Dial M for Madingley: Sophie Hannah unravels the mysteries of crime writing

Sophie Hannah’s glittering literary career has already spanned everything from poetry, self-help and the Moomins to contemporary crime and Hercule Poirot. Now Sophie’s turned her hand to the role of Course Director as she leads ICE’s new Master of Studies in Crime and Thriller Writing.

Academic Director, Dr Midge Gillies, spoke to Sophie as part of ICE’s new podcast series of conversations with crime writers. In this extract, Sophie begins by telling Midge about her early career.

"Writing was always my hobby. It never occurred to me it could be a career. I happened to get published as a poet first [The Hero and the Girl Next Door won an Eric Gregory Award], so I wrote poetry almost exclusively for about 10 years. As that was going on, I was approached by Trinity College, Cambridge asking if I’d like to be their Fellow Commoner in Creative Arts. It was like a paid writing fellowship – heaven on a stick. But I was 31 when I had the idea for what became my first published crime novel.”

Was this when you were giving birth?

"I’d spent five days failing to give birth and then conked out. When I woke up, there was no baby in the room, so I pressed a buzzer and a nurse appeared carrying a baby which I reached out to take. The nurse sprang back, “What are you doing? This is not your baby!” She came back with my baby, who looked identical. It led to my first crime novel, Little Face, about a woman who goes out for the first time since her daughter’s birth. When she gets back, there’s a baby in the house, but she swears it’s not her daughter and nobody believes her.”

Does the character come first or the crime?

"What always comes first for me is a character with a situation attached. As an example, I write Poirot novels for the Agatha Christie estate and the first idea I had for the latest one, The Mystery of Three Quarters, starts with four people receiving letters signed in the name of Poirot accusing them of the same murder. They arrive on Poirot’s doorstep incensed, but Poirot hasn’t written the letters.”

Can you tell us a bit about your writing routine?

"I always imagine other writers have got the writing routine sussed. One friend writes four days a week, between 11am and 1:30pm. She goes to the same café and always writes 2,500 words so every week she’ll produce 10,000 words. For me, there’s a lot of chaos and faffing in the morning so my writing time is the end of the afternoon. Usually, I don’t get quite enough time so do a bit more after everyone’s gone to bed.”

Do you plan what you’re going to write?

"Yes, in great detail. I spend one or two months working on a plan, 100 to 150 pages long, that’s the whole book, divided into chapters in note form. Then I can look at the structure and tweak it at the planning stage which is so useful because then I don’t write the problematic structural bit into a complete draft. Once you’ve written something into a whole book, it’s much harder to change. It’s saved me a good year on each novel.”

You’ve designed a Master’s programme for ICE, which is really exciting. What do you want that to cover?

"Everything I think someone setting out to write crime should learn about: a history of the genre, the conventions and traditions and also things to do with writing, like the skills you need to sustain a brilliant beginning into the middle. I also want students to develop their own inner editor. Discussing your work in a class workshop is extremely valuable. Because it’s the University of Cambridge we’ve got access to so many experts. For example, academics in Criminology who can talk to students about real-life crime. Another important part of the course is guest speakers. Not only crime writers but also people from every area of the industry, such as agents and publishers.”

And how many books have you written now?

"About five books of poetry, five children’s books if you count my Moomins translations, 13 or so contemporary crime novels, three Poirot novels and a self-help book called How to Hold a Grudge.”

If Agatha Christie walked into the studio, what would you ask her?

"What do you think of my Poirot novels?!"

Learn more

To find out more about the Master of Studies in Crime and Thriller Writing, visit: www.ice.cam.ac.uk/mst-crime-thriller​

To listen to our podcast series of conversations with crime authors, visit www.soundcloud.com/cambridgeice

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This article was originally published as part of the 2019 Michaelmas edition of Inside ICE.