Interview with Jane Harris

What were your beginnings in writing? Have you always had a story or two in your head, for instance?

I loved writing compositions at school, and like many people wrote bad adolescent poems. I wrote comic monologues and songs when I was attempting to be an actress, which I performed in order to get my equity card. But I didn't really start writing until I was in my late twenties, when I started writing short stories. I wouldn't even have done that had I not been living in a foreign country where I didn't speak the language. I had no television, no radio or other distraction, no money and no friends. I did have pen and paper and so, to amuse myself, I started writing a story. It went on from there really.

What's striking about the novel is its original use of language and in creating what's almost a 'new' dialect for the narrator. Can you say a bit about how it evolved?

The basis for Bessy the narrator's voice came into my head when I started writing what was originally going to be a short story (and later evolved into the current novel). The voice comes from a number of sources, but mainly from my Irish relatives and friends - in particular from my mum, my aunt Sheila, and my friend Noeleen. I used their turns of phrase and expressions as the basis for Bessy's dialect, having checked that they would feasibly have been in use in the 1860s. Onto that I added some vocabulary gleaned from dictionaries of Irish slang, and from dictionaries of general antiquated slang. Some of the words I just made up, when I ran out of inspiration (for instance "jack", Bessy's word for a penis, is an invention, which I used just because it sounded right). I also had fun with Bessy's verbal ticks, for instance, when describing things she doesn't care about, she makes comparisons with things of little value to her eg "I didn't care the core of a cabbage" or "I didn't care a pig's pizzle".

How much research did you do into the conditions of girls 'in service' in the 19th century?

A lot. Particularly useful was a book called "The Diaries of Hannah Cullwick". Cullwick was a serving maid in England who kept a very detailed diary of what she did every day and the conditions in which she worked. This book also was the starting point for Bessy's diary entries (although Bessy and Cullwick's style and preoccupations are very different).

The characters of Bessy Buckley and Arabella are beautifully realised and upon finishing the novel, I think we're sad to see them go, particularly Bessy. Do you plan to bring her back in future novels?

Thank you for saying so! I definitely haven't finished with Bessy. It might be a few years before she returns, but I do want to go back to her and see what she does next.

Who are your favourite writers/influences?

While I was writing The Observations I read and re-read Dickens, Wilkie Collins, Charlotte Bronte, Mark Twain, and Henry James, all of whom I have loved for a long time. I was also inspired, in terms of voice, by JD Salinger. In terms of contemporary writers, I am a big fan of Anne Tyler, Carol Shields, Peter Carey, Barbara Vine, William Boyd, and Muriel Spark. Janice Galloway was a huge inspiration to me when I began writing stories in the early 1990s - she made it seem possible to be a woman writer in Scotland.

Having your first novel published by Faber and Faber is a real coup. How did that all come about?

My agent sent a partial manuscript (about 100 pages) to Jon Riley, who was Faber's head of publishing at the time. He made a bid for the book against a couple of other publishing houses. I visited the publishers who were interested and was most impressed by Faber - the fact that they are independent and the friendly atmosphere at the offices. There wasn't any doubt in my mind that I wanted to be a Faber author and so I went with their offer.

What are you working on at the moment?

I'm working on another historical novel, set in Glasgow this time, in a rather different world than Bessy's. But I don't want to say too much about it at the moment. I'm enjoying being in a new book, with a whole new set of characters, that's the main thing.

Jane Harris, Thank You