Featured Interview With Charlie Garratt
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I was raised in Manchester, England, in an area known as Tripe Colony, long gone to redevelopment. Now I live in Shropshire, close to the cradle of the Industrial Revolution. I’ve also lived in Warwickshire, where several of my novels are set, and in Donegal, Ireland, where I started my writing.
We have a black cat, which I fastidiously feed, whilst being fastidiously ignored by her at all times.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
When I was a child, a friend of my father’s said ‘he would read brown paper, that one’. And so I would at that age. Later I read fiction much less, spending much of my working life reading reports and policy papers.
I started writing fiction around 2008, when I took a creative writing class, and then joined a writers group- something I’d recommend to any aspiring authors. The discipline of producing pieces to share, and the process of receiving and providing feedback, hones your skill as a writer.
I enjoy writing historical crime and mystery fiction, and have six novels published in that genre. It’s something about the mental challenge of putting together a story which keeps the reader guessing, but not completely mystified at the end.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
My early influences were Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie and Rider Haggard. I was introduced at school to John Steinbeck and think his ability to describe place is second-to-none. It’s hard to say who inspires me, because I’m inspired by almost everyone I read, either by the quality of the prose, the ability to build characters I can believe in, or the development of plot. I’d rarely leave any book without picking up something I’d aspire to emulate.
When I’m binge-reading, say on holiday, I’ll take one or two spy or crime novels – probably my favourite genres- a ‘classic’ or two, and maybe someone I have been recommended.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
When I finished the fifth novel in a series featuring Inspector James Given, set in 1930s/40s England, my publisher suggested I start a new series. I’d had a character in my head for many years who was a clerk in the mid-18th century. As I began to work on an outline for the new one, the location changed, the character became female and her occupation became a gardener, or an under-gardener to be precise. She was also not the main character. However, she was strong, and shuffled off her role as sidekick – I just couldn’t stop her. So, Meg Valentine rose in status, and became the lead in The Thief-Taker’s Apprentice.
Meg works for the local magistrate, whose wife, Sarah, is burgled, losing some letters she has held secret for years. To recover them, she engages a thief-taker, Edwin Hare. Meg convinces Edwin to train her as a thief-taker, a path she sees as an escape from the poverty and drudgery of her life.
As Meg helps him uncover a trail of blackmail and hidden motives, she questions the trustworthiness of those around her, including Edwin. She’s forced to navigate tangled relationships, dangerous secrets, and her own ambitions, to uncover the killer and secure her future.
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