In The St Hilda's Spotlight - Erin Kelly

Name:- Erin Kelly

Job:- Author/ Freelance Writer

Website:-www.erinkelly.co.uk

Facebook: erinkellyauthor

X: @mserinkelly

Instagram: @erinjelly

Introduction:

Erin Kelly is an award-winning novelist. Her debut novel The Poison Tree was a Richard and Judy book club pick and was subsequently turned into a major TV drama. Both her sixth novel He Said/She Said and Stone Mothers (We Know You Know) were also Richard and Judy Book Club pick. Her 2014 novelisation of the Bafta award winning programme Broadchurch is an international best seller. Her latest novel House of Mirrors is a sequel to her debut novel The Poison Tree. 

Current book? (This can either be the current book that you are reading or writing or both)

I’m just finishing my eleventh novel – working title The Night Stairs – which is about a mass vertigo epidemic in a girls’ boarding school.

Favourite book:

Unfair question and you know it.

Which two musicians would you invite to dinner and why?

Lin-Manuel Miranda and Kate Bush. They’re very different writers, both geniuses in their own ways. He’s so prolific and open and geeky about his song-writing, her output is sporadic and she’s an enigma, but I’d love to hear them both break down their creative processes.

How do you relax?

Yoga.

Which book do you wish you had written and why?

The Gruffalo. A juggernaut picture book is like a Christmas number one, it keeps spitting out gold coins. Financial freedom would mean I could slow down and enjoy my career a bit more. It often feels like I’m in the eye of a storm.

What would you say to your younger self if you were just starting out as a writer.

Hating your manuscript isn’t a sign you should quit; it’s part of the process and you will never abandon a book.

How would you describe your latest published book?

The House of Mirrors is a book about families, clothes and true-crime podcasts.

With A Dance to the Music of Crime: the artful crime to murder being the theme at St Hilda's this year, which are you three favourite albums?

Another unfair question!

Hounds of Love by Kate Bush

I’m Your Man by Leonard Cohen

Liege and Lief by Fairport Convention

If you were given the ability to join a band which would it be and why?

Right now, The Last Dinner Party, because they look like they’re really enjoying themselves.

If you were to re-attend a concert which would it be and why

I saw pre-megastar Amy Winehouse play an early version of Black to Black with only a guitarist for accompaniment in a basement bar in Camden. There can’t have been more than forty people in attendance. It was such a small gig, Amy got ready in the toilets, and I helped her with her eyeliner.

What are you looking forward to at St Hilda's?

Learning something new from authors I already know well.

The House of Mirrors by Erin Kelly (Hodder & Stoughton)

One of them has killed before. One of them will kill again. In the sweltering summer of 1997, straight-laced, straight-A student Karen met Biba - a bohemian and impossibly glamorous aspiring actress. A few months later, two people were dead and another had been sent to prison. Having stood by Rex as he served his sentence, Karen is now married to him with a daughter, Alice, who runs a vintage clothing company in London. They're a normal family, as long as they don't talk about the past, never mention the name Biba, and ignore Alice's flashes of dark, dangerous fury. Karen has kept what really happened that summer of '97 hidden deep inside her. Alice is keeping secrets of her own. But when anonymous notes begin to arrive at Alice's shop, it seems the past is about to catch up with them all.

More information about 2024 St Hilda's College Crime Fiction Weekend and how to book online can be found here.