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10 Questions: Rachel Hore
1.Sum up your novel in three words.
Daughter discovers truth.
2.Where did the initial idea come from?
Reading about wartime Paris, I tried to imagine what it must have been like to have lived in the city under occupation. My English character, Kitty, becomes trapped there when the Nazis move in and has to struggle to survive.
3.How was the title chosen?
Kitty’s daughter Fay visits Paris for a week in 1961 on tour with her orchestra. In that short time her whole life changes. I also loved the romantic association of the phrase – who wouldn’t love to spend a week in Paris?
4.What’s your writing routine?
When I’m writing a novel I report for duty at my desk every morning at 9 a.m. and put in three hours’ work. If it’s going well then I might have a bite of lunch and continue. Sometimes I write by hand and sometimes I type straight onto the computer, whichever gets the juices going!
5.Which book do you wish you’d written?
Currently, I’m green with envy about Little Lies. Liane Moriarty’s storytelling is addictive and all her different plot strands dovetail so beautifully. How does she do it?
6.What’s your favourite word in the English language?
Thou. It’s archaic, but how wonderfully warm and intimate it sounds compared to the coldness of "you".
7.Who’s your favourite fictional character?
The cat in the hat. We all need stirring up by someone bananas occasionally!
8.What was your favourite book as a child?
Ah, now, that’s difficult as there were different favourites at different times. When I was seven I adored Black Beauty, but how I used to blub when Ginger died! I couldn’t believe that anybody could be so cruel to an animal.
9.What book are you recommending to everyone at the moment?
Isabel Wolff’s Ghostwritten, a moving and beautifully written story set in modern Cornwall and war-time Malaya.
10. What do books and reading mean to you?
Books are a source of continual learning for me. They can disturb and challenge or offer solace and entertainment. They teach me to dream.
A Week in Paris by Rachel Hore is published by Simon & Schuster on 9th October at £7.99.
