I often refer to being able to fit in a review and after a few busy weekends, I had to accept that I wasn’t going to get the chance to read and review Salad Days for Allie Cresswell. I did agree to include the following Q&A session and I hope that you enjoy it.
Synopsis
“My earliest memory is of you, Arthur. We were children, running across the garden at Granny’s house. The sun on your hair made it look like copper wire. Then you stopped, and I cannoned into you. We both went headlong into the rockery. It was 1964, the summer before I started school, so I was nearly five. You would have been just three.
It’s strange, isn’t it? That my first memory is of you. Or maybe it isn’t very strange at all.”
Prudence and Arthur take a nostalgic trip down memory lane to the ‘60s and ‘70s; turbulent, changeful years that contrasted with their idyllic childhood at ‘Salad Days,’ the market garden run by Prue’s extended family.
But was it idyllic? Tragedy makes uneasy waypoints in their journey of recollection, and Arthur’s overbearing father casts a dark pall. How did he inveigle himself into Prue’s close-knit family circle? What was his hold on them?
As Prue and Arthur retrace their youthful attempts to get to the facts, it’s clear that truth and memory aren’t always the same.
What of the mysteries that defy the clarity of hindsight? The uncanny auspices of eccentric Mrs Glenister, latest in the line of ‘peculiar’ Glenister wives—why did she only materialise at times of calamity? And most oddly of all, why, in all their reminiscing, does Arthur never speak a word?
Memory is a curious thing—unreliable and awkward. Shaping it into an account Prue and Arthur can both live with might take a lifetime. Or two.
Q&A
- How did you get the idea for your new book?
Salad Days emerged from an idle imagining I had one day whilst walking the dogs in a piece of wild, scrubby woodland not far from our house. What if I were to stumble upon a person in some makeshift camp or tumbledown shed? The idea of someone living off-grid, close to but unsuspected by the local residents, able to watch their daily lives and maybe even to influence them was intriguing. So, my green woman was conceived. In the end, she became a peripheral character; the family she watches over took centre stage. But so it often is with writing; where you begin is rarely where you end up. The other influence was a location on the Scottish side of the Solway coast, the setting for Salad Days. The woods and cove, the woodsman’s cottage and the hidden cemetery are all real.
- What a book is about is not always the same as what happens in it. What is Salad Days about?
So true! Salad Days is a book about memory, its unreliable character, the way we often have to shape and alter it to fit our consciences or pride. In my book, Prudence and Arthur go on a nostalgic trip down memory lane but find awkward obstacles get in the way of the idyllic childhood they want to remember.
- Do you work with an outline or go wherever the characters take you?
An interesting question. Salad Days is a historical novel, set in the 1960s and 70s. It feels odd to describe events in my own lifetime as historical but for many readers the late twentieth century is history. The facts of history are indisputable, so writing a historical novel has to take account of those and, to some extent, they must direct the plot. But, aside from that, my writing is character-driven, and they regularly do things that take me by surprise. I’m always happy when that happens, because it means that they have an element of spontaneity and autonomy that will make them leap off the page and into my readers’ imaginations.
- Do you always write in the same genre?
No. I’ve written historical novels set in the Regency period, such as the first two books in my Talbot saga and my Jane Austen inspired Highbury Trilogy, as well as contemporary fiction such as Crossings and my Widows series. The Cottage on Winter Moss is a dual timeline novel, set in the present day but with a second story thread set in the early twentieth century.
- How do you decide on your book cover?
The cover for Salad Days is from a piece of original artwork by an emerging talent, Alastair Clarke, who happens also to be a friend. We discussed the nostalgic, rose-tinted tone of the book and its setting—a market garden. Alastair came up with the “Mr McGregor’s Garden” feel, which I loved. He read the book and then he painted the image. I’m delighted with it.
- What kind of books do you enjoy reading for relaxation?
I tend to write the kinds of books I myself would enjoy reading, so I like character-driven fiction, written in flowing, lyrical prose. I’m steeped in the classics of the nineteenth century: Austen, Trollope, Dickens, Wharton and James. Of newer writers I enjoy Hannah Kent, Laurel Savile, Olivia Hawker and Emma Donoghue. I like books that surprise and challenge me.
- When did you first realise that you wanted to be a writer?
It’s hard to pinpoint. I always enjoyed writing stories and, aged about seven, asked for a stack of writing paper for Christmas. Another year I got a portable typewriter. Just asking for those things tells me that I wanted to write, but I didn’t believe I could do it as a career until much later. It took the encouragement and belief of others to make me realise that it might be possible. I only know that when I am writing I feel more thoroughly at peace, more wholly me than at any other time.
Author Bio
Allie Cresswell is the recipient of two coveted One Stop Fiction Five Star Awards and three Readers’ Favorite Awards
Allie was born in Stockport, UK and began writing fiction as soon as she could hold a pencil.
Allie recalls: ‘I was about 8 years old. Our teacher asked us to write about a family occasion and I launched into a detailed, harrowing and entirely fictional account of my grandfather’s funeral. I think he died very soon after I was born; certainly I have no memory of him and definitely did not attend his funeral, but I got right into the details, making them up as I went along (I decided he had been a Vicar, which I spelled ‘Vice’). My teacher obviously considered this outpouring very good bereavement therapy so she allowed me to continue with the story on several subsequent days, and I got out of maths and PE on a few occasions before I was rumbled.’
She went on to do a BA in English Literature at Birmingham University and an MA at Queen Mary College, London.
She has been a print-buyer, a pub landlady, a book-keeper, run a B & B and a group of boutique holiday cottages. Nowadays Allie writes full time having retired from teaching literature to lifelong learners.
She has two grown-up children, two granddaughters and two grandsons, is married to Tim and lives in Cumbria.
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