Jessica Fellowes’ Mitford Murders mysteries have all it – the famous blue blood sisters, fabulous fashion, murder – and a Downton Abbey style TV series already in the planning. Not surprising when you realize that Jessica is already the author of five best-selling Downton show guides.

Hi there I’m your host Jenny Wheeler and today Jessica talks about mixing fact and fiction in her mysteries and how a former deputy editor of Country Life came to write murder mysteries.

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

How Downton Abbey led to Mitford Murders

The best advice from an Oscar winning Uncle

The magic appeal of the madcap 20s

Important insights from a magazine apprenticeship

The writers Jessica is reading right now

What she'd do differently second time around

Where to find Jessica Fellowes: 

Website: https://www.jessicafellowes.com/

 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JessicaFellowesAuthor/

 Twitter: https://twitter.com/jessicafellowes

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/jfellowes/the-mitford-murders/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/official_jessicafellowes/

What follows is a "near as" transcript of our conversation, not word for word but pretty close to it, with links to important mentions.

Hello there Jessica and welcome to the show, it's great to have you with us.

Jessica: I'm very happy to be here, thank you Jenny.

Jessica Fellowes - author

Jenny: You’ve had a fascinating career as the official guide to all things Downton Abbey – You’ve written five best-selling books about the TV series - and we will talk about the TV show a little later – but focusing on the Mitford mystery series - when did you decide you wanted to write fiction?  Was there any “Once Upon a Time moment – an epiphany?

Jessica: I think it's one those things that you always have in the back of your mind, that you would  like to get to. But I've been a big reader for a long time, and I have a lot of respect for a lot of writers and I just didn't think I could get anywhere near to coming close to what they were doing. So it was really a question of confidence I think, as much as anything else. Then working out what my voice would be, and what era I would do.

What the work of Downton Abbey did for me was it really focussed my research on the 1920's, which is an era I had a fascination with. But having that store of knowledge after five years of working on the Downton Abbey books made me think, if I'm going to do this, I'll do it in the 1920's. I had somebody approach me and ask me if I'd like to write a novel, and that got me quite excited a few years before, and I sort of had a go. But I've been a jobbing writer for such a long time, I need the commission and I need the deadline.

So it was really only once the Downton Abbey books had finished and I was thinking 'Now is the moment.' I was approached by an editor who asked me if I'd be interested in writing a crime series with the Mitford Sisters as the background, and what did I think of that idea. When he said that, I thought that's it. I could just get it.

That was the epiphany, that was the moment. But the main thing was he was willing to put the faith in me and have a go and he's promised he would hold me by the hand through the process of the first novel so that I wouldn't embarrass myself too much at the end of it! So that's what got me off. Each time you get a bit more confident, and each time you enjoy it a little more.

The red sofa - appears in many important scenes - like when Matthew is introduced as heir.

Jenny: Yes, there are very strong parallels between Downton and the very famous Mitford Sisters and the sort of life they led. And having read the first two, there are various things that I see that are a crossover. I notice that one of the heroines in Downton has a secret love affair with a jazz singer from one of the night clubs. And in Bright Young Dead, there's a jazz singer also named Jack,