When my elderly parents moved to Suffolk three years ago, I immediately became aware that they were in the grip of an addiction. During my childhood, they were very light users and as we grew up, I suppose they just didn’t have the time to indulge themselves in such an enjoyable and habit-forming pastime. But once we moved them to a bungalow a mile from our house, the full force of their need became glaringly apparent.
Picture the scene. I’d popped round and was being importuned before I’d even sunk into the basket chair.
Mum: I need more, dear. I’ve finished those ones you brought round and your father has almost run out.
Me: Gosh, really Mum? That was quick! Let me see what I can find. What sort do you need?
Mum: We both like that Fiona Veitch Smith. Has she got any more Poppy Denbys coming out?
Me: Aha! There I can help you.
Dear reader, I have become the enabler of my parents’ rampant reading habit. As a member of that fine body, the Association of Christian Writers, I am able to source the good stuff fairly easily. After a shaky start where I brought all my own favourite books over from home to share, we realised that there were plenty of authors who were more than happy to send large parcels of signed books down to East Anglia to satisfy my parents’ insatiable appetites. They read their way through Wendy H Jones, Sue Russell and SK Skillman and then discovered the Poppy Denby series.
“Oh we do like this, dear,” Mum told me, after interrogating me on when the next Jones, Russell and Skillman were coming out. “Is she writing any more in the series?”
So imagine my delight when I was asked to be part of the blog tour for Poppy’s sixth adventure, the Crystal Crypt. I decided to ask her creator, Fiona Veitch Smith, some questions.
1. Was there a moment when Poppy Denby came into your head, fully formed, or did she gradually evolve?
She evolved as a character. The idea for the Poppy books came when I was visiting the grave of the suffragette, Emily Wilding Davison in 2014. Emily was the woman who died after trying to throw a WSPU (Women’s Suffrage & Political Union) scarf onto the King’s horse at the Epsom Derby in 1913. While at the grave I mused about the possibility of writing a murder mystery where a female detective investigated a series of mysterious deaths of suffragettes. I went home, emailed Tony Collins who would later become my first editor at Lion Fiction, and told him about the idea. He loved it! So I got to work creating the first Poppy book. Initially, she was called Daisy Denby. However, as there was already a 1920s female detective called Daisy Dalrymple, I decided to change it. I also decided to move her from 1913 to 1920. My reasons for doing this are explained in the afterword of the first book in the series, The Jazz Files.
Poppy as a character really came to life for me when I first saw her in my mind’s eye as I wrote chapter two of the book. I knew I wanted her to be a young, relatively naïve woman from the provinces, coming to the big city, but I didn’t really know who she was until I saw her emerge from the steam on Platform 1 of King’s Cross station. And then she spoke, and for the first time I knew she was from Northumberland. I continued to get to know her as she interacted with the other characters of the book: Daniel, Aunt Dot, Grace, Delilah and Rollo. So, I learned who she was as I wrote the first book. And I get to know more about her as she grows through the series from an innocent cub reporter to an experienced journalist and detective.
2. Take me through your research process for a new book.
I tend to get inspiration for the next book in the series while I’m finishing writing the previous one. This can be a distraction, so I force myself not to start any research until the work in progress is finished and sent off (usually late November). But then I immediately send off a letter to Santa asking him to bring me some books relating to research for the next book. I start reading them over Christmas and during January will then expand into more detailed research – visiting museums (virtually or in person), searching 1920s collections for Poppy and Delilah’s new outfits, reading up in more detail about the period. For this book [The Crystal Crypt], I researched X-ray crystallography and laboratories in the 1920s, but also the history of psychiatry, the life and writings of Marie Stopes and 1920s contraception, and Oxford in the 1920s. My main research period is January to March. During the Easter holiday I usually start writing my first draft. I continue research as I write, but this is more on a need-to-know basis for the scene I am writing – for instance, how did bicycle brakes work in the 1920s? (Poppy will be glad I took the trouble to look that up!) I also try to visit the location of the book, when possible. With this Oxford one, I visited first in January 2020 when planning the book, then again in August 2020 as the writing was underway.
3. If you could go back to any time in history, when would it be and why?
Well, it would have to be the 1920s! I would want to know whether it was anything like I imagined it. As is clear to readers of the Poppy books, the 1920s was an exciting time for the advancement of women, and I would like to meet some of them. It will be sad knowing though that the war they think would end all wars won’t do what they hoped and that their children are heading towards another bloodbath. That is the poignancy of the period and what allows me to connect with it emotionally. As a writer it is rewarding for me to reflect the darkness and light, and the 1920s allows me to do that. I would, however, stay away from some of the toxic cosmetics and I would try to warn the bright young things not to take up smoking. But then I’d join them, dancing the night away at a jazz club.
4. What’s your favourite ever review of a Poppy Denby book?
I’ve had so many. From readers who tell me the books have brought them joy and cheered them up, to the gentleman of a certain age who confessed that he found Poppy very attractive and wanted to propose to her, to more formal reviews from critics, literary awards judges, and specialist book reviewers. The reviews that satisfy me the most though, are the ones that pick up on what I am trying to do regarding the darkness and light I mention above. While it’s fabulous to read how someone just loves all the fashion and music (and so do I!) I’m always a touch disappointed when people describe the book as just a frivolous, quick, cosy read. I feel affirmed when a reviewer sees more deeply into the story and the serious issues I am trying to raise.
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So there you have it. The 1920s most stylist detective is back and I can satisfy my parents’ addiction – at least for now!
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