and Lucinda on Wednesday at 12.30.

Sarah Waters has written six novels, novels: Tipping the Velvet (1998), Affinity (1999), Fingersmith (2002), which was short-listed for the Man Booker Prize and the Orange Prize, The Night Watch (2006), which was shortlisted for the Orange Prize and the Man Booker Prize; The Little Stranger (2009), which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the South Bank Show Literature Award; and The Paying Guests (2014) which was been shortlisted for The Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction.

Lucinda Coxon is a screenwriter whose plays have been performed in theatres across the UK. Her screenplays include Wild Target, The Heart of Me and most recently The Danish Girl, directed by Tom Hooper and starring Eddie Redmayne and Alicia Vikander, who won an Academy Award for her performance. Her four-part version of Michel Faber's The Crimson Petal and the White was screened to critical acclaim on BBC2.

will be released in cinemas nationwide in the UK on the 21st September.

[OlennasWimple]

Thank you for the web chat!

[RachelMumsnet]

Thanks so much to Sarah and Lucinda for getting through all the questions here today. A reminder that The Little Stranger is released in cinemas nationwide in the UK on the 21st September - do let us know what you think.

[LucindaCoxon]

Brilliant to be here. Thanks for you questions. Really hope you enjoy the film!

Best

Lucinda

[SarahWaters]

Thanks for the great questions, everyone. Thanks, Mumsnet - and thanks, Lucinda!

Sarah xx

[LucindaCoxon]

@RachelMumsnet

A few more qs from the discussion boards

Favourite film of the 80s?

I've Heard the Mermaids Singing and Sweetie

Favourite Soundtracks?

The first one I ever bought was Gabriel Yared's for BETTY BLUE. It's really stood the test of time...

Films you will never watch again as you found them so disturbing?

The list is long.

[SarahWaters]

@RachelMumsnet

A few more qs from the discussion boards

Favourite film of the 80s?

Favourite Soundtracks?

Films you will never watch again as you found them so disturbing?

Favourite film of the 80s... Alien.

Favourite soundtrack... The Draughtsman's Contract.

Disturbing movie... That wretched Human Centipede film.

[SarahWaters]

@SarahWaters

[quote RachelMumsnet]
and from the books discussion forum:

Suggestions for great non-fiction?

What author have you read more than any other?

and

Favourite classics?

Great non-fiction... Gitta Sereny's book about the child murderer Mary Bell, Cries Unheard: an amazing study in compassion and forgiveness.

Also Tony Parker's The People of Providence: fascinating 80s oral histories from the residents of a south London council estate.

Which author have I read more than any other? Maybe Patricia Highsmith, who can be a bit patchy but is always worth reading, and who, at her best, does tension and low-level menace like no other author.[/quote]

Oops, and favourite classics... Jane Eyre, Great Expectations, Rebecca, New Grub Street.

[LucindaCoxon]

@RachelMumsnet

and from the books discussion forum:

Suggestions for great non-fiction?

Natalia Ginzburg's essays The Little Virtues - a brilliant collection by a brilliant woman... Out of print in the UK for years, but recently republished. I'm also a sucker for reading other people's letters
and diaries. Elizabeth Bowen and Charles Ritchie's diaries and correspondence are heartbreaking and brilliant.

What author have you read more than any other?

Shakespeare, Chekhov, Ibsen, obviously. Then there are the prolific guilty pleasures - PG Wodehouse, for example. I've also put away a great deal of Margaret Atwood, Angela Carter, Anais Nin etc. I've reread Elizabeth Knox's The Vintner's Luck many times in the hope of figuring out a way to adapt it. It continues to defeat me.

and

Favourite classics?

I think The Handmaid's Tale should now fall into that category.

[SarahWaters]

@RachelMumsnet

and from the books discussion forum:

Suggestions for great non-fiction?

What author have you read more than any other?

and

Favourite classics?

Great non-fiction... Gitta Sereny's book about the child murderer Mary Bell, Cries Unheard: an amazing study in compassion and forgiveness.

Also Tony Parker's The People of Providence: fascinating 80s oral histories from the residents of a south London council estate.

Which author have I read more than any other? Maybe Patricia Highsmith, who can be a bit patchy but is always worth reading, and who, at her best, does tension and low-level menace like no other author.

[SarahWaters]

@RachelMumsnet

Can we throw in a few questions from discussion threads that have been trending on the Mumsnet forum over the last few weeks:

First up:

Books you would like to see made into a film?

Donna Tartt's Secret History! Why hasn't that been made yet??

[SarahWaters]

@Jux

Ńo questions, just want to say "Sarah, I love your books I love your books I love your books I love your books I love your books I love your books I love your books I love your books I love your books I love your books"

OK, fangirling done. Apologies.

Ha! Thank you!

[SarahWaters]

@starlight36

Hi Sarah and Lucinda, I'm really enjoying the webchat. A question for both of you, is there a female heroine in your work who you particularly relate to?

Thanks for this! I end up liking most of my characters, even the rather unwholesome ones like Dr Faraday in The Little Stranger. But Caroline, in the same novel, is a favourite of mine. Also Kay in The Night Watch, and Frances in The Paying Guests. I felt very sorry saying goodbye to those characters.

[LucindaCoxon]

@starlight36

Hi Sarah and Lucinda, I'm really enjoying the webchat. A question for both of you, is there a female heroine in your work who you particularly relate to?

That would have to be Kitty from my National Theatre play HAPPY NOW?, and Sugar from THE CRIMSON PETAL AND THE WHITE. Both struggling with the business of being daughters and mothers while battling the patriarchy!

[SarahWaters]

@ItscalledaVulva

Hi Sarah, I love your books and The Little Stranger was so absorbing and tense, I had to sleep with the light on for a week after reading it.

My question is how you get to know the language used in the time periods you write about, and how important it is to you to use authentic speech?

A related question to Lucinda is how important is it that people speak with an authentic voice in your films? And how much research do you personally do about the time periods you make films about beyond the source novel?

As I said above, I do like to get things right, and I love trying to capture the idiom of a period. Of course, no period has just one voice, and the voices that get on record tend to be rather privileged ones - white, middle class etc. So it's important to dig deep and be creative with your research. Oral histories are good - in print and on tape.

[Jux]

Ńo questions, just want to say "Sarah, I love your books I love your books I love your books I love your books I love your books I love your books I love your books I love your books I love your books I love your books"

OK, fangirling done. Apologies.

[SarahWaters]

@AlphaMama

I've been tossing the idea for a non-fiction book around in my head for over a year. I know that really you just need to sit down and write - just get started. But this book relies on interviews with people. Any tips for how I could approach people within the specific industry and persuade them too share their stories and advice as part of the book?

Gosh - I don't really know, sorry. One of the joys of writing fiction is that you just sit on your own and get on with it... But people do like sharing their stories, so I'd say just go for it. Buy them a nice cake or something - that might help. Good luck!

[SarahWaters]

@fashionandbeautylover

Hi Sarah and Lucinda!

I am so excited to see the film and Sarah I love your books.

My question is in terms of casting, did you get any input in this? and if so how did you find the process?

I didn't get any direct input, but I did talk it over quite a lot with the producers. It was less important at that stage to come up with individual names than to think of a style of actor. I'm thrilled with the cast we ended up with. They're all brilliant - especially the two leads, Domhnall and Ruth, who bring a lot of depth to their respective characters.

[starlight36]

Hi Sarah and Lucinda, I'm really enjoying the webchat. A question for both of you, is there a female heroine in your work who you particularly relate to?

[LucindaCoxon]

@ItscalledaVulva

Hi Sarah, I love your books and The Little Stranger was so absorbing and tense, I had to sleep with the light on for a week after reading it.

My question is how you get to know the language used in the time periods you write about, and how important it is to you to use authentic speech?

A related question to Lucinda is how important is it that people speak with an authentic voice in your films? And how much research do you personally do about the time periods you make films about beyond the source novel?

Well... interesting! I suppose it depends what we mean by 'authentic'. It's always important that there are terrible anachronisms littering a period script (I speak as someone who has tripped over this one in the past). But the dialogue in a project like this is, of course, heightened.

I did a little period research around this project - mostly about what the work of a local doctor like Faraday would really entail, just to make sure he was plausibly anchored in time and place. But tbh, Sarah is queen of research. There wasn't much left for me to do!

[SarahWaters]

@Satelliteoflove

A question for Sarah - I'm a huge fan of your novels (think I have read them all) and particularly love Affinity and The Little Stranger. I'm interested to know more about your fascination into the supernatural. Do you believe in ghosts and the supernatural and have you had any experience of haunted houses? I'm also interested to hear which house the film uses for Hundreds Hall - would love to visit. Am very much looking forward to seeing the film.

Final question - is it really scary? I'm wondering whether to take my 15 year old dd...

Forgot to answer your last question... I don't think it's that scary, actually - though some viewers have definitely been scared! I think it's more unsettling than anything, but in quite a grown-up way that a 15 year-old might enjoy. But if they go expecting a horror film, they're gong to be disappointed. It's quieter and more subtle than that - a drama, not a horror.

[RachelMumsnet]

and from the books discussion forum:

Suggestions for great non-fiction?

What author have you read more than any other?

and

Favourite classics?

[SarahWaters]

@Satelliteoflove

A question for Sarah - I'm a huge fan of your novels (think I have read them all) and particularly love Affinity and The Little Stranger. I'm interested to know more about your fascination into the supernatural. Do you believe in ghosts and the supernatural and have you had any experience of haunted houses? I'm also interested to hear which house the film uses for Hundreds Hall - would love to visit. Am very much looking forward to seeing the film.

Final question - is it really scary? I'm wondering whether to take my 15 year old dd...

Thanks for this. Glad you like the spooky ones! Re ghosts - I'm with Edith Wharton on this, I don't believe in them, but I'm scared of them... I've never had a supernatural experience myself. I once spent a night in a stately home with some ghosthunters - the West Yorkshire Paranomal Group - but, alas, nothing really happened... Really, I think I'm most interested in the hold that the idea of the supernatural has on us: why we visit it again and again. It answers all sorts of messy emotions, I think, about grief, guilt, bewilderment.

[LucindaCoxon]

@puzzledpandacorn

First off - Lucinda and Sarah I love this partnership, and I'm so excited to see the film!

Sarah, obviously it's so exciting having a book turned into a film, but were you nervous about any parts not looking how you imagined them in your head? If so how do you as the author combat this?

And Lucinda - i guess the same question in reverse - but how do you go about ensuring you preseve all the best and most-loved parts of the book?

Thanks so much for doing this both of you!!

Well - I tried to preserve the parts of the book I loved best, but you're always needing to serve the whole. There are a couple of scenes we shot that I loved - everyone loved - that didn't make the final edit. That's pretty heartbreaking. But it was the right decision to lose them. Maybe they'll turn up on a DVD extra some day! I don't know..

[LucindaCoxon]

@bettyskitchen

Can't wait for the film - big fan of the book!

I just wondered how you've both found the film making process? Sarah were you nervous handing your book over to another writer, and Lucinda did you feel any sort of pressure adapting a book which is much loved by readers?

I'm a reader and I loved the book. So I really just had to satisfy myself. If I thought about all the other readers, I'd go mad!

[SarahWaters]

@bettyskitchen

Can't wait for the film - big fan of the book!

I just wondered how you've both found the film making process? Sarah were you nervous handing your book over to another writer, and Lucinda did you feel any sort of pressure adapting a book which is much loved by readers?

I wasn't nervous exactly - esp once I'd met Lenny and Lucinda, and could tell that they wanted the film to remain as true to the novel as possible. But of course, you're never quite sure what you're going to end up with... On the whole I found it fascinating, on a technical level: what can stay, what has to go - those very basic story-telling decisions, which just have to be different in a movie. Hope you enjoy it.