Mystery author Clara Benson could say - along with Mark Twain - that "reports of her death have been greatly exaggerated" - but she only has herself to blame. She wrote her popular 10-book Angela Marchmont series in the persona of a long-dead 1920s author named - you guessed it - Clara Benson. And when she confessed to her readers that Clara was a pen name and that she was very much alive in the 21st century, just a few of them weren't too pleased. Mostly though, they enjoyed the ruse and begged her stay alive and write more books!

Hi there, I'm your host Jenny Wheeler and today Clara talks about the difficulties of marketing your books when you're "dead" and why she so adores the early 20th century.

Six

things you’ll learn from this Joys of Binge Reading episode:

The personal loss that was the catalyst for her first bookHow impatience worked for her in the early daysWhy she was tempted to play the "dead author" roleThe inspiration of stately homesOn delayed gratification: NOT binge reading her favorite authorWhat she'd do differently second time around

Where to find Clara Benson: 

Website: http://clarabenson.com/

Facebook: @ClaraBensonBooks/

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7047250.Clara_Benson

What

follows is a "near as" transcript of our conversation, not word for

word but pretty close to it, with links to important mentions.

Jenny: But now, here’s Clara.  Hello there Clara and welcome to the show, it’s great to have you with us.

Clara: Oh thank you for having me.

Jenny: We like to start in a “Once Upon a Time” framework because we are story tellers . . . so was there a "Once Upon a Time" moment when you decided you wanted to write fiction?? And if so when was it?

Clara Benson - Author

Clara:  When was it? I think probably like a lot of writers I always thought I was going to write, but without doing very much writing. I wrote creatively when I was a child but I never completed anything. I tried writing a novel in my twenties which will never see the light of day because it was too appalling. I was listening to your interview with HY Hanna (H.Y. Hanna's Oxford Tearoom Mysteries in the Joys of Binge Reading) and I think I am very similar to her, reaching a certain age and suddenly deciding, I hadn't done anything with my life and if I was going to do anything I had better start.

The catalyst for me was about ten years ago when my Dad sadly was diagnosed with terminal cancer and that is the kind of moment when everything comes home to you. You think 'gosh we aren't going to have him for too much longer and I've never done anything to make him proud.' So I thought I've really got to do something . . .and he was such a reader, so I thought if I am going to write anything, this is really the moment to start. So I did start writing when he got ill, but sadly it never got finished before he died, and so he never got to read it, but he did know I was writing it.

Also there is the thing, selfishly, when these sort of things happen to you, you get an impending sense of your own mortality. It took a few years to finish the book, so he never got to read The Murder At Sissingham Hall, but he did know I was writing so that was pleasing for him.

Book #1 Angela Marchmont series

Jenny: Was he into Golden Age Mysteries?

Clara: Not so much Golden Age mysteries . . he did read mysteries but he was probably more into thrillers, and more modern books. He was always recommending books to me, and he'd get really annoyed if I didn't read them. He'd do the same for my brother, because he writes books as well - science fiction under the name of Anthony James and I think my Dad would be proud of both of us now, but he never got to see that.

Jenny: You’ve now got two historical series under way – the Angela Marchmont mysteries has concluded at ten books - is that correct - and the Freddy Pilkington-Soames adventure series is building up steam.