I have now been back for three days from my short mystery-related break.
Many people have emailed with guesses as to where I was going. Surprisingly (to me) Baskerville Hall was a popular guess. I’m not so sure that would quite make the romantic getaway I intended - especially as it doesn’t actually exist beyond the pages of Arthur Conan Doyle!
In fact, I was not so far away - in terms of geography at least. I spent three days on Burgh Island, situated off the south Devon coast and the setting for Agatha Christie’s Evil Under The Sun (and the inspiration behind And Then There Were None).
Within seconds of setting foot on the island, it was clear that this was no ordinary hotel. The owners have taken its Art Deco design and gone the whole way with a 1930s theme. There was a superb band playing songs of the era http://www.artdecomusic.co.uk/ and dinner was black tie with the ladies in ball gowns.
It all made for classic Golden Age happenings, even down to the gathering of the guests in the dining room (albeit without any rotund Belgium detectives in evidence.)
It was a lovely break; but as ever, when you’re in the middle of a writing project, you’re never fully “off duty”. The hotel provided much inspiration and got me thinking about the classics of yesterday. Over the years the novels of writers of the period - especially those of Agatha Christie - have been criticised in some quarters for having “wooden” characters. This has always seemed a little harsh to me - and not really very near the truth.
Obviously, modern crime fiction has moved on a long way from so-called “cosy” murders (although the success of the Agatha Raisin series bucks this trend). Any prospective crime author who ignores the classics of the genre does so at their peril. I have just finished Mrs. McGuinty’s Dead and the characterisation is on a par with many modern novels. It’s certainly worth a read if you are only aware of the author’s more famous works.
Of course, while reading is important, it’s the writing that counts. My short break has reinvigorated me and I returned home itching to get back to my book. It is beginning to tighten up now and the second draft is starting - slowly and sometimes painfully - to resemble a novel. This week will see me introduce my long delayed new character and hopefully he will add that final ingredient to the book so that it all begins to gel together.
The weeks are beginning to pass at a quicker and quicker pace - and it’s with a mixture of excitement and abject terror that I realise that I have just reached week 30. While all this Golden Age reminiscing is fun, it’s time to pick up the pace and get down to the serious slog of writing.
After a cocktail, of course.