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Talking Location with author Mary-Jane Riley – East Anglia, UK

29th November 2016

#TalkingLocationWith … author Mary-Jane Riley shares her love of East Anglia as the setting for her novels.

The mist hovered above the ground in the half-light of the early morning. I went through the gate with the two dogs and on to the common. In the distance I could hear the harsh bark of a muntjac deer. A barn owl swooped and soared. At the farm across the road, cows were lowing. The air was clean, and so crisp. Just me and the dogs in a small part of East Anglia where I have lived for more than half my life.

scenes-from-southwold-harbour

I’m not a native of these parts – quite rootless in fact – born in London we had one home after another as my father’s job with Trumans brewery took him all over the country. I do have fleeting childhood memories of holidays in East Anglia: Staying in a railway carriage in Mundesley; enjoying the beaches at Sheringham and Aldeburgh; and, oh so boring for a young teenager, traipsing round so many old churches!

Now I love those same churches. My roots are here among them. East Anglia has captured my heart. And not because it’s chocolate-box pretty or reassuringly comfortable, but because it’s a place of contrasts, it has an edge.

In a former life as a radio presenter I interviewed two of my heroes, Ruth Rendell and PD James. They used the East Anglian landscape as a backdrop to many of their stories, using its desolation, its isolated communities, landscapes where the sky and sea meet.

I vowed to do the same, and Southwold on the Suffolk coast was my inspiration for my first crime thriller, The Bad Things – a place teeming with visitors in the summer with its popular pier, colourful beach huts like ‘Sailor’s Rest and ‘Prince Albert’, its uncrowded beaches – particularly towards Gun Hill (so-called because of the eighteen pound cannons on the hill given to the town in 1746 to protect shipping from raids) where you can see the futuristic dome of Sizewell power station looming in the distance. At the harbour end of the town children fish for crabs, their lines baited with bacon, while parents buy fresh fish from the huddle of huts near the lifeboat station, or eat lobster, crab or prawns from one of the cafes.

the-road-to-nowhere-happisburghBut I didn’t want the town’s summer story, I wanted its winter’s tale, when the rain whips across the landscape and people huddle against the east winds. I also called it Sole Bay so I could play fast and loose with its geography. It also meant we could justify research trips and enjoy tea and freshly-made egg mayonnaise sandwiches from the cafe on the beach at Gun Hill.

broads-near-ludhamFor my second book, After She Fell, I wanted more of a sense of desolation and alienation so looked to the North Norfolk coast and a small village called Happisburgh (pronounced ‘Hazeborough’ – that’s Norfolk for you). The village has suffered relentless coastal erosion, with houses being demolished before the cliffs crumble and they tumble into the sea. When we went to have a look, I found a road that went nowhere. By a telegraph pole the double yellow lines came to an abrupt end. Beyond, sheer cliff with the beach and grey sea below. Perfect, I thought, for a student from a nearby (fictitious) school to fall from. Did she fall, or was she pushed? Also in Happisburgh (called Hallow’s Edge in my book) is a lovely red and white striped lighthouse maintained by volunteers but occasionally open to the public in the summer. How could I not use that as a location?

talking locationAlong the coast is Mundesley – sadly the railway carriages as holiday homes are not there any more – but it still has its old-fashioned seaside town air, with wide sandy beaches and shops selling buckets and spades and windmills for sandcastles. We also visited nearby East Ruston Old Vicarage – a beautiful private garden restored by two men over the last thirty-five years or so and open to the public. It’s home to beautiful and exotic plants from all over the world. It has a fabulous tea-room, too. The location didn’t make it into the book…. not this book anyway.

the-lighthouse-at-happisburghAnd so to my third book – a work in progress. Where to this time? Somewhere0008181101-01-ztzzzzzz inland, I thought. The beautiful Norfolk Broads – a man-made network of navigable rivers and lakes, teeming with wildlife. Beautiful vistas, gentle, undulating fields. Marshes, reed beds – and two bodies decomposing on a boat….

Mary-Jane’s #toptips for a visit to East Anglia:

Enjoy the pleasures of The Crown Pub at Southwold

Take a tour of the Adnams Brewery

Visit the Happisburgh Lighthouse

Enjoy at visit tot he beautiful gardens at East Ruston Old Vicarage0008153787-01-ztzzzzzz

Thank you so much to Mary-Jane for sharing her thoughts on writing and locale.

You can buy her books here and follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

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Comments

  1. User: Nicola Smith

    Posted on: 02/12/2016 at 9:56 am

    I love the sound of these settings. I have After She Fell on my TBR pile. Great interview!

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