June 6, 2008
Next to your own book coming out, there’s nothing more exciting that a good friend’s book hitting the shelves. This month Rosy Thornton’s new paperback Hearts & Minds is published by Headline Review.
I read the hardcover last year and I still think and care about the characters and conflicts in this book. Beautifully written, with a finely drawn and memorable cast, Hearts and Minds would make a wonderful choice for a book club or a meaty holiday read. While not a ‘romance’ as such, it has strong romantic elements and if you’ve ever wondered about the weird world of Oxbridge colleges - you couldn’t possibly imagine what actually goes on!
I asked Rosy what it was like, writing about a world so close to home. Has she got into trouble? 
They always tell you to ‘write what you know’, don’t they? But if you’re writing a novel, just how close to home is it sensible to go?
I’m lucky enough to work in a Cambridge college (where I try to be sensible during the day, teaching about restrictive covenants and trustees’ investment powers, before going home at night to my secret life writing light fiction). And Oxbridge colleges are the perfect setting for a novel, aren’t they? There’s a long tradition of it. Porterhouse Blue, and all that: they’re perfect target for a bit of knockabout satire. So why didn’t I go for it?
That was what my agent asked, anyway. And I said… well, I work with these people – do I really want to go public taking the mickey out of them? The very thing which makes a Cambridge college so much fun to write about – it’s small, it’s insular, it’s quirky – makes it very hard to work in one whilst publicly sending it up. Nobody will ever speak to me again, I said. I’ll be sued – I’ll be sacked.
But in the end it was just too tempting to resist. For the setting of Hearts and Minds I carefully designed a made-up college (St. Radegund’s) which bore no resemblance to anywhere real. I made sure none of my characters were anything like any of my colleagues. Or at least that’s what I thought.
But of course, when they read it, they ALL imagined it was about them – about us. One ex-colleague rang me up and said, ‘I don’t remember us being that conflicted’. We weren’t, I wanted to shout. It’s fiction – I made it up! Two different friends (one from Cambridge, one from Oxford) have accused me of basing my male lead on two different real people (one from Oxford, one from Cambridge).
Do I mind all this, though? Well, actually, no – I think it’s rather nice, that people see reality in my book. The best moment of all came at a local book signing. In a romantic sub-plot in Hearts and Minds, the student union entertainments officer falls in love with the (young, male) college Dean. There were some undergraduates at the signing, and one of them came up to me and said she could not believe it when she read the novel. She is her college’s entertainments officer – and she has a major crush on the Dean!
The thing is, I think, that it doesn’t matter where you set your book – whether it’s your own office, Regency London or a paradise island in the Pacific. We all want to find ourselves in the pages of fiction; we want to see echoes of our own lives. Whether authors write about what they know or not, readers will always read about what they know.
Posted by Phillipa in Uncategorized @ 6:39 am
Debs Says:
It looks a great read. Yet another wonderful book to add to my ever increasing tbr piles.
Dx
Rosy Thornton Says:
Thanks so much for giving me this piece of space, Phillipa - and for your very kind comments about the book.
Rosy x
Elizabeth Hanbury Says:
Hurrah! My copy of Hearts and Minds arrived yesterday - now I just have to find time away from paperwork, housework, husband and kids to read it! Rosy, I concur with your comment about us all wanting to find ourselves in the pages of fiction. H&M sounds fascinating and I look forward to delving into the quirky world of St. Radegunds