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.

@Heather2gether

I am unable to join the webchat tomorrow but am another big fan of SW and am looking forward to the film. Hundreds - the Country Estate in the novel plays such a huge part in the book and I am intrigued to see it in the film. Where was the film set? Did you go on set at all and were you pleased with the look and feel of Hundreds Hall?

Hello, and thanks for this. The film used two different houses, one for the exterior shots, and a second, called (I think) Langleybury Hall, for the interiors. I spent a day on set at the latter, and was blown away by how throughly Lenny and team had dressed it as Hundreds Hall - it was quite spooky wandering round it. It really captures the fading grandeur of the house in the novel. Also, it sort of becomes a character in its own right, with lots of lingering shots etc - which again felt very true to the book. I hope you like it.

@BarbariansAtTheGates

I love Sarah's novels and they've brought me a huge amount of pleasure since I first started reading them in my teens.

The 'unreliable narrator', by which I mean the flaws and limits of Dr Faraday's point of view, is such a huge part of The Little Stranger. Is it possible to recreate this aspect of the novel on screen?

I certainly hope so! There were certainly some serious questions to ask about this when setting out to adapt for screen. For example, the supernatural occurrences in the novel are all reported - we don't witness them first hand - and that could never work on screen. So in the film there's a need to foreground the fact that Faraday is our narrator - he's telling us the story in what seems to be a very measured and sober manner - but then watch the gap between what he says and what we see to begin to open up... In the film this is probably most clearly observed in his relationships with other characters rather than his reporting of events...

@Womaningreen

I love The Little Stranger so much, I'm not sure how I feel about a film! The characters are completely set in my head.

I thought Lucinda did a spectacular job on Crimson Petal, it was a delight.

I wonder how Sarah feels about putting this to film and I wonder what changes Lucinda felt had to be made? For example, it might be me, but I feel like Dr Faraday looks a lot younger and slimmer than I imagined?!

I thought Lucinda did a brilliant job on Crimson Petal too, which was one of the reasons I was so delighted when I heard she was on board for TLS. Lucinda herself can tell you more about the changes she had to make, but re casting - yes, Donhmall is definitely younger and more boyish than I had pictured Dr F to be, but he is such a great actor it doesn't really matter - he captures the heart of the character, which is much more important.

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?

@rosemartini

Hi Sarah! I love your novels and it's so cool that you're doing this webchat. My question is, how do you think publishing has changed in the years since you wrote Tipping the Velvet?

Also (if you have time) what did you think of Park Chan-wook's adaptation of Fingersmith and the changes he made? Is it important to you for adaptations of your work to stay true to the novel, or do you find changes interesting/understandable?

Lucinda, did you want to adapt The Little Stranger faithfully to the book, or did that take a step back from making a good film?

Lots of questions, sorry - feel free to pick and choose!

Publishing has definitely changed, eg with the success of self-publishing models, which potentially give authors more control over things, and can work really well, I think - esp since mainstream publishing has, I fear, become a bit less-risk taking than it used to be, more interested in repeating best-selling formulas than in nurturing talent. It's a tough climate for new authors these day, I'm afraid.

Re The Handmaiden - I loved it! I loved the way it stayed so true to the spirit of the book, even while changing so much in the way of setting etc. It felt faithful, yet creative and exciting.

@SarahWaters

[quote Womaningreen] I love The Little Stranger so much, I'm not sure how I feel about a film! The characters are completely set in my head.

I thought Lucinda did a spectacular job on Crimson Petal, it was a delight.

I wonder how Sarah feels about putting this to film and I wonder what changes Lucinda felt had to be made? For example, it might be me, but I feel like Dr Faraday looks a lot younger and slimmer than I imagined?!

I thought Lucinda did a brilliant job on Crimson Petal too, which was one of the reasons I was so delighted when I heard she was on board for TLS. Lucinda herself can tell you more about the changes she had to make, but re casting - yes, Donhmall is definitely younger and more boyish than I had pictured Dr F to be, but he is such a great actor it doesn't really matter - he captures the heart of the character, which is much more important.[/quote]

Hi - THANK YOU! Crimson Petal was a real treat for me to work on and I was thrilled with the way it turned out. The Little Stranger was also a great pleasure to work with - challenges, of course, in having a leading character who is misleading the audience but also - quite often - misleading himself. And treading the line between the supernatural and the psychological. But I think that the film is actually very close to the novel - perhaps unusually so. And yes, our Faraday is younger than we had all imagined, but once we started to consider DG, the idea of anyone else felt quite dull. He was just such an exciting idea and really refreshed everyone's thinking about the project. He does a really terrific job.

@rosemartini

Hi Sarah! I love your novels and it's so cool that you're doing this webchat. My question is, how do you think publishing has changed in the years since you wrote Tipping the Velvet?

Also (if you have time) what did you think of Park Chan-wook's adaptation of Fingersmith and the changes he made? Is it important to you for adaptations of your work to stay true to the novel, or do you find changes interesting/understandable?

Lucinda, did you want to adapt The Little Stranger faithfully to the book, or did that take a step back from making a good film?

Lots of questions, sorry - feel free to pick and choose!

The first responsibility to the book is always to make a good film! But I think this is actually pretty faithful - perhaps unusually so...

@HarrietMWelsch

Excited for this! Posting a q in advance - Sarah, your back catalogue is pretty impressive. How do you feel your writing/style has changed or evolved over the course of your novels? And what's next - is there a genre or setting that you're desperate to tackle?

Thanks for this. My writing style has changed very much as the setting of my novels has changed. The Victorian ones were lush and a bit larger than life - which was lots of fun to do. The 1940s ones are more pared down, more understated - I enjoyed that, too. The Paying Guests, I guess, is somewhere in between. The book I'm writing now is set in the early 50s - a kind of gothic working-class family drama, so I've had to find a slightly new voice for that, which has been fascinating. Next - not quite sure yet, but I've always wanted to try a ghost story with a modern setting, so maybe I'll give that a go...

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?

@HarrietMWelsch

And a similar one for Lucinda - do you feel your style of writing has changed, and how? And what's on your wishlist of types of book to adapt?

Great question. I think my original work leaps around in style, and whilst there is perhaps a dark humour shot through much of it the pieces are stylistically very varied. In terms of adaptation... I never know what I'm looking for. It's always about the material, but the things I decide to commit to in the end always come as a surprise. I generally turn down big, well-known novels. TLS is probably the closest I've come to taking one on. I'm not very interested in being the midwife to other people's work - there has to be a way to make it mine.

@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.

@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!

@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..

@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.

and from the books discussion forum:

Suggestions for great non-fiction?

What author have you read more than any other?

and

Favourite classics?

@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.

@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!

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?

@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.

@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!

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.

@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.

@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!

@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.

@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!