Featured Interview With Lynn Bushell
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I was born by the sea in East Anglia and grew up in Kent. For the last 20 years I’ve spent half of every year in a bolt-hole on the Normandy coast which provides me with the peace to write and the inspiration to paint. I have an eleven year old border collie with one blue eye and one brown, for company. I could live without people if I had to, but not without a dog
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I started out as a painter, not a writer, and began writing after leaving university in order to support myself as an artist. I got a job as a features editor on the UK ‘Vanity Fair’ and because journalism seemed to come easily, I went on doing it. Once I started taking the writing seriously, it got harder. I’d have worried if it hadn’t. It now takes me between 4 – 7 years to write a book, but that’s O.K. Time isn’t everything, although my biggest fear now is that I might die halfway through a book.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I like to read books that are recommended and if I like them, I read others by the same author. I love Rachel Cusk’s books – her intelligence shines through everything she does and I loved Amor Towles ‘A Gentleman in Moscow’. As a student Virginia Woolf was my favourite author. I’m not quite as enthusiastic about her now but you never entirely leave behind authors you’ve loved. I hope in the future a few readers might feel the same about me. My latest enthusiasm is for Mary McCarthy’s brilliant 1960’s book ‘The Group.’
Tell us a little about your latest book?
‘Painted Ladies’, (Sandstone 2019) was my first excursion into historical fiction. It was about the painter Bonnard and his relationship with his long-term partner, Marthe, and his muse, Renee Montchaty. My two previous books had been novels, but when ‘Painted Ladies’ was voted ‘Book of the Year’ by The Literary Sofa, I decided to write another in the same vein. ‘The Lovers and the Dustman’ is about the English artist Stanley Spencer and his obsession with his gay muse, Patricia Preece. I’m hoping this one will be out next year.
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