Lafaye's friends to help complete manuscript after her death

The late novelist Vanessa Lafaye asked three of her author friends to help complete her book after her death, it has emerged.

Lafaye died on 29th February, aged 54, of terminal cancer, days before her publisher HarperCollins was due to discuss plans for her upcoming novella, Miss Marley, reported in The Bookseller a week before her death.

The story about Ebenezer Scrooge's ghostly business partner, Jacob Marley, and his sister, will be published in November. It picks up the tragic story of Scooge’s deceased colleague from Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, and introduces Marley’s sister, Clara Belle, "to step forward and tell the story".

While the Florida-born author had written two-thirds of the novel, it has been revealed she arranged for three authors - Fionnuala Kearney, Rebecca Mascull and Essie Fox - to help develop the story following her death and asked them be ready and waiting for a call from her editor, Kate Mills, when the time came. One of them will then write the final 10,000 words.

Mills had first worked with Lafaye at Orion where she published her debut Summertime in 2015, selected for the Richard and Judy Book Club, and At First Light two years later, before joining HarperCollins. Now HQ publishing director, Mills turned down the historical novelist's third book, but while breaking the news to Lafaye over conversation in January, the idea for Miss Marley came up.

Mills told The Bookseller: “When Vanessa’s agent, Tina Betts, sent me a novel Vanessa had been working on late last year, it was a very difficult decision to turn it down... She was disappointed, but admitted she hadn’t enjoyed writing it as much as her previous two novels. ‘But I’ve got another idea…’ she said, and went on to tell me about Miss Marley.

“I said she absolutely had to write it, and she didn’t miss a beat, she said ‘Oh, I’ve started it. Do you want to read what I’ve done so far?’”

Mills revealed that the material the author sent over was “amazing  – conjuring Victorian London, peopling it with familiar characters from the world of Dickens”. 

“It was gripping, smart and heartfelt – and it was word-perfect,” she said.

However, the editor revealed it felt “strange to be commissioning a book when you know the author may not be there for publication”.

“As ever, Vanessa was honest and practical about the challenges she faced, but fiercely determined to put everything into her writing, Miss Marley was to be a novella and she intended to work as fast as she could,” Mills said. “At one point, discussing illustrations, we debated black and white versus colour, and I said that I hoped...we’d need fast reprints so black and white might be better. ‘OK,’ she replied, ‘You’ll know what to do when the time comes.’" 

Mills described it as a "painful reminder that at some point in the future, she might not be there to ask".

Lafaye sent over the story bit-by-bit to Mills, firstly from her home in Marlborough and then from her “bucket-list cruise” around New Zealand. Mills revealed Lafaye received an “enormous boost” when her deal was announced in February and the author told Mills her words of encouragement were like “rocket fuel”. 

The author was due to meet the HarperCollins team for the first time on 5th March to discuss publication plans and potential adaptations for the screen.

"It was her first meeting with her new publisher, the whole team ready to make it a moment of celebration," Mills said. "We’d had a lot of interest in the TV and film rights, early cover designs were in, so we were looking forward to a day of discussion and planning."

However, days before the meeting could take place, Betts called Mills to say that Lafaye had died. "We were both stunned, neither of us had seen things moving so quickly," Mills said. "The last thing Tina said before ending the call was ‘We want Miss Marley to be published, though'. Within seconds, my phone rang again –  a film studio in California wanted to talk about Miss Marley.”

Mills revealed although there were 20,000 "brilliant" words of the manuscript, she was concerned that the end of the story was missing. “I should have known, Vanessa, a consummate plotter, had made a plan,” she said.

In the week in which Lafaye had been due to meet the HarperCollins team, her widower, James, and Betts visited instead. “James had a bag full of Vanessa’s research: notebooks with character sketches and plot outlines, books on Victorian London which were full of Vanessa’s annotations, flagging interesting characters that caught her eye and period detail she might use,” Mills said.

He also handed on “four neat pencil sketches Vanessa had spent a day drafting, so the illustrator would know what she wanted”.

“James was adamant we move ahead with publication too,” Mills said.

Lafaye was a longtime member of the Prime Writers Group, a collective of authors who published their first novel over the age of 40, and James told Mills they were ready to help finish the manuscript.

Lafaye had shared her ideas about how the story should end with three close writer friends and Mills was instructed to call authors Kearney, Mascull and Fox. Lafaye had spoken to each of them about her intentions, ideas and plans for the end of the book, and what should happen if she died before finishing it. 

Now the HQ team will work with the trio to help develop Lafaye's ideas and sub-plots. Mills will also choose one writer to complete the last 10,000 words.

Betts said: “Vanessa was so enthusiastic and passionate about this story, I felt it was incredibly important that the book was published, in her memory. After discussion with Vanessa’s husband and Kate, we agreed to make it happen and to produce a beautiful book that Vanessa would be proud of.” 

Kearney described how she and Lafaye would regularly speak on Skype “where she bounced ideas of how Jacob and Clara’s story might end”.

“She was a meticulous planner who would work out every nuance of character and narrative detail before penning a single word,” Kearney said. “Miss Marley was a project she cared deeply about and I’m privileged to have been an early reader of this wonderful novella, her last work." 

Fox described Lafaye as “a remarkable, dignified positive soul” while Mascull said the author was “a dear friend”.

“We were discussing Miss Marley only days before she died, so it’s a project very close to my heart,” Mascull told The Bookseller.

Mills added:“It’s heart-breaking to have lost Vanessa, but I’m grateful that so many talented, kind and supportive author friends are ready to help take Miss Marley forward on her behalf. It’s a real testament to what a remarkable woman Vanessa was and how loved she was by so many. Between all of us, we’re determined to make it the very special book it deserves to be.”

Lafaye had spent many years in academic publishing, including the Oxford University Press, Blackwell’s and Wiley. She worked as a commissioning editor at OUP throughout the nineties, joining in 1989 and leaving in 1999. 

She was diagnosed with terminal cancer last year and explored the impact of living with the disease in her popular blog Living While Dying, which featured in a number of media outlets such as the Daily Mail. 

Mills has acquired world rights, including TV and film for Miss Marley and it will be published this November as a small-format hardback.