Local author, Christopher Bowden, has recently published his third novel, The Red House. He shares his writing process and plot summary with Dulwich OnView.
After the completion of the second book, The Yellow Room, what was your inspiration for writing a third book?
Initially, a watercolour sketch I have of three hooded figures carrying a large box (possibly a coffin) along a beach. That seemed to have a lot of plot possibilities. The final book contains no hooded persons, coffins or other boxes but the picture kick-started the process and it developed from there. The Red House itself, for example, is a large Edwardian house above a beach on the East Coast (no connection with Benjamin Britten) and what takes place inside it may or may not have fatal consequences for some involved.
For those who haven’t read your previous two books, how did they lead into the development of your third book, The Red House?
The books are free-standing: a trio rather than a trilogy. But there are some common themes – and a few common characters. They are all literary mysteries, involving things found that lead the finders on searches with unexpected outcomes. In The Blue Book: a mysterious note hidden in a book; in The Yellow Room: an old guide to a country house; in The Red House: a picture of a young actress looking distressed and dishevelled. And the theatrical aspect that forms a centrepiece of The Red House first makes an appearance through amateur dramatics in The Blue Book, albeit in very different circumstances.
Did this novel prove to be the most challenging for you to write, or did you find the plot taking shape on its own? What new challenges arose during the writing process of this novel?
Despite the experience of having written two other novels, this one proved much harder work. The others were mapped out roughly before I started, though I did not necessarily stick to the plan. In this case, apart from some initial thoughts to get me going, I had little idea of what was going to happen. So plot, places and characters developed far more in the writing than with the previous books. I had to get to the end to find out how it would finish, if you see what I mean.
How long did it take you to write?
I started before The Yellow Room was published but the actual writing time was much less than the time that elapsed between the start and its final appearance in book form. Six months or so to produce a first draft but then a process of revision and further revision in the light of comments and my own further thoughts.
In previous interviews, you mentioned some of the fictitious paintings in your other novels could have drawn some of their inspiration from paintings located in the Dulwich Picture Gallery. Are there any links to South London/Dulwich in this new novel?
Not directly. The book opens and closes in Paris but the bulk of the action takes place in the fictitious Home Counties town of Oxbourne and the equally fictitious East Coast town of Sanderling. That said, I have drawn upon aspects of places in this area but not, I hope, in a way that anyone would immediately recognise.
The three colours in the books you have written are the primary colours: blue, yellow and red. Do you have plans for a fourth novel? If so, what is the next colour?
I do have a few ideas for No 4, though I’m a long way from starting to write it. The book will probably see the re-emergence of characters from the previous ones, bringing out some links between them that were not entirely apparent before. And if I stick to the colour theme, it could well be green!
The Red House is published on 6 October and is available from local bookshops and libraries and from Amazon and other on-line suppliers.
You can also attend a launch party for Christopher Bowden’s new novel The Red House at Dulwich Books on 13 October at 7.30pm .
