Today I’m taking part in the blog tour for Blood Among The Threads. I’m sharing my Q&A with the author with thanks to Zoe O’Farrell for inviting me on the tour and to David Ebsworth for answering my questions!

Have you always wanted to write?

I get asked this a lot and I’ve always replied that I only thought about writing when I was coming up towards retirement. But I was recently asked to run a session on Writing for Wellbeing and realised that, whether I wanted to or not, I’ve been writing pretty much since I was a kid.

What were your previous jobs? Have they helped you with your writing process?

I was a textile worker – literally a yarn spinner – and then a union organiser. So the process of keeping daily journals, writing reports and briefing papers, press releases and a stack of other stuff all had to be put together using all the normal skills of creative writing. Apart from that, of course, those jobs gave me a wealth of characters and storylines to play with. None of my books have anything directly to do with the jobs, but they’re all political thrillers or crime stories with historical backgrounds – so lots the people I knew helped to inspire many of my characters.

What was your inspiration for Blood Among The Threads?

I’d been working for a couple of years on a non-fiction history guidebook for Wrexham, where I live. In the process I came across the story of this huge Art Treasures Exhibition that took place in the town over four months in 1876. It was astonishing. One of the exhibits was a huge patchwork quilt, full of fabulous images – biblical allegory and local landmarks. It still exists in our National Museum in Cardiff. I had the privilege of looking at this Wrexham Tailor’s Quilt at close quarters and, as I stared at the thing, the story really sprang out of the cloth. What if the images were all clues to a series of gruesome deaths – as well as those responsible for them?

What does your writing process look like? Are you a plotter or a pantser?

I’m not sure I’m either. Or maybe I’m both. I’m always obsessive about making sure the history in my books is absolutely accurate. So I always start with a factual historical timeline. At the same time I’m making sure I’ve got main characters who I get to know better than I know myself. Finally, I work out roughly how I want the whole thing to end. That’s my plotting. And then I let my characters loose along the timeline towards the ending I’ve thought of. But because they’re strong characters they tend to make their own way, and the story almost develops itself. That’s the ”pantser” part.

How did you research Blood Among The Threads? Did you enjoy it?

I was blessed because we still have all the original catalogues for the 1876 Art Treasures Exhibition at the heart of the story, and the local papers carried reports of its progress on an almost daily basis. So the newspaper archives were another great source. I always, always enjoy the research – while taking care, of course, not to let it distract me too much from the actual writing. There are always those surprise moments. On this occasion I discovered the story of George W.M. Reynolds – a 19th century writer, now almost forgotten but, during his lifetime, more widely read than his contemporary, Charles Dickens. And then I needed to experience what it must have been like to brave the waters of the Menai Straits, back then in the 1870s – a good excuse for several water-borne adventures!

Who are your favourite writers? Are you influenced by them?

That’s really difficult. My favourite all-time authors are Hilary Mantel and Robert Harris. I admire their skills as storytellers and their ability to tell stories set in a wide range of historical periods, but always as if studied those periods for a lifetime. And yes, I’m influenced by both of them. It’s precisely how I like to write, different sorts of tales, set in some of my favourite centuries.

If you could invite three people, living or dead, to dinner, who would they be and why?

My mum, my dad and my paternal grandfather. Just so many things I never got to ask them when they were alive – intriguing questions to which I can now never get the answers.

Who would you least like to be stuck in a lift with and why?

Anybody who’s been in the UK’s so-called government since 2019. The most corrupt, inept and self-serving politicians from any political party we’ve had to suffer since Queen Anne.

Who would play the main character/s in a film version of Blood Among The Threads?

My main protagonist is Palmer, an amateur sleuth, 30 years old with chest problems. He’d probably be played best by Matthew Goode (Henry Talbot in Downton Abbey and Armstrong-Jones in The Crown). For his side-kick, 20-year old Ettie Francis, probably Jodie Comer.

What do you like to do in your spare time?

Anything in or on the water – swimming, sailing, rowing and powerboating. But mainly spending time with our great-grandkids.

What is next for you?

My own favourite creation has been journalist and war correspondent Jack Telford, whose misadventures have so far taken him though the closing months of the Spanish Civil War and then through the whole of World War Two – lots of intrigue, mystery and mayhem. So I’m currently working on an anthology of long short stories, which take Jack’s story through from 1945 and right through to the early 80s. Meanwhile, there’s another non-fiction guidebook due to hit the streets in 2025.

Favourites:

Book? Hilary Mantel’s A Place of Greater Safety.
Film? Casablanca.
Band/Singer? James Taylor (or maybe Joni Mitchell).
TV show? Monk.
Colour? Saffron yellow.
Place? Guardamar del Segura (Alicante Province)
Biscuit? Chocolate digestive.

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Blood Among The Threads is available from Amazon.

You can follow the rest of the blog tour here: