CrimeFest 2023: Saturday 13 May: Interview

 

 

Saturday. 12:30-13:20
Featured Guest Author Elly Grifiths
interviewed by Barry Forshaw

Elly’s first four books were published under her real name which is Domenica de Rosa, which in Italian means Sunday of the rose.  She always felt it was a writer’s name, andpractised writing her signature.  Although she has an Italian father she was born in London.

She actually wrote her first book when she was eleven, it was called The Hair of the Dog,  Which, she said must have been something my parents talked about. But in her mind it was to make something better.  She never finished it.

After graduating from  King’s College London she worked in a library and then got a job as a publicity assistant at HarperCollins.  She said she  loved working in publishing and eventually became Editorial Director for children’s books. She talked about the enjoyment of writing children’s books and yes, people are killed in her children’s books, but she said the thing to do is just to kill the teachers, not the children.

It was when she was on maternity leave that she started to write her first book, which would become her first published novel, The Italian Quarter. 

Asked by Barry where did the name Elly Griffiths come from, Elly explained that It was her agent Jane Wood that came up with the name Elly Griffiths.  She’d thought of taking her grandmother’s name Helena, but somehow she became Elly.  She recalled an later interview with Jane Wood and asked her ‘how did I get to be Elly?’  Jane replied ‘I think it looked a bit tidier’.

She had decided not to go back to HarperCollins after her maternity period was up, but was offered ‘A lovely treat’ to edit letterland, which was created to teach phonics using a story-based approach. The set-up was weird, she said, and can only be described as a poisoned chalice. Example: for the letter ‘F’ Fireman Fred’s Hose fits firm in his

fist. She did try to point out that some people might see a double meaning there. However, she did write few herself Poor Peter’s Perfect Pizza and several others.

She talked about Italy, family and identity. One amusing story was that her father won a scholarship to a posh school, and he hated it there.  But he came away from there knowing that it doesn't matter what qualifications you have, it doesn't matter what you do, the only way to get on in England is to have a posh voice. This backfired on him when the war started and all the Italians were rounded up, and they couldn't believe that an Italian could speak so posh, so they thought that he was as spy. She touched a little on being brought up as a Catholic. I was much amused by the fact that her father didn't go to church as he was a ‘freelance’ Catholic. He thought that God loved everybody, but had a particular ‘crush’ on him.

She also talked about her meeting her husband Andrew in a city wine bar. He was with a group of lawyers’ and they got chatting and he told her didn't want to be a lawyer, what he really wanted to be was an archaeologist. She thought, Oh! how sweet, and decided to marry him.  He gave up the city job and went back to university and qualified as an archaeologist. Obviously, while Andrew was qualifying things were tight and they had two children by then, so for  a holiday they went back to Norfolk where she had holidayed as a child.

She said, it was walking across Titchwell Marsh, when Andy mentioned Prehistoric man and said he thought that marshland was sacred, because it’s neither land nor sea, but something in-between, a kind of bridge to the afterlife. As he said these words said Elly, ‘the entire plot of The Crossing Places appeared, fully formed, in my head and, walking towards me out of the mist, I saw Dr Ruth Galloway. And I knew everything about her. I didn’t think that this new book was significantly different from my ‘Italy’ books but, when she read it, my agent said, ‘This is crime. You need a crime name.’ Hence Elly Griffiths.’

She had a two book deal, but was careful to leave the first book with an emotional cliff-hanger. Those of us who have avidly devoured the fifteen books in this series must, like me, be wondering and hoping, will there be more?

The Elly Griffith Series

The Crossing Places
The Janus Stone
                        The House at Seas End                        
A Roomful of Bones
                                  Dying Fall                                       
The Outcast Dead
The Ghost Fields
The Woman in Blue
The Chalk Pit
The Dark Angel
The Stone Citrcle
The Lantern Man
The Night Hawks
The Locked Room
The Last Remains

www.ellygriffiths.co.uk