Welcome to my stop on Anne Atkins’ An Elegant Solution blog tour with Love Books Tours!

Many thanks to Kelly @ Love Books Tours for arranging the following interview with Anne Atkins…..

Where did/do you get your ideas from?

I usually start with a question. Such as what would drive me to murder? Or, if I were a terrorist, what is the most effective target I could think of.

Are any of your characters based (however loosely) on anyone you know?

Very much so! My Aspergic hero, Theo, is based entirely on my son Alexander. Other characters are themselves, arising in relation to him, but have traits from all sorts of people.

How do you pick your characters’ names?

How do you pick your children’s names? (Though a few of my characters have names picked by charity auction, a method I’ve not yet used for any of our children… though it’s not a bad idea.

Can you share your writing process with us, in a nutshell?

Interrupted.

Who are your top 5 favourite authors?

Shakespeare. Chaucer. Dickens. Sayers. Austen. CS Lewis. Sophocles. Virgil. How on earth do you restrict this to five?

If you could meet any author, who would it be and what would you ask them?

Shakespeare. Are you the Earl of Oxford?

Were you a big reader as a child?

No, I was a very small reader as a child. I did read a lot though.

(LOL!!!)

When did you start to write?

At nursery school. My first professional writing: the year after I left university, when I was asked to write dramatic sketches for the Oxford Christian Mission.
If you could re-write the ending to any book what would it be and what would you change?

Every time I see Romeo and Juliet I somehow hope and believe that this time, he might just get to her in time…

Is there a book you wish you had written?

Gaudy Night.

If you wrote an autobiography, what would your title be?

My Humility and I.

If you could invite any fictional character for coffee who would it be and where would you take them?

The Fool in King Lear. For a walk by a river (sod the coffee).

What are you working on right now?

Finalising my first play, Play Lady K, the first act of which won a competition to be showcased in Bedford and London, and which has now been picked to be shown again at the Bedfringe Festival on 23rd July:

Tell us about your last release?

An Elegant Solution was my first novel for twenty years (we suffered a lot of trauma during that time) and came out just before Christmas 2018

Do you have a new release due?

The sequel to this is my next project.

What do you generally do to celebrate on publication day?

Drink champagne and feel really, really happy.

How can readers keep in touch with you?

My contact details are on my website. Just look up my name.

Is there anything else you would like us to know?

I write a daily blog called Bink Bonkers. Very easy to find.

Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions, Anne 🙂

Blurb

When someone mentions the City of Cambridge you probably think of an iconic building, its four corners stretching out of the once medieval mud and into the arms of everlasting heaven, its white limestone yearning into eternity… and without even knowing exactly what ephemeral joys or permanent wonders the vision brings to mind, it’s a safe bet that the one thought which does not occur to you is that the Chapel might not be there by Christmas.

Theo (Theophilus Ambrose Fitzwilliam Wedderburn to his friends) is a Junior Research Fellow in Number Theory. Prompted by a supervisee to demonstrate how to trace the provenance of bitcoins, Theo happens across a shocking revelation, with embarrassing ramifications for the whole University. Meanwhile he is being stalked unseen by someone from his childhood. To his annoyance, Theo falls for a cheap con… and discovers a horror set not only to rock the very seat of power itself but to change the face of Cambridge and its beautifully iconic image for ever.

Buy Link 

https://amzn.to/2XJwAYP

happy reading 🙂

 

Author

Anne Atkins is a well-known English broadcaster and journalist, and regular contributor to BBC Radio 4’s Thought for the Day. She took an involuntary, and long, break from writing fiction when her son was diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome, their daughter repeatedly hospitalized with a severe illness, and finally the family was made homeless.. Thankfully those dark days are now behind her and she and her husband Shaun along with some of her children now live happily in Bedford, England.