Beth Morrey
Author Interview - Beth Morrey
Author I draw inspiration from: Nick Hornby. I love his writing style - direct prose that seems simple but isn't at all. His books have such resonance for me and were a huge influence. The lake scene at the beginning of my book is an homage to the lake scene in About a Boy where Marcus throws the baguette at a duck.
Author Interview - Beth Morrey
Favorite place to read a book: There's a pub in my hometown that is really cosy, with crackling fires and a flagstone floor. I would go there at Christmas, with my dog, and curl up by the fire with a cold glass of white wine.
Book character I’d like to be stuck in an elevator with: Jack Reacher - he'd get us out of the elevator somehow.
Author Interview - Beth Morrey
The moment I knew I wanted to become an author: When I was six, I wrote a story about Icarus. The whole class had to write one, and everyone stopped after a page, but I just carried on and on. I just had to get it all out of my head, and remember feeling a kind of electric charge, like I was doing the thing I was supposed to do.
Hardback, paperback, ebook or audiobook: For practical purposes I am happy to read ebooks, as kindles are easier to carry. But for some books - for example, CJ Sansom's Shardlake series - then I have to have it as a hardback, as soon as it's published. Is there any greater pleasure than opening a great brick of a book that you KNOW you're going to love, with it all ahead of you? It's a more pleasurable anticipation in physical form.
Author Interview - Beth Morrey
The last book I read: Someone Like Me by MR Carey, who wrote The Girl With All the Gifts, which is one of my favourite books of all time. It was great - a really gripping supernatural thriller that kept going in unexpected directions.
Author Interview - Beth Morrey
Pen & paper or computer: Computer every time. I can't write longhand any more, my hand cramps up. I don't use those newfangled programs like Scrivener though, as I don't understand them. I have a very elaborate and illogical filing system that keeps track of characters and timelines. It occasionally lets me down and I discover that everyone in my WIP has a Welsh surname or three people are called David.
Book character I think I’d be best friends with: Audra from Katherine Heiny's Standard Deviation - she would be SO entertaining, and have loads of gossip. We would also share stories of sleep deprivation.
Author Interview - Beth Morrey
If I wasn’t an author, I’d be a: Restaurant critic. I love food, and am waspish and finicky, so reckon I'd be good at it.
Favorite decade in fashion history: 1920s, though I don't really have the figure for it. But basically, I'd dress as if I was in Downton Abbey, and always have a cigarette holder, even though I don't smoke. Also, my hair would look a lot better if I had a maid to style it every morning.
Place I’d most like to travel: I'd really like to go to Prince Edward Island, where Anne of Green Gables is set. It always looks so beautiful in the TV adaptations. I'd find the Lake of Shining Waters, the Haunted Wood and Lovers' Lane.
My signature drink: Eastern Standard Cocktail. I discovered this just before the lockdown and have been perfecting the ratios of cucumber, mint and sugar syrup. You can use gin or vodka - I can't tell the difference, particularly when I've had two.
Favorite artist: Renoir. When I was a teenager, I was obsessed the Impressionists, andthought they sounded like total rock stars. I think there was an exhibition where Renoir punched a guy because he insulted his fellow artist Berthe Morisot. So he was fiery, but his paintings are full of light and joy.
Number one on my bucket list: I'd ride on a lantern-lit sleigh pulled by reindeer wearing jangling bells, at dusk.
Anything else you'd like to add: Thank you to everyone buying books right now - particularly if you're buying books by debut authors. It's so much harder to stumble on new writers with the bookshops closed, so if you're making the effort then I'm very grateful.
Find more from Beth Morrey:
Twitter - @BethMorrey
Instagram - @BethMorrey
Author Bio: I'm a TV producer by trade. For a long time I worked in development, creating shows like The Secret Life of Four Year Olds series on Channel 4 and devised 100 Year Old Drivers for ITV. I've been trying to write a novel since my early 20s, when I wrote a spin-off from Mary Poppins called Sister Suffragette, which was all about Winifred Banks' adventures when she wasn't at home singing. It's probably for the best that it's still in a drawer somewhere. Saving Missy is my first full-length novel, and I wrote it on maternity leave, inspired by the people I met while I was walking my dog in the park. In my spare time I enjoy running, cooking curries, admiring my dog every day and Christmas once a year.
Author Interview - Beth Morrey
