16 NOVEMBER 2019 http://www.writers-online.co.uk
I
n December last year, a report
from Women’s Aid revealed that a
woman is killed by her partner or
former partner every four days.
This is one of the reasons why
Platform Seven, the new novel by Louise
Doughty, has such a powerful impact.
It’s domestic noir of the finest order: a
powerful and haunting contemporary
novel tackling domestic abuse with
riveting insight.
Platform Seven, with its themes of
gaslighting and coercive control, is Louise’s
ninth novel. Louise gives each book she
writes a unique spin – and the twist in
this particular tale is that her psychological
thriller is narrated by a ghost.
The psychological thriller genre strikesher as the ideal place to investigate the
complex danger that can be an inescapable
part of women’s domestic lives. ‘It seems
to me that women’s lives are so rich
for exploring those themes,’ she says.
‘Statistically the most likely place to be
attacked is in your own home. It’s much
more interesting to write and explore it in
a nuanced and complex way.’
Her narrator, Lisa Evans, is a ghost who
haunts Platform Seven at Peterborough
Railway Station. ‘I got the idea from my
very long, very complicated relationship
with Peterborough Railway Station,’
Louise says. ‘I grew up in the East
Midlands and went to uni at Leeds – and
going home meant changing trains at
Peterborough. Then I did the MA inCreative Writing at UEA – which meant
changing trains at Peterborough. It seems
like I’ve spent a lot of time there over the
years and my standing joke was if I died
and went to purgatory I’d be trapped
on Peterborough Railway Station. So I
thought I’d write a novel about someone
who was.’
Lisa is Louise’s first ghost narrator. ‘I’d
never done a narrative like that before.
I was intrigued by the idea of writing a
ghost who was pure consciousness – she’s
not a poltergeist, she can’t throw things
around or walk through walls. She has no
physical form but she can read people’s
minds. Not only does she tell her own
story, but she’s the omniscient narrator of
other people’s stories.’ALL
CHANGE
Louise Doughty always brings genre-defying twists to
her novels, this time a supernatural take on domestic
noir, as Tina Jackson discovers