- Barbara Copperthwaite
10 Things I’d Like My Readers To Know About My Writing
‘I grew up in the middle of the peaceful countryside, surrounded by the sounds of war’
Sometimes it’s easy to forget that you may not know me, you may only know my books, so I thought it would be fun to let you know a bit more about my background and how I work. So here are 10 Things I’d Like My Readers To Know About My Writing…
1 – When I start a book, I generally have no clue how it will end. I love the way the story reveals itself to me as I write, almost as if it exists already and I am the archaeologist digging it up, and slowly dusting away the mud clinging to it, until I can see it in full. It’s generally around the halfway point that the ending suddenly flashes into my mind, and I’ll write it there and then because I can’t wait!
2 – I rarely write ‘good’ and ‘bad’ characters, because I think the truth about people is far more complex. Even the worst of people can have likeable traits, and the loveliest person in the world can think awful thoughts sometimes. My creations are the same, a mixture of good and bad – although most are obviously far more weighted in one direction than the other. I’m genuinely fond of them all. In Her Last Secret, my favourite character to write was Benjamin. He’s self-absorbed, bombastic, materialistic…yet all of it stems from a place of insecurity. Playing on that vulnerability, and his overwhelming desire to always hide it, was great fun as it caused more and more complications.
3 – The Darkest Lies is set in the fictional village of Fenmere, which is geographically based on Friskney, the Lincolnshire village I was raised in. Just as in the book, the village is beside a sea marsh that was used as a bombing range by the RAF. I grew up in the middle of the peaceful countryside, surrounded by the sounds of war: gun fire on the wind, fighter jets roaring overhead, and the boom of bombs going off in the distance.
4 – Despite not having a degree, I worked my way up from trainee reporter on my local weekly newspaper to become a national newspaper and magazine journalist and editor. I’ve interviewed the real victims of crime – and also those who have carried those crimes out. Thanks to people sharing their stories with me, I know about the emotional impact of violence and wrong-doing. That’s why my novels are gritty, realistic and tackle not just the crime but its repercussions.
5 – When I was in my early twenties I spent a short time working in HMP Barlinnie, a high security men’s prison in Glasgow. I met some fascinating people there, who sparked the idea for my first novel, Invisible – although I didn’t start writing it until many years later.
6 – When I write, I love noise. I can’t stand writing in silence. Music, television, a café, whatever, I need noise. I think it’s from my days as a journalist, working in hectic offices.
7 – The car crash scene in Flowers For The Dead is actually inspired by two car crashes I was in. Just like in the book, I was driving to work one day in the mist when a white van smashed my wing mirror through my window. A few weeks later, I hit a patch of black ice, and span the car out of control. It hit a hedge, bounced off it, and flipped upside down, which caved the roof in. The fire brigade told me that my life had been saved by the fact I had let go of the steering wheel and flinched away from the window – most people brace against the steering wheel, straightening their arms and sitting upright. If I’d done that, the roof would have hit my head, killing me. The reason I let go of the steering wheel? Because of the crash a few weeks earlier – I’d been terrified the window was going to smash again. White van man indirectly saved my life when he drove into me.
8 – Many of the locations I choose in my books have special meaning to me: I was raised near Skegness and my first job in journalism was writing for the Skegness Standard; and in Flowers For The Dead, a killer strikes on a cold winter’s day on Skegness beach. I lived in Colchester for five years, which is where my character Detective Sergeant Mike Bishop lives and works, and where Adam’s final victim, Laura lived. Adam’s home was in Moseley, Birmingham – which is right next to where I now live. As I mentioned earlier, The Darkest Lies is set in a fictional version of the village I was raised in. My latest novel, Her Last Secret, is based in Blackheath, London, where I lived and have many happy memories.
9 – To relax, I take photographs of wildlife. I’ve always been passionate about nature, and love taking pictures of birds, insects, plants, and animals, and then looking them up to discover more about what I’ve seen. Information I’ve gathered has been used to help create a management plan for my local park that will safeguard the wildlife there, as well as help the Birmingham & Black Country Wildlife Trust compile species information in the area. I feel really proud of that. I also love drawing. Many of my sketches are based on the photographs I take. This passion for nature seeps into my writing without my even realizing it, as many of the metaphors I use are wildlife-based, and I often use landscape to reinforce atmosphere.
10 – I really enjoy research, and can lose hours of the day to it. So much of my inspiration comes from actual crimes. For instance, when I read how Jeremy Bamber dyed his hair a shade darker in order to look pale when pretending to grieve over his dead family, I knew it was exactly the sort of thing my serial killer, Adam, would do, in Flowers For The Dead. The Darkest Lies was also sparked by something that happened in real life – though I can’t say what because it would give too much away! No matter what weird a thing I dream up in my imagination, I will always discover something even stranger has happened in real life. One of the most surprising facts I discovered while researching Her Last Secret was that there have been a number of recorded cases of homicidal somnambulism, where someone has killed while sleepwalking.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this little peek into my writing world! To find out more about Her Last Secret, click here.