Interview with UK best-selling author Gill Paul of 'The Collector's Daughter'!

**Author Gill Paul of *The Collector’s Daughter* with holding the UK cover version.**

The Collector’s Daughter is available in Australia on February 2, 2022 through HarperCollins Australia. Read review here.

It is my pleasure to welcome best selling author Gill Paul as a guest on my website to discuss her latest novel and writing history. Her books came highly recommended to me by friend Kathleen McGurl—another amazing dual time line author from the UK. I can see why Kathleen loves her stories as they are well crafted and filled with deeply moving themes, characters and plots.

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Interview with Gill Paul – The Collector’s Daughter

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**What/who inspired the writing of The Collector’s Daughter and please provide an overview of the story?**

In November 1922, one of the most important archaeological discoveries of all time was made in the Egyptian desert: the intact tomb of an ancient king called Tutankhamun, filled with an incredible wealth of gold and jewels. The discovery is usually attributed to archaeologist Howard Carter and his sponsor, Lord Carnarvon, but photographs show a small dark woman standing alongside them. She was Lady Evelyn Herbert, Lord Carnarvon’s daughter, and she was right there with the men and may even have been the first to enter the tomb. I wanted to explore her story: what she was like, how she came to be there, and the ways the discovery affected the rest of her life.

**What would you say is the heart or core theme of The Collector’s Daughter?**

At heart, it’s a love story between Eve and her husband, Brograve Beauchamp, and it’s told across two timelines: the 1920s when they met and eventually married, and the 1970s when she is losing her memory after a succession of strokes and he is caring for her. I wanted to explore how love changes when one partner can no longer remember their shared history.

Please give two characteristics each (strengths and weaknesses) of Eve and Brograve?

Eve is gregarious, but prone to getting swept away with enthusiasm and divulging more information than she should. Brograve is kind and loving, but introverted and difficult to get to know.

**Who is your favourite character in The Collector’s Daughter and why?**

Eve is my favourite. I based her on contemporary accounts of the real Lady Evelyn Herbert, who was universally popular in the different circles in which she mixed. She must have been very plucky to have entered the tomb by night, not knowing what she might find inside. Snakes? Scorpions? Or a curse, perhaps?

**What was the most difficult scene to write in The Collector’s Daughter?**

I was very careful in writing about Eve’s recovery from her strokes, aware that some readers may have direct experience of this. I tried to be sensitive when describing her difficulties in speaking and walking, and the frustration she felt as a result.

There has been a lot of interest in King Tutankhamun’s tomb that obviously has inspired some great fiction like your own (plus movies and a tv mini-series). Why do you think there has been such a fascination with the topic?

The tomb was not just an Aladdin’s cave of great wealth displaying an artistry that was far beyond anything else produced in the world at that time; it also gave us masses of insights into life in Egypt 3,000 years ago. We can see the food they ate, the clothes they wore, the furniture they sat and slept on, and many of their religious rituals. At the centre of it all was the mummified body of the boy king, and scientists have been able to discover much personal detail about him: his age, his club foot, diseases he’d suffered, and how he died. It’s like a magic portal that allows us to look back into the far distant past.

This novel explores the issues connected to memory and memory loss. Was there a lot of research required in creating this aspect of Eve’s character? And what interesting facts did you learn that you incorporated into the story?

I have personal experience of family members with memory impairment, and I had read a lot about it before I started work on this novel. I’m also part of a number of medical trials around this subject. Brains work strangely, so that vivid childhood memories can be retained although the person can’t remember what they did two minutes ago. And even in the foggy mists of advanced dementia, there can suddenly be a flash of breakthrough memory. It hadn’t occurred to me until I started this book that before the invention of soft-tissue scanners, such as CT and MRI, doctors couldn’t diagnose whether strokes were caused by a bleed or a blockage, which made them difficult to treat.

Speaking of research, was it difficult to obtain accurate information on the finding of the Pharaoh’s tomb, the secrets and the people involved?

There are dozens of books, websites, documentaries and university archives with detailed information about the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb, and my difficulty lay in sifting through them and deciding what I needed for my story. It’s tempting to try and shoehorn in all the curious facts that intrigue you personally, but I resisted.

Why did you choose a dual timeline in telling Eve’s and Brograve’s story?

I tried writing the novel chronologically, but the pace felt too slow. All the action takes place in the 1920s and then the 1970s but between those decades, I had nothing much to say about them. And I decided the juxtaposition of the old and the young couple was poignant. There’s a photograph of Eve at the 1972 Tutankhamun exhibition in London, gazing at his funeral mask, and she looks a little wandered. Comparing that with the photos of young Eve outside the tomb in 1922 is what sparked the idea for the novel.

This is an emotionally charged novel. Did you have any moments when you were moved to tears by the story as it unfolded?

Tears were shed during the writing of chapters 51 and 56!

Please share a bit of your history as a published author. Did you always want to be an author or was it an interest that evolved through other avenues?

I was a voracious reader as a child and always wanted to write my own novels but my parents persuaded me it was a hobby not a career. That’s why I took a circuitous route to get here: studying medicine, working in art book publishing, and writing non-fiction, before I had my first novel published in 2000. I continued writing historical non-fiction as well as fiction for many years, but now it’s just novels.

In your opinion, what are the magic ingredients needed to create powerful historical fiction?

Story comes first. I write about women in history whom I feel have been misjudged or overlooked by historians and try to figure out what made them tick, but when choosing my next subject I need to feel there is a strong narrative arc. I’m also looking for an emotional hook – an aspect of the subject’s life that moves me; I need to feel empathy for them. And then the portrayal of the era in which they lived is the backdrop that helps to explain why they made the choices they did. So story first, character second, sense of period third.

What is your writing process like? Are you a planner, pantser or a mix of both?

A mix of both. After doing my background research, I write a long outline in which I let the story and characters flow naturally. I don’t stop to choose the perfect adjective or write snappy dialogue at this stage; I’m feeling where the plot wants to go. My outlines are between 30,000 and 40,000 words, and when I finish them I know more or less what will happen in each chapter. It helps me to fix any plot problems early on. Then I go back to chapter one, page one, and write it properly.

Do you have any favourite past times, activities or foods that keep you motivated while writing a novel?

Every day, year round, I swim in a nearby pond. At the moment there is thin ice on the surface, which is exciting! It’s a great time for thinking about the scene I’m writing and where it’s going next. I’m also motivated by oatcakes, dark chocolate, and dozens of cups of herbal tea.

As a writer who “enjoys re-evaluating real historical characters and trying to get inside their heads,” if you could travel to the past and spend six months getting to know one famous person for a character in your novel, who would it be?

Dorothy Parker. She’s the subject of my next novel, The Manhattan Girls, coming out in August 2022. She’s witty, clever, fragile, and wears her heart on her sleeve. It would be a dream come true to hang out with her in Prohibition-era New York.

What book or books have you recently read that inspired you to look at the world in a different light?

Jews Don’t Count, by David Baddiel. He writes about the insidious negative imagery in descriptions of Jewish people, from Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice through to the present day, which many white liberals don’t consider to be racism. We call out hate speak against other minorities so why not Jews? His arguments are witty and utterly compelling.

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Many thanks to Gill for sharing her views and writing details of The Collector’s Daughter. If you would like to know more about this gifted author, drop by her website at this link. Connect with her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. And wherever you are in the world, look out for these two covers and buy a copy from your favourite bookseller! This is a powerful story that will stay with you forever.