Interview with Jan Edwards, author of the "Bunch Courtney Investigates" historical mysteries
How
did you realize that you wanted to become a writer?
It sounds corny but I have to
be honest and say I don’t recall a time when being a teller of tales wasn’t an
aspiration. I spent one summer holiday, aged around eight or nine, speaking in
the third person because I was imagining my world as a book. To be fair I
didn’t know what ‘third person’ was at that age but I had a whole raft of
characters who got up to all kinds of things. These were characters in my book and not imaginary friends I hasten to
add! So when did I realise? Apparently
at some point before my ninth birthday.
Why
did you choose WWII as your historical setting?
I have always loved Golden
Age crime and having written some Sherlock Holmes shorts, as well as some
diesel punk set in the 1920s/30s it somehow seemed a natural progression.
Where I was brought up in
Sussex the landscape is – or at least was back then – littered with remnants of
the defences thrown up in haste between 1939 and 42. Pillboxes and dugouts that were supposed to be secret rendezvous
for a small army of resistance fighters in the event of the expected invasion
were our playgrounds. Being born in the decade following WW2 it was part of the
psyche as I grew up and simply rose to the surface when I started out with Winter
Downs.
How
do you conduct research for your books?
Ooh – don’t start me on
research! It’s a favourite subject. Love it! I can and do spend many happy
hours chasing down small facts, either among my books or online, which quite often will appear as a single
sentence in the finished book. I strongly believe that a writer needs to get it
right. This is valid whether it is contemporary or historical fiction. Small
details may seem inconsequential but they build up a picture.
In researching Winter
Downs the subject of gasmasks springs to mind. I was asked at a
reading why my characters did not carry gasmasks. The person asking me this was
convinced that it was an offence not to do so. Fortunately I had done some
extensive research on the subject and knew that masks were issued for every
adult and child during 1939, by January 1940 it was estimated that less than
20% or the population were bothering to carry them. The rest had apparently
hung them on the coat stand in the hall where they remained until 1946.
I read (buy) a lot of books
on the subject. These can be biographies of ordinary people as well as those
historical volumes that concentrate on specialist areas. There are many manuals
of the era available. E.G. Land Girl handbooks, pamphlets on ration book
cookery, SOE training manuals.
The internet is obviously a
huge resource, though I always try to find at least two unrelated sources to
confirm any facts. It is amazing how many times the same facts will appear
verbatim on a dozen or more sites, which is fine of those facts are accurate
but I have sometimes found that not to be the case. Yes the internet is a
fabulous resource but it can also be terribly misleading. The same thing
applies to relying on your own memory.
Tell
us please about your main character, Bunch Courtney.
Rose ‘Bunch’ Courtney has grown up with the best things in
life. Bunch is her nickname in a slightly dysfunctional family. Her parents who
were often away so that she was raised largely by outsiders.
Then, in 1939, her family home, the one stable element in
her life, is requisitioned by the MOD. She struggles to cope with its sudden
removal so that when a close friend apparently then kills himself she immerses
herself in proving he was, in fact, murdered, and did not shoot himself everybody
else insists.
Will
your series include a cast of supporting characters, or will Bunch Courtney
solve detective mysteries solo? What about Chief Inspector Wright — will we
meet him again?
In Bunch Courtney
Investigates #2: In Her Defence, and the
provisionally titled #3: Bruised Lilacs,
Chief Inspector Wright figures large. I love delving into the dynamics that is
developing between them and think there is a story still to tell there. I have
two more in planning with every intention on having the Courtney/Wright still
working in tandem and ideas for several more. For now DCI Wright is a fixture.
But Will Bunch ever go it alone? Who can tell...
When
will we see the next book about Bunch Courtney? What will it be about?
In
Her Defence
is due out later this year with Bruised
Lilacs hopefully following in early summer 2019. IHD deals with the
problems of enemy aliens and how they were perceived by the general public and
starts with the poisoning of a Dutch refugee on market day in a crowded
hotel/pub where Bunch is having lunch with her sister Daphne. Bruised Lilacs looks at the problems
that arise as the Blitz forces many to flee into the countryside every evening
to avoid the bombings. These people were called Trekkers (long before Kirk was
boldly going :-) )
Dr.
Who is one of the most popular sci-fi series; please introduce to us Olive
Hawthorne. What’s her role in the Dr. Who Universe?
Olive Hawthorne was a witch
who realises that the village is in great danger but is initially dismissed as
a crank. I found her a fascinating character. Possibly one of the few strong
female characters of the Dr Who era, and I would include many of the doctor’s
companions whose sole function often appeared to be getting themselves captured
for the Doctor to rescue. To be fair some of the male companions were much the
same, but Olive was that rare thing, a woman in those older shows who stood up
to the Doctor. She was even able to resist the mesmeric gifts of the Master. A
strong female all round. I had great fun helping to bring her to life for The Daemons of Devil’s End DVD and
the Telos
book of the same title, whicht came out shortly afterwards.
Other
famous characters with whom you are well acquainted are Sherlock Holmes,
Professor Moriarty, Dracula. Who is your favourite? Why?
I have a soft spot for
Holmes, and in the books and also the Jeremy Brett TV era, for Watson. I get quite cross with TV
and Film versions who insist in portraying Watson as the comic buffoon. And
though I know many will disagree with me I would include the writers of the
most recent BBC Watson in that.
Why do I like Holmes? I
suppose he was the father of the whodunnit. Agatha very expertly fleshed out
that construct, but in essence Poirot is Holmes’s direct descendant.
Please
present us your other short fiction.
I would have to direct you to my blog and let you look for yourself. Most of my 50 odd short stories are either supernatural or folk horror. I have written several Holmes stories, including one for The Mammoth Book of Moriarty and of course a part of the The Daemons of Devil's End – which is the book from the DVD. My next short in print, ‘A Small Thing for Yolanda’ will be out later this year in Into the Night Eternal: Tales of French Folk Horror, with Lycopolis Press, which is based on the famous unsolved crime of the murder in the Metro, so crime but with a fantastical twist.
Many of my short stories can be read in my two collections, Leinster
Gardens and Other Subtleties and Fables
and Fabrications.
Please tell us about your awards and nominations. What do they mean to you?
My first award was the Slim
Volume prize for Sussex Tales, which was a prize
gathered at the Winchester Writers Conference. I have had several short stories
nominated for awards and one, ‘Otterburn’ short listed for a British Fantasy
Award. The Alchemy Press gained a best Small Press award which I won co-jointly
with my husband a BFS award for Best Small Press and last year I received a
Karl Edward Wagner Award for body of work. My Alchemy Press Ancient Wonders and Urban Mythic 1 & 2 anthologies with Jenny Barber all gained
nominations and/or were shortlisted for awards as was the Wicked Women antho that we edited for Fox Spirit. Full details on
my blog site.
The most recent award is the
Arnold Bennett Book Prize for Winter Downs, a golden age
crime novel, which was reviewed on this site a few months ago.
All of them mean something to me because they are
a sign that my work is getting out to the readers. And more to the point being
read and enjoyed.
About Jan Edwards:
Jan Edwards is a Sussex-born writer now living in the West
Midlands with her husband and obligatory cats. She was a Master
Locksmith for 20 years but also tried her hand at bookselling,
microfiche photography, livery stable work, motorcycle sales and market
gardening. She is a practising Reiki Master. She won a Winchester Slim
Volume prize and her short fiction can be found in crime, horror and
fantasy anthologies in UK, US and Europe; including The Mammoth Book of
Dracula and The Mammoth Book of Moriarty. Jan edits anthologies for The
Alchemy Press and Fox Spirit Press, and has written for Dr Who spin-offs
with Reel Time Pictures.
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