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TripFiction chats to award-winning author Tessa Hadley

28th May 2016

I recently had the opportunity to sit down with award-winning author Tessa Hadley over a delicious cup of coffee and find out a bit more about her and her writing.

TF: The first thing I wanted to ask was how she came to writing …

For Tessa, it was a long process to find her particular path, what she calls her writing apprenticeship. It was almost 20 or so years after she first started, and several attempts along the way, when she finally brought together the manuscript that ultimately went to publication. She can only describe it as gradually finding the confidence and sense of authority, and the right stories to tell.

tessa hadley

TF’s Tina chatting to Tessa Hadley

TF: I noted elsewhere she mentioned that one of her favourite books is A House in Paris by Elizabeth Bowen…

Indeed it is, and she went on to whisper that, for her, Bowen’s writing is more exciting than the work of Virginia Woolf.

She affirmed that she has borrowed the 3 part format from Bowen’s book for her latest novel “The Past. The House in Paris is brilliant on place. Bowen herself was Anglo-Irish and described her actual home as being somewhere in the middle of the Irish Sea. Coming to see different places with fresh eyes, it was possible for her to experience everywhere new through a sharper lens. Away from the familiar everything looks more fresh and perhaps beguiling… She captures the essence of Paris with acuity and colour, elements which make the book such an immersive read.

TF: We went on to talk about how Britain is such a prize oriented society, more so even than the States, and she revealed an absolutely stunning read that she recently discovered…

One of her favourite books in recent times has been Playthings by Alex Pheby, which she has mentioned in a piece in the NY Times. The story goes back to the roots of psychoanalysis, it’s about a real judge in nineteenth-century Germany who wrote about his own episodes of madness. In Pheby’s retelling, he sees the influence of the female as paramount. She happened to come across this book as part of the Judging Panel for the Wellcome Book Prize 2016, where it was recently shortlisted!

TF: This then prompted us to go on to talk about the past and how it influences the present….

In her work, Tessa is very much of the view that the past, without doubt, informs the present. We are all a product of past generations, we live in houses where there are layers of other ‘lives lived’; there is a profound resonance of previous cultures and mores that underpin the present. Yet it is all too easy to think that understanding the past will heal the present. The key, as an author, is melding all this into something that will resonate with an audience today.

TF: And working as an academic….?

Tessa works as an academic and teaches creative writing. She very much sees the rise in such courses as a real bonus for aspiring writers, as it speeds up the learning process immensely. Peer feedback, an acute eye for gaps in the story, and editorial input can all aid the creative process.

But the journey to publication for most authors is still a very tricky and often impecunious one. Even Graham Greene, she believes, didn’t break through into significant sales until he published his 6th title. These days, a publisher might have dropped him by that time!

TF: And my final question to her was to ask what is next for her..

She is working on a new novel. At the heart are two couples who have spent many years socializing and growing together, and now one partner has died. She is exploring the ripple effect on the remaining three.

Thank you to Tessa for a lovely hour spent in her company. We feature a couple of her wonderful books here

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