My guest today, Elizabeth Bailey, grew up in colonial Africa 'under unconventional parentage and with theatre in the blood.' After a theatrical career of her own, she turned to writing in her thirties, first concentrating on historical romance. Eighteen - yes, eighteen! - novels later, she has since expanded her writing into both mainstream and crime fiction. Her latest publication, The Deathly Portent, is the second in her 'Lady Fan' nineteenth-century crime series. Welcome, Elizabeth!
If you could retrieve
one thing from your childhood, what would it be?
The very first time I
read Friday's Child. I was 10 or 11 and I found it in my dad's bookcase. It was
a moment containing the supreme joy of discovery, which you can never recapture.
Although I reread it countless times, and all Heyer's novels thereafter, and
enjoyed them tremendously, that first dip had special resonance. If even one
person felt that on reading one of my books, I would be over the
moon.
What’s the worst job
you've ever had?
Making lanterns! I did
it for a week and it was the closest I've been to a factory environment,
although it was a small outfit and there were only about three workers. I got
fired by the boss in the end because he endlessly needled me for being "posh" as
he thought, and in the end I hit back. I refused to leave
until he paid me, but I was glad enough to be shot of putting together bits of
metal and glass to build the damn things.
Tell us three
surprising things about yourself, one of which is a fib - and we'll try to guess
the fib!
When
I was 14, I won a cup for target shooting with a 303 rifle.
I
once created a Regency style high-waisted fur coat and bonnet out of two old
furs (bought secondhand when you still could get real fur) and left two inches
of fur all over the carpet by the end!
I
rode a donkey when I was only 3!
Hmm...I'm wondering about the rifle shooting, but something tells me you're full of surprises...! Elizabeth, what’s on your
bedside table/nightstand?
I don't have one, but
on the window sill behind my bed at the moment is a calendar of fantastic
Regency carriage prints made by a writing friend, my night light, a bottle of
magnesium tablets, a cough medicine bottle, a half-used tube of Rescue Remedy
cream, an old 4Head headache remedy which just about works, a red biro (for the
crossword), and a couple of Propolis lozenges - from all of which you'll gather
that I use alternative meds and read in bed. Next to the bed is my bookcase,
with to hand a stash of cryptic crosswords (culled from our Radio Times over
here) and a crossword dictionary, the current Writing Magazine, about four
separate books that I'm reading (the novels I read straight through, the others
I dip into). And next to the bookcase is one of the ginger cats (who usually
sleeps on the bed). At night, there is also my night drink of Calm (Calcium,
magnesium and cider vinegar mix which helps me to sleep) and a glass of water.
No glasses because once my contacts are out, I can read comfortably without
them. Amazing what a nest one
makes for oneself around the bedhead! Don't you just love that moment when you
get into bed with your drink, sigh thankfully against the banked pillows and
prepare for that wonderful half-hour or so of indulgence.
Bliss!
Bliss indeed, and I have to say your little nest sounds a lot like mine, including cat! What your favourite
sandwich, and where in the world is the best place to eat it?
Oh lord, it's cheese
and tomato! And in bed would be perfect. How uninteresting am I? I hardly ever
eat bread these days, though, so don't have it often. But if I'm allowed to be
totally self-indulgent about this, my truly favourite thing is to picnic in an
Italian piazza with a feast of baguette style bread, olives, continental cheese
and sausage or salami, with a small bottle of red wine and that lethal espresso,
highly sugared, to follow. Watching the passers-by and gazing at the surrounding
architectural beauty. That's when I feel completely relaxed and truly as if I'm
on holiday.
Set me a place, I'm coming over for a sandwich! Now tell me - which household
chore would you happily give up for ever?
All
of them! I'm a rubbish housekeeper and can live in acres of dust and cobwebs
without noticing. Suddenly I wake up and look at the place and realise it just
won't do. Then I have a binge of cleaning until I get too tired and resolve to
do a little every day. Then I'm back at the PC and forget about it completely
until the next time it suddenly hits me again. If I cook, I usually don't
prepare because I forget I've got to do it, and then I have to do a speed
version. I'm not one of these cooks who lovingly spend hours getting it just
right, that's for sure. What's in the freezer that I can do in half an hour max
is about the sum of it!
Though I'm quite enjoying making chips in the new fat fryer because I'm
endlessly fascinated with the speed. I don't mind washing up
though.
What talent or skill
would you love to have that you don’t have now?
I wish I could play the
piano really well. I learned but gave up when I was in my teens. I started all
over again when I had a piano one time and struggled to play better. I was never
much cop at reading music despite learning and was never able to read fast
enough to play properly. It's the only instrument I learned and I loved playing
- just wasn't good. And then my piano died in a flood in a friend's basement
where it was housed and that was that. Also would have loved to play by ear but
I can't, never could.
That's a skill I bet many of us would love to have. Now to a subject I suspect will be very close to your historical heart! You're given a time
travel machine - where would you go, and why?
I'd do a Doctor Who and
pop into several timeframes. Of course I'd spend a while in the Georgian period
- just to check on some of my research facts and get them right. But for the
hell of it I'd jet off to somewhere that no longer exists like Mesopotamia.
I'd definitely jump into Inca country in South America and hope to bring back a
bit of gold! Plus have to go to Tudor London and watch a Shakespeare play at the
Globe, and Venice during a masquerade, and don't let's leave out Sarah Bernhardt
in action and Stanislavski in Russia. I think I'd probably do a through the
centuries theatre tour from Greek to Laurence Olivier - wow, what a
treat!
That all sounds wonderful! Can I come along for the ride? Elizabeth, what’s the best
review you've ever had?
I had some super
reviews for my first historical crime The Gilded Shroud, but the best one which
beats all reviews hollow was this single sentence: " The
late Regency writer Georgette Heyer lives—and she's writing mysteries as
Elizabeth Bailey! " What an accolade! To be compared to my favourite writer ever
whose work I so much admire - it just totally made my year.
What single
invention would change your life for the better?
What a fascinating
question! I can think of a number of things I wish someone would invent, but
I have to say the one I really really want is an automated maid to do all those
personal niggly jobs that drive me nuts. I just find it sooooooo boring having
to keep cutting and filing my nails, washing my hair, not to mention messing
with unwanted hair, and faffing around with creams and lotions and stuff. I'd
love to be pampered. Oh and while it's about it, that automated maid can do the
washing and dusting and all that jazz - and the ironing, I NEVER iron! - which
would take care of that eternal housekeeping which is quite as boring as
bodykeeping. Oh, for a servile robot - know what I mean?
Yes, I know exactly what you mean! Thanks for being such a fun guest, Elizabeth, and for giving us today's One-Link to your website where we can read all about The Deathly Portent and all your other fabulous novels. Good luck with all your future projects, and I'll leave the last word to you - your fib!
The last one is the fib - I actually got thrown off a donkey when I was 3 because it was sitting down when I got on its back with my brother, and then it got up and I promptly fell off!
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