Category: Historical Novel

Following Thorne’s presentation at the Cardiff Literary Festival, we made our way to a department store café for a chat.  Shoppers drifted home as we walked through the Cardiff.  The sunshine slowed us down as we strolled towards the department store.  We ordered Americanos and sat in the corner of the café. Thankfully, the store’s air conditioning meant a cooler temperature inside.  We took time to sip the coffee and take in the atmosphere.

Jessie:  I love your name – Thorne. Tell me more about your name.

Thorne:  Okay, yes, my parents put Barbara Frances on my birth certificate. Why they did so I don’t know, because they have never used either name. At home I was called Sue. So, when I came to write, I couldn’t figure out which name to use. Sue was too personal, and Barbara was too official, used by headmasters and bank managers. But I was deeply involved in family history research (long before the internet made everything easy), and one place I visited in London had a visitors’ book where I could record family names I was interested in. I put “Thorne” as it was my mother’s Pembrokeshire family, and a few weeks later I received a letter addressed to “Dear Thorne.” I thought, perfect! Especially as I had a customer who insisted on calling me “Barb,” which I HATE, so I thought a thorn is a barb. And it was a nicely unique name. There can’t be many Thorne Moores around… except, when I first Googled me, (writers do, you know) I came across one startling entry – a plan to drain Thorne Moor. I wasn’t ready for that.

Jessie:  When did you decide you wanted to be a writer?

Thorne:  I’ve always loved writing.   The headteacher tried to persuade me to be a lawyer, but I didn’t want to absorb myself in legal language.  I studied history at Aberystwyth University.  The library, where the archives were located, faced the sea, So I used to stare at the sea and imagine my stories.  My stories have always distracted me, and I have mountains of them in the house.  I became a librarian and surrounded myself with stories.  I had a notion, I would be able to dream up stories between stamping books.  Librarians do far more than I had anticipated.

Jessie: Tell me about your publishing journey.

Thorne: I was sending manuscripts off to publishers for years (back in the day when you could just send manuscripts to publishers). Then I got serious and found an agent. I’d written A Time For Silence and she liked it. She offered it around and found a publisher who liked it. In fact loved it. Loved it so much she was passing it on to the editor for a second opinion. The editor also loved it. My agent told me to have my pen ready to sign the contract and… instead, the publisher asked if I had any other books. Well, I had just about finished another and was working on a third. The publisher didn’t fancy the sound of either. Did I have any others? My agent pleaded with me to come up with something. I had, that week, heard an item on the news that had triggered the possibility of a new story in my head, so I explained it in a line or two. The agent passed it on and the publisher said “Yes, brilliant, tell me more.” My agent asked if I could come up with a full synopsis. A tall order, as it had merely been an idea floating in my head a day before, but I worked on it and she sent it off. “Yes!” said the publisher. “That’s exactly what we want. Can we see the full book please?” My agent was going to explain, in exasperation, that I hadn’t even started it yet, but I asked her to tell them to be patient and I’d do it. I did. I wrote Motherlove. I managed it in about 3 months, and it needed some tweaking and smoothing, but I did it. My agent was impressed. Just to remind the publisher what we’d been talking about, she sent them the synopsis again. The publisher replied “No, we don’t fancy this.’ At this point, publisher, agent and writer all parted company, thoroughly irritated with each other. I went on to submit A Time For Silence to Honno.  Initially, it was rejected but a different editor accepted it.  This confirms how subjective the whole business is and no one should give up.

Jessie:  What is your latest book about?

Thorne:  Long Shadows is about the history of a decaying mansion.  The stories in the mansion are set in the fourteen century, seventeenth century and Victorian era.  Each era is presented as a separate novella.

Jessie:  What inspired you to write the book?

Thorne:  There were many abandoned mansions in Pembrokeshire.  I used to walk through the grounds of one house and imagine the lives that had happened there. I wrote Shadows, which is about one such mansion and how my present-day character, Kate, can sense dark shadows of events that have happened there in the past. Long Shadows explains those mysteries, so it gives me the opportunity to look a t the history of a house and its occupants over many centuries

Jessie:  Has the book received good reviews.  I note you have gained hundreds of reviews for your books over time.

Thorne:  Yes, people have enjoyed the narrative and the drama. Let me read you some reviews:

“Totally had me hooked from page one… Highly recommended if you love a good psychological thriller” – Brook Cottage Books

“I devoured this book. Beautifully written, frighteningly real” – Chill with a Book

“A compelling blend of mystery and family drama with a gothic twist… The author’s ability to create an atmosphere is exceptional” – Judith Barrow

“Thorne Moore is a huge talent. Her writing is intensely unsettling and memorable” – Sally Spedding.

Jessie:  Did you find it difficult to walk away from your characters?  Is there a character you missed?

Thorne:  Well, that’s a difficult one as there are some horrible characters.  Angharad from the 14^th century is the most pleasant character because she never gives up and goes for a slightly unusual conclusion.

Jessie:  Why should I keep your book in my handbag?

Thorne:  I don’t know, let me think.  Well, with three novellas to choose from you could dip in and out of the book, and each one is in a different style, with a different theme and a very different conclusion. And it might encourage you to read Shadows too.

Jessie:  I am not familiar with domestic noir.  What is it? 

Thorne: I don’t write police detective novels, or traditional whodunnits. I write about the effects traumatic events like crimes have on ordinary people, whether as victims, perpetrators or survivors. Effects that can last through generations. It’s about the why, not the how.

Jessie:  Please read an extract of your novel to give me a sense of the style:

Thorne:  The extract is from the start of the 17th century novella, called “The Witch,” and it’s the story of Elizabeth Powell, who has just been born in the house, though her father doesn’t know it yet. 

“A cacophony of cawing and the sky above Llys y Garn was suddenly black with rooks. An omen? Devereux Powell frowned. He had no skill in interpreting omens, although his head was well equipped for other matters. Matters of money and business were his domain, not superstition and devilry.

  Hinges creaked as the door of his chamber opened. His mother stood before him, in her Presbyterian black, tall, unbowed by age, her eyes as watchful as they had ever been, though time had withered her flesh and greyed the hair under her white cap. Superstition and devilry incarnate. If there were an omen in the flight of rooks, she would know it.”

Jessie:  What is the last sentence in your notebook?

Thorne:  I don’t have a notebook.  I tend to plot family trees and dates.  I write the story and adapt as I go along. But, if no one tells me to stop I would rewrite the story forever.

Jessie:  What is the best advice you have been given as a writer?

Thorne:  CUT!  I go with the flow and don’t like to interrupt my ideas. I go back and chop. For instance, my editor told me I needed to tone down one character, who was too pantomime. I realised she was quite right, so I looked at him again and decided to cut him out entirely. A much better idea. He was just getting in the way with unnecessary confusion.

Jessie: Do any of your characters misbehave?

Thorne:  As the characters become three dimensional, they behave differently to how I expect.  One man, in Motherlove, for example, would not behave according to my expectation.  I had to rewrite the scene according to how he told me he would behave,

Jessie: What are the obstacles you face when writing in your genre?

Thorne:  Recently, I was writing a book, The Unravelling, set in 1966 and in 2000.  I had no trouble remembering exactly how it was to be a child in 1966, but 2000 was an entirely different matter. You’d think it wouldn’t be so different to today but it was. A character was trying to trace someone, and yes there was internet, but no broadband. It was all dial-up modems. People used Yahoo and Altavista, not Google. There was Friends Reunited but no Facebook. I had forgotten when the technology that we take for granted had developed.

Jessie: What is next for you?

Thorne:  I am organising the Narbeth Book Fair with Judith Barrow at the moment – in its 7th year, I think.  I am tweaking one book and have a whole new idea that I am itching to get on with. Don’t stop me now, I’m having a good time.

Who would you like to read your books?  This could be someone famous, a member of your family or someone who has passed away?

Thorne:  I want everyone to read my books.  However, it would be great if the Guardian reviewed my books. Maybe one day…

Thorne is witty and full of fun. I enjoyed speaking with her and finding out about her writing journey.  She has written for decades but remained determined to tell more stories.  It is amazing how she wrote stories years ago and is beginning to rework them.  I am in awe of someone who has so many stories in her head; no wonder she found it difficult to concentrate when studying historical documents.

Thorne Moore was born in Luton and graduated from Aberystwyth University with a degree in history and from the Open University where she studied law. She now lives in Pembrokeshire, which forms a background for much of her writing, as does Luton. She writes psychological mysteries – domestic noir – and her first novel, A Time for Silence, was published was in 2012 followed by Motherlove and The Unravelling. She has also brought out a book of short stories, Moments of Consequence. Her most recent novel, Shadows, was published by Endeavour in 2017. Thorne is a member of the Crime Writers’ Association.

About Long Shadows:

Llys y Garn is a rambling Victorian-Gothic mansion with vestiges of older glories.

It lies in the isolated parish of Rhyd y Groes in North Pembrokeshire. It is the house of the parish, even in its decline, deeply conscious of its importance, its pedigree and its permanence. It stubbornly remains though the lives of former inhabitants have long since passed away. Only the rooks are left to bear witness to the often desperate march of history.
Throne Moore’s Long Shadows: Tales of Llys y Garn comprises a trio of historical novellas that let us into secrets known only to these melancholy birds.

The Good Servant is the story of Nelly Skeel, loveless housekeeper at Llys y Garn at the end of the 19th century, whose only focus of affection is her master’s despised nephew. But for Cyril Lawson she will do anything, whatever the cost.

The Witch tells of Elizabeth Powell, born as Charles II is restored to the English throne, in a world of changing political allegiances, where religious bigotry and superstition linger on. Her love is not for her family, her duty, her God or her future husband, but for the house where she was born. For that she would sell her soul.

The Dragon Slayer tells of Angharad ferch Owain in the early decades of the 14th century. Angharad is an expendable asset in her father’s machinations to recover old rights and narrow claims, but she dreams of bigger things and a world without the roaring of men. A world that might spare her from the seemingly inevitable fate of all women.

In these three tales the rooks of Llys y Garn have watched centuries of human tribulation – but just how much has really changed? If you enjoyed the kaleidoscopic sweep of David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas you will appreciate Long Shadows.

 

Please see all my author interviews at My Guests and my website and blog at JessieCahalin.com.