Carole Bromley

Transcription

My novel. I wanted to writer this novel and so I did go on a course. But I realised that I would never write a lot unless I just said Fridays are not for writing business reports, they're not for writing recipes and not for any journalism, I just have to write my novel. And that's what I did. But before I ever got it published I went through... Those of you who are either novelists will recognise this and if you're budding novelists, it's worth keeping going because what happened was I read the first three chapters and I went to the Arvon Foundation which is a charity and it was founded by Ted Hughes to teach budding poets how to write. But now it does screenwriting and all sorts of things. So I went there only for four days but it was absolutely inspiring. And I was taught by published novelists and they were wonderful and they said go for it. They gave me some good advice like no exclamation marks and take out three-quarters of the adjectives and all the good writing stuff. But they were hugely encouraging. So I finished the novel and then I sent it off to my agent and she said it was hopeless. The beginning's very good and I thought I could send it to a publisher but I absolutely can't because it falls to bits at the end, it's as if you're trying to put everything you know about everything all into one novel. So I said what can I do? That's the best I can do. And she said have you heard of The Literary Consultancy? And it's easy to remember because it's TLC, The Literary Consultancy and they've got a website. And it's Margaret Drabble's daughter called Becky Swift and they're absolutely brilliant. And what they do is they read your book, not like Arvon does like an encouraging teacher, but like a publisher. They just read it and they'd say this will never see the light of day, or they'd tell you what's wrong with it. And what they did with me is, the woman they gave me, Julia Bell, great writer, she said this novel stops on chapter 24. You've gone on to chapter 28. The last four chapters are the sequel. Then she said things like we can't wait until chapter 9 for the lover to appear. This is a novel about two women, one of whom has a very boring, pompous husband and the other has just left her husband and they go off together to India on a holiday, we know there's going to be a man in the picture, you don't have to be brilliant to tell that. We can't wait till chapter 9 for him to come, he's got to come in by chapter 3. Very basic things like that. And she said chapter 19 has to go. I said but that's my really best bit, that's the best bit of writing. And she said, yes, it is the best bit or writing but it's a short story. It's about two background characters who you bring to the front, give them their moment of glory and then we're really interested in them and then you put them back in the background again and meanwhile you've interrupted the main flow and we want to know what's happening with the lovers. And she said take it out and sell it as a short story. And I did. Anyhow, I sent the book back to my agent and she sent it to Penguin and Penguin bought it so that's how I finally got it published. I've always only been published by Penguin as a paperback. And it's very interesting because I actually think nearly all novels should be just paperbacks. I think hardbacks are so expensive and for why? How many of us read most novels more than once? I think you should buy novels first in paperback, if you really love them, go and buy a hardback that you put on your library shelf. My first novel was really about the theme of can women have it all. If your husband works 14-hour days and you work 14-hour days but they are not the same 14 hours, how can a marriage survive? The next one was about sibling rivalry and about South Africa and about adoption. That was called Sisters. Then there was one called The Gardener which was about a woman gardener. And I loved writing that one because - I love gardening - and it was about taste. A clash of tastes, really. If you are a blue stocking, an Open University landscape architect gardener or whatever, and you're working for a man who has bought this beautiful 1740s country manor and garden and wants to restore it, but he wants to restore it like Ground Force on a massive scale with blue chip gravel all over the place and Versailles fountains on the terrace and a maze in the middle of the park and no respect for what might have been there before. It's all about the clash of tastes. Orange roses versus white hellebores. And I absolutely loved doing it and of course what I most enjoyed doing was that these two fall in love but they are completely opposite personalities. So that was fun and there was a bit of bonking in the potting shed and I quite liked writing that too. Also the research for doing The Gardener was such fun because I could write to anybody and say can I come round and look at your garden. And people are so generous. If you tell them you're writing a book, it's amazing. I went to all sorts of incredibly grand houses and if I wasn't actually taken round by the owner, I would be taken around by the head gardener. And that's the best because you get into the potting shed and the muck... ...and the muck heap.