74 NOVEMBER 2019 http://www.writers-online.co.uk
CAROL’S TOP TIPS- There is no such thing as writer’s
block. There is writing time and there
is thinking time. Sometimes one is
mistaken for the other. - I have found only one fail-safe way to be a
writer: place self in chair, switch on laptop
and write. - The online writing community is a wonderful
world, full of supportive, helpful people.
I have found my tribe on Twitter and
Facebook. You will find yours too.
AUTHOR PROFILE
CAROL
HEDGES
C
arol Hedges is a
successful novelist who
is both commercially
and independently
published in adult
and young adult fiction. She’s
been writing all her life and says
she doesn’t think there was ever a
particular Damascene moment that
prompted her to start.
‘A bit like the Brontës, I was
writing stories from a very early age,’
she says. ‘When I was six or seven
I used to make little books for my
toys. I never merely wanted to write.
I just wrote. It’s still like that today.
My stories are an extension of who
I am and, if I go for a long period
without writing anything, I get tetchy
and become rather unpopular with
members of my family.
‘My parents came to the UK in
the late 1930s as German Jewish
refugees. I was born in the UK, but
my upbringing was far from being
traditionally British and middle-class.
At home, my parents spoke German.
We were Reform Jews so I went to
synagogue and had my Bat Mitzvah
when I was thirteen. There were no
Jewish kids in my primary school or
secondary school.
‘I feel that being an outsider was
good preparation for writing. It
gave me a sense of looking at things
dispassionately. Most writers are
solitary by nature and I was a solitary
child because I never fitted in. As
a child, I remember trying so hard
to be English. It was a painful and
unsuccessful process and for much of
the time I was desperately unhappy.
Nowadays, I revel in being myself.
Carol’s latest project is a series
of crime novels set in Victorian
England. The first book in the series
entitled The Victorian Detectives
is Diamonds & Dust, which was an
instant hit. Every novel in the series
has an alliterative title, with IntrigueMargaret James finds out why the historical crime
novelist prefers being an independent author who
can set her own agenda& Infamy being the seventh outing
for her detectives Stride and Cully.
‘I have been much struck by the
anti-immigrant and anti-Jewish
rhetoric that has gained currency over
the past few years,’ says Carol. ‘So, in
Intrigue & Infamy, I’ve written about
how things were very similar in 1867.
Foreigners were regarded with similar
suspicion and the same accusations
were levelled against them. They were
allegedly taking jobs from “honest”
British workers. They were driving up
rents. They were “diluting” the purity
of English blood. In my novel, some
Jewish businesses are attacked, and an
elderly Italian man is beaten to death.
Stride and Cully have to deal with
prejudice as well as criminal activity.
As usual, some characters from other
books step on to the pages. I never
invite them. They just appear.’
What does Carol do when she’s not
writing fiction?
‘I look after my two adorable
grandchildren aged three and five
two days a week, which keeps me
busy, fit and rather more au fait with
CBeebies than I might otherwise
wish to be,’ she says. ‘Other than
that, I have a cat who wants to be
the next Prime Minister, and I am
a political activist, which involves
weekly trips to London. I’m also a
member of The Archers Tweetalong,
which meets every evening at 7.02
pm to comment along to the episode.
Sadly, down my end of the Twitter
pool, we tend to focus upon what we
are eating and drinking rather that
discussing the actual plot-lines.’
Carol has made a big success of
the Cully and Stride series set in
Victorian England. She’s also written
contemporary stories for young adults,
and her YA novel Jigsaw Pieces was
shortlisted for a Carnegie Medal. Does
she prefer to write stories set in the
present day or in the fairly recent past?
‘I like writing both,’ she says. ‘The