Kitty Neale Interview

29 August 2008

0Comments | Comment on this Article

Your new book is Family Betrayal can you tell me a bit about it?

My latest book, Family Betrayal is based in South London, in 1969. Drapers Alley is a grim and foreboding place that I filled with a family of thieves. Dan Draper has six sons, and one daughter, Petula, who is the apple of his eye. The Drapers rule the area, and the locals wouldn't dare to enter Drapers Alley without permission. They decide to venture into the porn industry, but when they raise the stakes, moving from soft to hard porn, they step into the territory of another villain, Jack Gaston, and he's even nastier than the Drapers.A turf war breaks out, with kidnapping and murder the result, but it's Dan's innocent daughter, Petula who pays the price. In fear of her life she flees Drapers Alley, going to live with her cousin, but a horrific secret is revealed, forcing her to return home, and what she has to tell her mother, will break her heart.

You grew up in south London what was is about this area that has inspired so many of your novels?

All my childhood memories are of the area, and as an adult I remained in or around Battersea until I moved to Surrey in the 80's. However, when I get an idea for my next book, my next plot, it's always Battersea or surrounding boroughs that spring to mind.

There was such a rich mixture of characters and I find it easier to write about an area I knew so well - that I can conjure up in my mind - though I do deviate from the topography at times, such as with Drapers Alley.

Apart from growing up in the area where the novel was set what other research did you have to do for the book?

As my books are set in the 1950's and 1960's, I do a lot of research on the Internet regarding events of those times, along with fashions and prices. I also have several books on the subject, along with my own memories.

The Drapers very much rule the streets of London were the characters based on anyone that you remember when living there?

No, the Drapers weren't based on anyone I knew. But of course there was a lot of gossip about villains; the Krays in East London, and the Richardsons in South London, so I found it east to conjure up the Drapers up in my mind.

And how does the ideas and writing process work for you?

This is difficult to quantify. Sometimes a character comes to mind, a situation they are in, and a story evolves from there. In other instances it might be a place, such as Drapers Alley. It doesn't exist, but I remember an alley, not the same, but it became my inspiration. I do try to write a synopsis, but find it impossible to keep to.

Once I start on a new book, the characters seem to evolve, some becoming more prominent and their story going off in a direction I wasn't expecting. It's the same when it comes to routine. I start writing in the morning, and find that I get so engrossed that I forget to eat.

My lovely hubby will appear, usually with food in hand along with a cup of tea, and there have been occasions when he has had to ask me if I'm ever going to cook dinner. So far I've been fortunate, and at around the halfway point of the book I'm currently working on, another character, place, or situation pops into mind.

I then make a few hasty notes before putting it on the back burner. When I was writing Family Betrayal, the idea came for a woman who had been so badly hurt and betrayed by a man, that she wanted revenge. She recruits other women in similar situations, and together they carry out their plans, but for one of them revenge isn't sweet and she loses everything.

Many of your books such as Sins of the Father and Outcast Child very much focus on the hardships of family life, quite often seen from the perspective of a young child, is there any reason for this?

My background is working class, and as a child I saw a lot of hardship with friends and family. Both my parents worked in local factories, and I was a latchkey kid. I can't say my childhood was a happy one and I suspect this is why some of my books are from a child's point of view.

In my early ones I found that some of my own painful experiences came out in the lives of my characters, but none have been based on the story of my own life.

0Comments | Be the first to comment!