Local author, Christopher Bowden, has recently published his second novel, The Yellow Room.
The book has attracted praise from Andrew Marr and Julian Fellowes. Centred around the hidden past and intrigue of an English country house and the family that lived there, it is a story of deception, disappearances and declining fortunes in post-war Britain.
What inspired you to write The Yellow Room?
I was interested in developing some of the themes emerging in my first novel The Blue Book: loss, disappearance, deception, uncovering secrets long buried. A country house, and the family that lived there, seemed a good way of tracing connections between past and present that would change the future too. It also provided a focal point for the different elements of the story that come together in the end. And it was a good excuse to go back to a number of country houses I had known over the years and to visit a few new ones!
Can you tell us something about the research you did for this novel – the 1950s – the Coronation, Suez Crisis, Mau Mau rebellion in Kenya. Why did you choose this time period?
Flashbacks to the 1950s shed light on the contemporary story in various ways. But they also underline the decline of a landed family in a post-war world in which fortunes and values were changing – and their forlorn attempts to stem the tide at a time when Britain’s own role in the world was declining. I thought setting events against backdrops like the Suez Crisis and the Mau Mau rebellion in Kenya would help to bring this out. It also gave me the opportunity of weaving in some of my own experience of Kenya, where I worked briefly in the early 1980s. I too got stuck in the mud in the pouring rain as the light was failing…
Where did your research take you and what resources did you use?
Apart from the above, and visits to country houses, the research was largely book-based. Some bought, some from libraries, supplemented by extensive Googling. A good lunch with a firm of City solicitors also helped (the main character, Jessica, being one herself).
Are there any links with South London/Dulwich?
There are no explicit links with south London but the book features a number of fictitious paintings which may possibly draw some inspiration from real ones on the walls of Dulwich Picture Gallery. Another benefit of being a Friend!
How long did it take you to write?
Author Christopher Bowden
The first draft took about six months. But then there was a lengthy process of revision, which included restructuring to improve the focus and pace and overall symmetry of the plot. I found the characters continued to develop too, as did their relations with each other. I rather missed them when I’d finished.
Was it difficult to have a female main character and write from a female point of view?
Not really. It made sense in plot terms to have a young female lead. Once I’d got to know her, she took over and developed a life and voice of her own. I just held the pen, so to speak. I hope it doesn’t matter that the pen-holder is a man but I’ll have to leave that to others to judge.
As a writer, is a second novel more difficult to write than the first? Are the challenges any different from those of a first novel?
Second novels are said to be difficult. I actually found the process easier, if only because I could build on experience of the first and be a bit more relaxed about it. For the most part, I was content to let things develop during the course of the writing. There are good days and bad days but something always emerges.
Do you have plans for a third novel?
If anything, I have found writing a third novel more of a struggle in that, having had the germ of an idea, I had no idea what direction it would take. Nerve-wracking but more fun. I had to keep writing to find out what would happen. I have now finished the first draft and will give it a rest for a while. The book’s called The Red House: is a theme emerging?
Read Dulwich OnView’s article on The Blue Book published in May 2008.
There will be a launch for the book at Upper Norwood Library on Thursday 1 October at 7.30 pm.
The Yellow Room is published on 24 September and is available from local bookshops and libraries and from Amazon and other on-line suppliers.
