Bestselling novelist Harriet Evans has made her name writing immersive family dramas. She tells Tina Jackson about houses, secrets and family dynamics.
There are times when, as a reader, all you want is to be swept up into a book – to sink into it and lose yourself in it until, finally, reluctantly, there are no more words to read. That’s what makes Harriet Evans’ multi-generational family dramas so addictive: her unerring ability to captivate her reader and draw them into the world of each family whose story is unfolding. A Harriet Evans book is like being a visitor to a fascinating family home, privileged to have inside information as the secrets and dramas of its inhabitants are gradually revealed.
‘I want to write about a family that lives in a house over a period of time and I get the house and get the family but it changes,’ says Harriet. ‘I always start with an idea and I always try and map it out but it always changes.’
Her latest novel is The Stargazers, a book about what home really means to its characters that this reader fell into and resented any attempt at being dragged out of. The family residence in question is Fane, a decaying stately home that provides a backdrop for the dramas that play out in the lives of the two lead characters, musician Sarah, struggling as she sets up home with her exuberant, passionate husband Daniel and copes with new motherhood, and her estranged mother, the beautiful but abusive Iris.
Writing a family drama entails not only creating the individual characters within their family, but the family as a character in its own right.
‘I think all families are a combination of what’s happened in the past and who they are – in life and in novels,’ says Harriet. ‘It’s about what part you play in the family – I was a real noticer as a child so it’s a muscle you have to flex. I find it really weird when some people don’t, aren’t that interested in their characters.’
For Harriet, the greatest pleasure in her books is creating the family at the centre of each one, and then getting to know them organically – just as you would if you met them in real life. ‘A lot of it is knowing that you’re allowed to tell their story, make up these people and think about the characters,’ she says. ‘Creating this family. When I’m starting a new story I do try and think some way in advance, but the best way for me is to just start.’
Harriet began writing The Stargazers by exploring Sarah. ‘I wanted to write about how difficult it is being a new mother. And as I was writing, something emerged about childhood
