Ask the Author: Elizabeth Buchan
Answered Questions (7)
Elizabeth Buchan
Fabulous question. The Biography of Elizabeth Jane Howard by Artemis Cooper, Robert Harris' Conclave (love his novels), South Riding by Winfred Holtby, Crossing the Street by Molly D. Campbell, The Muse by Jessie Burton, Nick Hytners memoir of his life in the theatre and, for those balmy evenings a re-read of Diana Gabaldon's Outlander.
Elizabeth Buchan
At the moment, it is Claire and Jamie Fraser in Outlander. But who can resist Romeo and Juliet? Or, Jane Eyre and Mr Rochester. All of them occupy a time in the reading life. Then, of course, there is the doomed love affair at the heart of The Remains of the Day... there are so many...
Elizabeth Buchan
I take writer's block to mean that the writing part of your brain is craving rest. I go and do something completely different - even the ironing! However, the best antidote of all is to walk. I have found that while I walk I can forget and, when I return, very often the problem if the block has sorted itself out.
Elizabeth Buchan
Just do it. Displacement activity is one of the greatest vices for the writer. Kill the temptation, sit at the desk, forbid yourself to stare out of the window and do it.
Elizabeth Buchan
A novel provisionally entitled Aftermath which is about an intelligence officer coming home from the war and trying to become settled back into life after all the things he has seen and done. The novel opens in the present day with the discovery of a skeleton buried in the back garden... whose?
Elizabeth Buchan
I have to wait (sometimes with a little panic beating in the chest). But if I keep calm, keep looking, keep listening, an idea jumps into my head and takes root. It could be a snatch of song, a line from a newspaper, a friend's comment... the main thing is to be ready to run with it.
Elizabeth Buchan
My second novel, Light of the Moon, was about an undercover agent going into wartime France. After it was published, I was contacted by someone who became a great friend who used to work in the undercover SOE. Over the years, I have listened to her talking about her work and decided I had to write another novel about the men and women who operated in these shadowy areas... thus I Can't Begin to Tell You took shape.
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