WRITING ROOMS
L
uckily, given that I’ve lived in fi ve
houses in nine years, I can write
anywhere. That said, it is helpful to
have a dedicated space to write in and
to store my research and maps. Both my
novel series have been based in distinctive
geographical areas so I have all of the OS
and IGN maps for those regions as I’m
obsessive about getting the terrain right.
I’ve also got lots of books on the linguistic
background of Yorkshire place names, my
past as a linguist fuelling my desire for
authenticity when it comes to christening
fi ctional locations. I seem to have acquired
a lot of books on sheep too! As well as
some wall charts for vintage tractors.
When I started writing fi ction, all I had
was a desk in a small corner of the auberge
my husband and I owned in the Pyrenees.
The desk doubled up for running the
business. I like to think I never confused
the two.
In our current house, a dedicated writing
room is being prepared for me, which will
feel like a complete luxury. But it’s fi lled
with dust sheets and stepladders at presentPhil Barrington talks to cosy crime
writer Julia Chapman
Where I write
so I’m working in the kitchen, the sunniest
room in the house, two steps from the
kettle and with a view out to the garden.
To be honest, I do most of my ‘writing’
when I’m out on my bike or running up
on the fells of the Yorkshire Dales, where
I live. It’s purely because of the fells
surrounding my house that I’m writing
a cosy crime series set in the region. My
original plan, as I fi nished the Fogas
Chronicles – which were based in the
French Pyrenees – was to turn my hand
to something darker. But every time I
went running, trying to do some work in
my head on this new series, I would be
drawn back to the scenery around me.
The landscape and its inhabitants had
got under my skin. How could I not write
about them?
Hence the Dales Detective Series was
born. Characters arrived: locals and
offcumden (outsiders) all thrown together
by mystery and murder. They congregated
in The Fleece, a pub where everyone
knows everything about you. They
frequented Peaks Patisserie. They were
inhabitants of Bruncliff e, a typical Dales
town, created as I ran.
Because I’ve moved house so often, I
don’t need to have set items around me
when I write, though my research is close
to hand. At the moment, that includes a
bespoke OS Explorer map of ‘Bruncliff e’,
which is basically a map centred on Settle.
Over the past three years, characters’
houses have been added and murder
locations highlighted. The four novels
already published are also nearby, purely
for reference. When writing sequels, it’s
imperative to respect continuity, so I’m
constantly dipping back into them.
Of course, it’s amazing to be able to
dedicate a physical area to your craft, but
for many writers that just isn’t possible, or
aff ordable. It’s far more important to have
space in your life for writing. To be able
to closet yourself in your head with your
characters and not feel guilty that you are
neglecting your family or your ‘proper’ job.
At the auberge, our summers were a
blur of hard work. It was my husband
who encouraged me to spend the winter
down-time writing when I should have
been helping with the endless renovations.
He gave me the time to write, guilt-free,
even when there was no defi nite chance of
ever making any money from it. That was
my writing space: the love, support and
belief of someone close to me. It gave me
the courage to keep going. I wouldn’t swap
it for the fi nest offi ce in the world. Date with Danger by Julia Chapman is
published by Pan Macmillan, £8.99