Author Kathryn Hughes talks to us about her latest book The Memory Box and the books she wants to read next.
Kathryn Hughes is a million copy bestseller. Her previous titles include The Letter, The Key and Her Last Promise. Kathryn's latest book, The Memory Box, was published by Headline on 11th November and is also available on our catalogue.
It was Enid Blyton who first gave me the reading bug. I loved the Famous Five and Malory Towers. It’s only now I am an author myself that I can appreciate her phenomenal output. In my teenage years I moved onto Jackie Collins, Sidney Sheldon and Virginia Andrews. They were all such magnificent storytellers.
I used to dabble in short stories but I’d always wanted to write a full-length novel. In my twenties I embarked on a romance with a view to sending it to Mills & Boon. I did finish it but it got rejected, probably for good reason. I’ve no idea what became of it and sincerely hope it never resurfaces!
It probably took me the best part of six years from my initial idea for The Letter to self-publication. It had been rejected by literary agents twelve times but the fact I was in good company kept me going. Beatrix Potter was rejected so many times she had to publish The Tale of Peter Rabbit herself. She could only afford to print 250 copies but it’s since gone onto to sell 45 million.
Stephen King’s debut, Carrie, was rejected over 30 times so he chucked it in the bin. Fortunately, his wife fished it out again. Books get rejected for all sorts of reasons and it doesn’t mean your book is no good. It’s all subjective. F Scott Fitzgerald was once told by an editor ‘You’d have a decent book, if only you’d get rid of that Gatsby character!’ Once I self-published The Letter, I was able to let readers decide and they loved it, taking it to the top of the Kindle chart, knocking Gone Girl off the top spot.
I am now published by a traditional publisher, Headline, and am usually working to a deadline so I need to have a structure to my day. I have an office in the garage so it feels as if I’m going to work as I have to actually leave the house. I like to be at my desk by ten at the latest and I will start with answering emails and doing the admin that goes along with being an author. Then I will edit my work from the day before. I try to write 1,000 words a day which is great in theory as I should be able to have a first draft done in three months. It never happens that way though and it takes around 12/18 months for me to complete a book.
Usually when I begin my books I have a definite hook and know exactly where I want it to go. This time I had an image in my mind of a 100 year old woman celebrating her birthday, surrounded by virtual strangers because she’s outlived everybody she ever cared about. It was the least prepared I have ever been before starting a new a book. From this initial image though came the character of Jenny Tanner. As she retires to bed after her party, she shares the contents of her memory box with
Candice, her young carer. She shows her a pebble picked up off a beach in an Italian fishing village a lifetime ago and a newspaper cutting with the headline Slaughtered. Fearing she may have already left it too late, Jenny realises there is one final journey she has to make. All she has to do is survive for another couple of months and persuade Candice to accompany her. I loved writing the character of Jenny. She is wise, funny, just the right side of cantankerous and has a stubborn streak that has served her well. She’s fond of Candice who has problems of her own with Beau, her controlling boyfriend, Through telling Candice her own story, Jenny is able to make the young girl see Beau for what he is. The two women maybe eighty years apart in age but they soon realise they have more in common than they could ever have imagined.
After writing five books in six years, I have taken a short sabbatical so the short answer is no, not yet!
My TBR pile is always massive and some of them may not make the cut. I’m hoping to get to these though: Shiver by Allie Reynolds, Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell, Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart, A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara, The Sanatorium by Sarah Pearse and American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins.
A Child’s Christmas in Wales, Dylan Thomas’s beautiful account of his childhood Christmases in Wales. The title says it all really! I recommend reading it on Christmas Eve, in front of a log fire after you’ve whipped up a batch of egg nog and put on some Christmas carols. If that doesn’t get you in the mood for Christmas, nothing will.
I am a football fan and have a season ticket at Manchester City whilst my husband has a season ticket at Manchester United. Derby days are very fraught in our house!
