The thing I hadn’t expected was that as I got to know the characters, the way they acted started to become easy to write. In fact, in The Antiquarian, one of the characters suggested what the twist may be in a conversation I was writing.
This particular story starts with the question I am always asked whenever I speak at literary festivals or run workshops on design and creativity: “Have you written a book yourself?” So, in April 2024 I decided that I needed to be able to give the answer yes.
I’ve been thinking about libraries lately. Not the gleaming modern ones with their WiFi and coffee bars, although those are important. I have been thinking about the older sort, with their worn wooden tables and the particular silence that comes from decades of concentrated reading. The kind which jump to my mind when someone says to me The London Library.