Mystery Author Interviews

Murder By The Book manager Dean James interviews Jacqueline Winspear, the author of Maisie Dobbs (Penguin; $14) and Birds of a Feather (Soho; $25).

Dean: Maisie Dobbs, the heroine of your first novel, is a marvelously realized character. Where did she come from? For example, which came first, the character of Maisie, or the time period in which the book is set?

Jackie: In terms of actually setting out to write Maisie Dobbs, certainly the character of Maisie came first, in fact she came along before I even knew I was going to write a book! The setting – that time from just before the Great War to the beginning of WWII - has always been of interest to me from a social perspective. I love history, not so much the
political events of the time – acts of parliament, what the Prime Minister said, and so on – but I am intrigued by how people lived, interacted, and what sustained them during an extraordinary time. I was actually driving along in my car when the idea of Maisie came to me, along with – essentially – the first chapter of the book. There were aspects of her life that I knew already – that she had been a servant, a nurse, was highly intelligent and very intuitive, and that she was an investigator. And I knew the war was at the heart of her first case, and that it involved wounded veterans. It was a bit like making friends with someone – the more I wrote, the more I got to know her. And I wanted to develop a character that was both a woman of her own time, and a woman of our time. The first vision the reader has of Maisie is exactly how she looked when I first saw her in my mind’s eye – coming through the turnstile at the underground station.

Dean: The period detail and atmosphere in the book are so convincing it seems to the reader that you must have immersed yourself in the era. How long did the research for the book take? And what kinds of materials did you use for the research?

Jackie: The research was ongoing, especially regarding The Great War. I was reading a lot about the war as I wrote the book, and about the role of women during that period, but I had to balance that with my desire to just tell the story. As I was writing, I’d sometimes hit a stumbling block. For example, in 1929 you couldn’t suddenly have someone leap into a car and drive up the road, because – especially with Maisie’s car – there was a starting process to go through, so I made it part of the story, to give a sense of time and place. Old maps of London became crucial in the rewriting process, together with many calls to my parents who could remember London before WWII. You see, much of London was decimated during the Blitz, so many streets either ceased to exist, or were rebuilt, renamed or re-routed. And I had to be careful with bridges too! I paid two visits to London’s Imperial War Museum for research purposes, and I walked all the streets that Maisie walks in the novel. I also spent a lot of time in conversation with my parents, who recounted my grandparents’ stories of the time. My grandfather was horribly wounded at the Battle of the Somme; he was gassed and shell-shocked. My grandmother worked at the Woolwich Arsenal, a “canary” as they called them, because the girls who worked in the factory developed a yellow pallor from exposure to cordite – many ultimately suffered liver failure. I confess that often my research on the war led me to tears.

Dean: I believe readers are going to love Maisie so much, they will be hoping for more books about her. Is this going to be a series? If so, can you give us any hints about what Maisie might be doing next?

Jackie: The next Maisie Dobbs mystery will be published in 2004 – in fact the manuscript is due to be delivered to my publisher shortly. It’s difficult to hint without giving away the plot, but in the next book Maisie faces personal challenges as she is asked to find a missing woman, and becomes involved in the search for a serial killer. She also steers Billy through a personal crisis. You’ll meet some of the same characters again: Billy Beale, Maurice Blanche, Lady Rowan Compton and Detective Inspector Stratton. Once again, the legacy of The Great War plays a significant role in the story.

MBTB store manager Dean James's review of Maisie Dobbs:
Every once in a while, a writer creates one of those extraordinary characters that seems to step full-blown onto the page. Laurie R. King's Mary Russell is one such character. First time novelist Jacqueline Winspear's Maisie Dobbs is another. The comparison to Mary Russell is an apt one, for Maisie Dobbs is an intelligent and quietly forceful young woman, just like Mary. Unlike Mary, however, Maisie comes from humbler beginnings. The daughter of a London costermonger , Maisie started as a maid in an aristocratic London household before World War I, but it wasn't long before the mistress of the house realized that Maisie was a very gifted young woman. With the patronage of Lady Rowan Compton, Maisie heads off to Girton College in those halcyon days before the war began and is well on the way to realizing her dreams of a first-class education. But the war begins, and Maisie goes off to France to serve as a nurse. Her experiences in the war changed her forever.
In 1929 England Maisie has set herself up in business as a private enquiry agent, following in the footsteps of another mentor, Maurice Blanche, recently retired. Fate soon brings Maisie a case that will lead her to confront a tragedy in her own past. A handsome young husband comes to her, troubled by the behavior of his wife. Intrigued, Maisie takes the case and soon discovers that the wife is experiencing a strange kind of mourning for a lost love, a young soldier horribly injured in the war, who has sought solace in an odd community in southern England. On the surface, this community, known as the The Refuge, seems benign, but Maisie suspects that all is not as it appears.
Maisie's search for the truth leads her down the path of memory, calling up the painful history of her own time during the war. With her lucid prose and compassion for her characters, Winspear has spun a fascinating story of love and loss, healing an redemption, and in the process she has created an extraordinary character in Maisie Dobbs. This is one of the best debuts of the year. Don't miss it!

Interview added 05/27/2003.