In the latest of our book series, acclaimed poet and writer SOPHIE HANNAH shares her favourite Dublin hotels, her love of AGATHA CHRISTIE and why she shies away from WRITER’S ENVY …
Mystery mastermind Sophie Hannah is an internationally acclaimed poet and prose author. Her bestselling crime fiction has been published in over 20 countries and 32 languages. Two of Sophie’s books, The Point of Rescue (2008) and The Other Half Lives (2009), have been adapted for television, appearing on ITV1 as Case Sensitive in 2011 and 2012. Her novel The Carrier won Crime Thriller of the Year at the UK’s National Book Awards in 2013. Sophie is an Honorary Fellow of Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge, and as a poet has been short-listed for the TS Eliot Prize.
In 2014, with the approval of Agatha Christie’s family and estate, Sophie published her first Hercule Poirot story, The Monogram Murders, to the delight of fans. Following its success and a hundred years after Christie first imagined him, Sophie’s latest novel sees Poirot return in Closed Casket; set in Clonakilty, County Cork.
Sophie Hannah lives in Cambridge with her husband and children.
On home
I’m based in Cambridge, England. I lived there for two years, from 1997 to 1999 and fell in love with it – it was a spiritual home. Then my husband got a job in West Yorkshire so we moved there. We stayed in Yorkshire for eleven years but I always knew it wasn’t the right place for me, and yearned to move back to Cambridge. When he gave up his job, we could suddenly live anywhere we liked so we moved back. I love Cambridge because it’s full of clever and interesting people, beautiful buildings and lovely green spaces. I love its happy jolly atmosphere. I think it’s the best place in the world.
On creating
I do write at home, sometimes. I like to write each book in a different room, and in a different way – so I change the routine each time and don’t have a fixed writing space. My last book was mainly written at Lucy Cavendish College, University of Cambridge, where our dog Brewster couldn’t distract me.
On bookshops
I love Goldsboro Books in London, and also Topping in Ely, a beautiful shop in a beautiful town.
On literary envy… Or lack thereof
I wish I’d written … my next book. It’s due to the publishers at the end of July 2017 and if I’d finished it already I could have a year off … But, seriously, I think there’s something rather sinister about wishing you’d written someone else’s book. It’s like violating a boundary. The crime novel I admire most is Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express which is incredibly clever with an ingenious solution.
On escapes
My house in the Cotswolds is very peaceful, and rural, on a beautiful lake. I go whenever I can, and always live there during the kids’ school holidays.
On Agatha Christie
Agatha Christie has stood the test of time because she is simply the best crime writer who lived. Her books are amazingly addictive. They’re complex and baffling but at the same time so easy to read that a child can love them. They’re fun and comfortable but beneath that there’s a profound awareness of the depths and darkness of the human mind. There’s powerful wisdom in her novels but above all she communicates her joy as a storyteller, with apparently impossible puzzles and snappy insights into character, and you can’t help having fun as a reader. I think she’ll always be the queen of crime.
On Ireland
My favourite Irish haunts are all hotels. I’m quite addicted to nice hotels: The Merrion in Dublin is my favourite. I love Dublin, Limerick and Cork. And I love meeting up with my good friends the Christie expert John Curran and the novelist Tana French when in Ireland.
On what’s next
The Narrow Bed, my latest novel featuring my series detectives Simon Waterhouse and Charlie Zailer, is out in paperback on October 20. It starts with a serial killer who seems to be targeting pairs of best friends, and a stand-up comedian who thinks she might be the next victim …
The Monogram Murders (€9.25) and Closed Casket (€14.99) are published by HarperCollins and available now from all good bookshops.
Sophie Grenham @SophieGrenham
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