When writing my first novel, Saving Sophie, I never doubted it would be set in Devon - I was born and bred here and can’t see myself ever leaving! I knew I’d also keep it for my further books, and my second, Bad Sister is mainly set in Totnes - a town situated along the River Dart. Devon has so much to offer, and where I live I’m the same distance from the amazing, sweeping moors of Dartmoor as I am to the stunning south Devon coastline. What further inspiration does a writer need?
I will talk about the places I have used in my novels in my next blog post – for now I wanted to share what other authors have done, so I asked a bunch of unsuspecting writers how, and why, they chose the setting for their novels.
*If you click on the author's name you can be whisked to their Amazon author page to check out their novels*
Mason Cross - I set part of my latest in Las Vegas so I could go there on a research trip, but then we moved house instead and I never got to go :'(
Simon Booker - Where better for a crime series than the eerie, weird and wonderful landscape of Dungeness? My heroine, Morgan Vine, lives in a converted railway carriage on a vast shingle beach, surrounded by amazing wildlife, plus a nuclear power station dominating the landscape.
Casey Kelleher - My latest book features the old railway badlands behind Kings Cross station. Set in the 1990's, the area is such a contrast to how Kings Cross is today. A great grit-lit setting.
Anna Mazzola - My second novel is set on the Isle of Skye as it needed to be somewhere where people still believed in fairies and spirits in the 19th century, and also somewhere creepy...
Marnie Riches - The George McKenzie series is set in Amsterdam, partly because I've lived in the Netherlands but mainly because Amsterdam has beauty and sleaze in equal measure. It's a gift of a location for a crime novel. Central America featured in the fourth instalment because I found my trips to Mexico magical. Similarly, I now write about Manchester because it enthralls me with its grit and rough-hewn industrial beauty, even though it's my hometown.
Caroline England - I'm a write-what-you-know type of girl, so predictably I write novels set in locations that are familiar to me. One of my in-the-draw manuscripts is set in Rome, though. I only visited for a day on a cruise. I think that warrants another longer holiday to Italy, don't you?
Beth Lewis - My second novel, Bitter Sun, is set is a small farming town in the American midwest, in the middle of cornfields, in the 1970s. I chose it because the area is so isolated and so big, in a way the UK isn't. The roads are endless and dead straight and the sky seems so much bigger than anywhere else, it's all gold and blue and hazy. The place seems so uniform and empty but there are countless hiding places and areas where kids make their dens and create their own private worlds and so much bubbling under the surface. It's a hugely evocative setting to me.
Caroline Mitchell - My DS Ruby Preston series is set in Shoreditch, London. I grew up in a very small village in Ireland, so the first time I visited London I was totally in awe. I think it's important to choose a setting that you're happy to spend time in, which is why I've chosen London as the setting for my new DI Winter series too. I love carrying out research, whether it be online or visiting for real. I also love the capital's diversity, which makes for very interesting characters.
Guy Bolton - My novel, The Pictures, is set in Hollywood 1939. It's the year best known for the start of WW2 but the movie industry was booming. 1939 was considered the golden year of cinema because of hits like The Wizard of Oz and Gone with the Wind. But at the same time, whilst some in Hollywood were wealthy, others were struggling to come out of the depression. It was a place of contradictions, or as I wrote "where Sepia and Technicolour play side by side".
Elisabeth Carpenter - I have various locations in my book, 99 Red Balloons. Preston, Germany and Lincoln. I have lived in two of those places. I love living in the north of England; I think it's unusual as a setting as most novels are set in the south. I chose Lincoln even though I've never been, because of its RAF connections (my dad spent a lot of time at RAF Coningsby).
Julia Crouch - Her Husband's Lover was partly written in a flat in Elephant & Castle, overlooking the Heygate Estate as it was being demolished to make way for swanky expensive apartments for City types ('walking distance'). I set the book largely there, because it is about the attempt and failure to erase a past. With each redevelopment, London is continually throwing up its layers of history – in the case of Crossrail, the bodies, quite literally, were uncovered.
Erin Kelly - My new book is set in deepest Suffolk because although asylum-turned-into-luxury-flats that inspired it is in London I needed somewhere rural and wild so that people could plausibly kill each other / scream /bury bodies without being caught on CCTV etc. Also because my mum lives there and it's the only true countryside I know well.
Simon Booker - Where better for a crime series than the eerie, weird and wonderful landscape of Dungeness? My heroine, Morgan Vine, lives in a converted railway carriage on a vast shingle beach, surrounded by amazing wildlife, plus a nuclear power station dominating the landscape.
Casey Kelleher - My latest book features the old railway badlands behind Kings Cross station. Set in the 1990's, the area is such a contrast to how Kings Cross is today. A great grit-lit setting.
Anna Mazzola - My second novel is set on the Isle of Skye as it needed to be somewhere where people still believed in fairies and spirits in the 19th century, and also somewhere creepy...
Marnie Riches - The George McKenzie series is set in Amsterdam, partly because I've lived in the Netherlands but mainly because Amsterdam has beauty and sleaze in equal measure. It's a gift of a location for a crime novel. Central America featured in the fourth instalment because I found my trips to Mexico magical. Similarly, I now write about Manchester because it enthralls me with its grit and rough-hewn industrial beauty, even though it's my hometown.
Caroline England - I'm a write-what-you-know type of girl, so predictably I write novels set in locations that are familiar to me. One of my in-the-draw manuscripts is set in Rome, though. I only visited for a day on a cruise. I think that warrants another longer holiday to Italy, don't you?
Beth Lewis - My second novel, Bitter Sun, is set is a small farming town in the American midwest, in the middle of cornfields, in the 1970s. I chose it because the area is so isolated and so big, in a way the UK isn't. The roads are endless and dead straight and the sky seems so much bigger than anywhere else, it's all gold and blue and hazy. The place seems so uniform and empty but there are countless hiding places and areas where kids make their dens and create their own private worlds and so much bubbling under the surface. It's a hugely evocative setting to me.
Caroline Mitchell - My DS Ruby Preston series is set in Shoreditch, London. I grew up in a very small village in Ireland, so the first time I visited London I was totally in awe. I think it's important to choose a setting that you're happy to spend time in, which is why I've chosen London as the setting for my new DI Winter series too. I love carrying out research, whether it be online or visiting for real. I also love the capital's diversity, which makes for very interesting characters.
Guy Bolton - My novel, The Pictures, is set in Hollywood 1939. It's the year best known for the start of WW2 but the movie industry was booming. 1939 was considered the golden year of cinema because of hits like The Wizard of Oz and Gone with the Wind. But at the same time, whilst some in Hollywood were wealthy, others were struggling to come out of the depression. It was a place of contradictions, or as I wrote "where Sepia and Technicolour play side by side".
Elisabeth Carpenter - I have various locations in my book, 99 Red Balloons. Preston, Germany and Lincoln. I have lived in two of those places. I love living in the north of England; I think it's unusual as a setting as most novels are set in the south. I chose Lincoln even though I've never been, because of its RAF connections (my dad spent a lot of time at RAF Coningsby).
Julia Crouch - Her Husband's Lover was partly written in a flat in Elephant & Castle, overlooking the Heygate Estate as it was being demolished to make way for swanky expensive apartments for City types ('walking distance'). I set the book largely there, because it is about the attempt and failure to erase a past. With each redevelopment, London is continually throwing up its layers of history – in the case of Crossrail, the bodies, quite literally, were uncovered.
Erin Kelly - My new book is set in deepest Suffolk because although asylum-turned-into-luxury-flats that inspired it is in London I needed somewhere rural and wild so that people could plausibly kill each other / scream /bury bodies without being caught on CCTV etc. Also because my mum lives there and it's the only true countryside I know well.
A fascinating insight - thanks to all of the fabulous authors for taking part!
Readers - are there any locations you long to see in a novel?
A great post, Sam. I think that setting can almost be a character in its own right in some novels. I agree with Caroline's comment that 'it's important to choose a setting that you're happy to spend time in.' I'm very happy to set part of my novels in Greece where an aunt of mine lived with my Greek uncle. And I justify holidaying in Greece as research. ;-) At the moment, I'm enjoying the warmth and sunshine of the Pelopponese with my characters in my WiP rather than venture outside into a cold, grey Cardiff! :-) Looking forward to your next posts.
ReplyDeleteYou're right, Jan - I know a lot of authors that treat their setting as a separate character. Fabulous to have Greece as a location - definitely worth having somewhere wonderful so you can use it as a reason to holiday there! Must think about this for next novel... Thanks so much for reading and commenting. Happy writing!
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