Job: Author
Website:- https://www.harriet-evans.com
Facebook: harrietevansbooks
X: @HarrietEvans
Instagram: @harrietevansauthor
Introduction
Harriet Evans is a former publisher and the author of 14 books. Her first book Going Home was published in 2005. She has since gone on to write a number of Richard and Judy book club selection picks and won the Good Housekeeping Book of the Year. Her debut crime novel D is for Death was published in June 2024.
Current book? (This can either be the current book that you are reading or writing or both)
A Pocket Full of Rye, by Agatha Christie. I have always had a terrible memory which is great for rereading crime. I never have any idea whodunnit.
Favourite book:
Gaudy Night by Dorothy L Sayers. It is everything a book should be. Strong female lead, past and present colliding, detection, romance, academic women, and a glorious setting. I reread it every other year and it always gives me something new.
Which two musicians would you invite to dinner and why?
Mozart, to see what genius is like, and Barbra Streisand. I have just read her autobiography and I’m obsessed with her.
How do you relax?
I am never relaxed. I wish I was. I do however spend a lot of time writing in bed though which is obviously more relaxing than lots of jobs.
Which book do you wish you had written and why?
Gaudy Night – see above. The Cazalet Chronicles, by Elizabeth Jane Howard, about a family before and after WW2. And A Murder is Announced, which is to my mind joint first best of Agatha Christie’s novels. (The other is Death on the Nile).
How would you describe your latest published book?
D is for Death is my first crime novel. It is set in 1935, and introduces the detective Dora Wildwood, who is escaping a terrible fiancé and runs away from her tiny Somerset village, jumping on a train to Paddington and arriving at dawn. From there she ends up in the London Library, and almost immediately discovers a dead body. It’s about her attempts to solve the murder and to work out what she is going to do next. I would describe it as Cold Comfort Farm meets Fleabag meets Miss Marple.
With A Dance to the Music of Crime: the artful crime to murder being the theme at St Hilda's this year, which are your three favourite albums?
The Marriage of Figaro (1982 Decca recording Solti te Kanawa & Allen)
Fleetwood Mac - Rumours
Ella Fitzgerald sings the Gershwin Songbook
If you were given the ability to join a band which would it be and why?
ABBA, because to sing that music all day every day would be incredible. You’d never get tired of it. Plus, it would be your job to sing Voulez-Vous. What a job.
If you were to re-attend a concert which would it be and why?
Not a concert but an opera: Tosca at the ROH in 2011 conducted by Pappano with Angela Gheorghiu, Bryn Terfel and Jonas Kauffman. It was honestly one of the most full throttle beautiful experiences of my life.
What are you looking forward to at St Hilda's?
Atmosphere and inspiration. I’m so thrilled to be asked and I can’t wait to be there and immerse myself in the whole experience, everything from the location itself to the different speakers and the ideas and content to be discussed. Writing is such a strange job to have, to be able to listen and absorb other writers’ thoughts and processes is a huge privilege. I am so looking forward to it.
D is for Death by Harriet F. Townson (Harriet Evans) Hodder and Stoughton
Meet Dora Wildwood: runaway bride, book lover, and aspiring detective. Likes: solving crimes, peppermint creams, trousers and her own independence. Dislikes: cracked book spines, tyrannical behaviour, beetroot. 1935. Dora's on the first train to London, having smuggled herself out of the house in the middle of the night to escape her impending marriage. But unluckily for her, Dora's fiance is more persistent than most and follows. As Dora alights at Paddington station, she is immediately forced to run from the loathsome Charles Silk-Butters. She ducks into the London Library to hide and it is there, surrounded by books, where she should feel most safe, that Dora Wildwood stumbles across her first dead body. Having been thrown into the middle of a murder scene, it's now impossible to walk away. Indeed, Dora's certain she will prove an invaluable help to the gruff Detective Inspector Fox who swiftly arrives on the scene. For as everyone knows, it's the woman in the room who always sees more than anyone else: and no one more so than Dora herself..
More information about St Hilda's and booking can be found here.
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