Hello Susan. Thank you so much for joining me today. Can you tell me about your book, HoodWink! What inspired it?

Where to start? Probably seriously in Norwich in 2018.  My husband’s family are very much into get-togethers, and in 2018 all five siblings and their partners gathered there to celebrate various anniversaries and birthdays. In order to keep people’s noses out of their mobile ‘phones, I had produced a little guide book in which one of the characters mentioned was Saint William of Norwich. Except that he wasn’t a saint.  I knew a little about him, because Benjamin Britten had set a ballad, entitled Little Sir William, to music. My singing teacher was quite right when she said it was a terrible song.  Nevertheless, that had not stopped us performing it in recitals.

Why was it so terrible?  For two reasons: one, the child is killed at Easter by the school wife with a little penknife. Worse, in the original story, set around 8oo years earlier, it was all blamed on the Jewish Community, who were said to have killed him in a ritual murder. The child was then declared a martyr. The man who had really stoked the flames was a certain Thomas of Monmouth, who wrote a book on the sufferings and miracles of St William.  Later – but much too late to stop the hatred – they received orders to cancel the cult.  

To this day, nobody knows who killed the little boy, but it certainly wasn’t the Jews.  But I did become angry at all the fantasy and deceit, and this gave birth to the book.  If Thomas of Monmouth could write a book, then so could I.  There is a murderer, and at the end of the book the reader, having carefully followed the clues, finds out who it is. But unlike Thomas, I do not claim my book is the truth, but my way of showing how a community can be destroyed by lies, ignorance, and hatred.

What are the challenges when writing a book with historical and fictional elements combined? What do writers need to consider when writing a book like Hoodwink!?

Firstly, I would say do your research. Sadly there is not a lot of information on William, and most of that seems to have been invented by Thomas. Some of the characters in my book did exist, and are documented – though not in much detail. Make sure you have your background correct.  In my case it was to reinforce or double check what I knew about the Monastic Hours, the seasons of the year, medicinal cures, food, even the flowers that grew here in that time. In other words, you have to live there and experience it.

From first idea to finished book, how long did this book take you to write? Do you have any advice about the research and editing process – like, when do you know when you’ve done enough?

It took about eight months, but that is not to say I sat at my computer every single day. It may be a strange thing to say, but when I sat down to write, it was almost as if I suddenly felt the urge to pay a visit to Brother Anselm, to Sheriff John, to Brother Dunstan. It was rather like dropping in on friends. I never forced it, although the book was carefully planned, with a time line. I finished it the day before Hamas invaded Israel. The research I have already mentioned above. To this one might add the Popes of the time and their fates; the second crusade, modes of travel. All dates were carefully checked, even to the dates of Easter for any particular year.

If you were putting together a playlist for this book, which modern songs would you include?

Continue reading →

by