Goodreads asked Andrea Chapin:

Where did you get the idea for your most recent book?

Andrea Chapin The idea for my novel, The Tutor, arrived on Christmas day in a present under our tree. At a dinner one night, one of my in-laws, recommended James Shapiro’s 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare, a riveting nonfiction account of the history, politics and plays of a single year in Shakespeare’s life. The following month, while doing a mad dash of last minute Christmas shopping, I saw the paperback of Shapiro’s book on my way to the cash register at my local bookstore and bought it. Back at home, I wrapped up the book and put it under our tree. And on Christmas Day, while reading the gift I had given myself, I was immediately and obsessively struck by how Shakespeare’s “lost years” were the perfect terrain for fiction.

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