Thank you so much for the early proof, we have loved all your books, but this one is particularly evocative and gripping, and we love the cover, it’s absolutely beautiful!
The Secret Shore is such a powerful and moving novel, what inspired you to focus on wartime mapmakers?
I’d known about the SOE (Special Operations Executive) base on the Helford River almost from my first visit in 1989. When I was writing A Cornish Stranger in 2013 I thought I was going to write then about the secret flotillas but it wasn’t right for that story and so I filed it away. Finally when Merry, the protagonist in The Secret Shore, came into my mind I knew she was a cartographer and the more I delved into the subject, the more passionate I became about highlighting the important yet relatively unknown role that so many women geographers had played during the war. Once I had Merry on the page I knew then that I could tell the story of the flotillas during WW2.
How did it feel immersing yourself in this time period?
I loved it. I read forty books while researching this story and through them felt that I had lived through that period. It was a joy to be with Merry on every step of her journey.
Many people would love to write a book, how did you get started, and how do you motivate yourself when the right words feel elusive?
I’ve always written stories but it wasn’t until university that I really begun to take it seriously. But I needed to have a paying job so I left the writing behind until 2004. Then I began a novel which I finished in 2005. It was terrible but I proved to myself that I could finish a story. Once I knew I could do that (which I think is the hardest part), I began writing a new book every year then revising the previous one with all that I had learned writing the new one. I kept this up so that when I found my agent in 2010 with my third book I was already working on my seventh!
My solution to illusive words is to head on a ‘plot walk’. There is something about being out under a big sky and surrounded by nature that unlocks or unlinks my brain. If it doesn’t then it could be that I haven’t done enough research and that I need to dig deeper, or that I’m simply tired and need to ‘feed the creative well.’ I do this by reading other people’s books, visiting museums and galleries to see how artists interpret what they see onto a canvas.
Your books are so authentic and well researched, have you ever been tempted to write non-fiction?
I did once and wouldn’t do it again. I love research and I love more the fun of weaving the story in the gaps between the actual events. I also love being able to move events to fit the needs of my story so definitely not tempted at the moment, but never say never.
Can you tell us a little about your next book?
It’s still in the formative stages but it will be set in the years leading up to WW2 and also in the current day in an auction house. Imagine a striking portrait of an unknown woman, a hidden manuscript and self-discovery while digging into the past.
You have travelled extensively, what is it about Cornwall that you enjoy the most?
It’s the landscape. When I went to Ireland for the first time when I thirteen I felt my roots go into the soil. I belonged and came from that soil. The first time I came to Cornwall I fell in love and felt an affinity with the Duchy, but my roots couldn’t go down. I discovered the only way to make Cornwall mine was to write about it and immerse myself in the history, folklore and most importantly, the landscape.
Thank you so much for taking part in this interview.
The Secret Shore by Liz Fenwick published by Harper Collins available in Hardback.