Spring 2006

Before I began writing, I always imagined that the period between books was a nicely fallow one where it was possible to catch up on essential tasks that had been (happily) ignored while finishing a book. By that I mean wrestling with the tax return, sorting out cupboards or the slightly less ambitious plan to ferry clothes to the dry cleaner.

I could not have been more wrong. During this ‘fallow’ period all sorts of things have to happen. The plans for publication must be decided and put in place months before publication. Wives Behaving Badly (published in the UK as The Second Wife) is published in July and I have had a couple of meetings with my publicists Colman Getty (link) who are handling the publicity. It is a rather curious, even unsettling, experience to be dissecting something which has been a day and night obsession for over a year in such an unemotional fashion. The publicist might say. ‘We will try and get a profile in a major newspaper’, or ‘shall we go for ten radio shows’ and I find myself agreeing as if I am talking about something which does not belong to me.

Actually, once out of the meeting and back in the study I find I am not detached at all. The book has gone physically from my grasp but I think about it all the time. Is it good enough? Will people read and enjoy it? What will the critics say? TheSecond Wife still occupies front-of-house in my imagination, and I know it is time to allow it to banish it but it is harder than I imagined.

One of the important reasons for letting go is to ensure that there is imaginative space for the germ of the new book to grow. This is a process that cannot be forced. It is a not as simple as sitting down at the desk and thinking ‘now I will decide on a new novel’. The imagination is obstinate and refuses to be bossed about. Ten novels on, I have learned to empty my mind and then to look, listen, read and talk and, suddenly, I will stumble on a sentence, an idea, a fact, a snippet of gossip that triggers a response so instant and so final that there is no ambiguity about it. I know that this is what I will write about.

I am happy to report that the ‘flash’ has happened and I am now embarking on extensive research for an idea that promises to be really exciting – particularly as it will take me into the highways and byways of a historical period so rich in personalities, art and culture that there is almost too much to choose from.

© Elizabeth Buchan