The Inspiration behind Hidden Depths

March 31, 2022 | By Women Writers Women Books | Reply More

Lawrence Beesley

Every family has its stories and mine is no exception. But in between the funny sayings, quirky behaviour and lost treasures, there is one that has always held my attention. My great-grandfather, Lawrence Beesley, survived the sinking of the Titanic. A fact made even more incredible because he was travelling second class, from where only 14 men lived to tell the tale.

For as long as I can remember, I wanted to be a writer and I was first published in 2011. I love almost every genre of books, but top of my list of favourite writers are Patricia Highsmith, Barbara Vine, Iris Murdoch and Margaret Atwood. In other words, women who told intricately plotted stories beautifully. It was no surprise then when I found that I was most drawn to writing thrillers.

As my career has progressed I’ve come to realise, as most writers do, that I have certain themes I always circle back to. For me, it’s always about women, how we’re silenced, perceived, constrained and viewed in a society that preaches equality, but often fails to deliver. My novels are modern, dealing with motherhood, fear, gender relations, relationships and, even though my great-grandfather’s story was always in my mind, I didn’t see how I could write about it.

I often have projects on the go which I think of as ‘in-between’ ones. I know they’re not ready to be my next novel, but they also excite me and I can’t let go of them.

My great-grandfather’s story became one of those in-between projects not long after I first got published. My grandmother and mother were able to tell me a lot about him, not least that he was on board to visit his brother who lived in New York, but that he was also trying to come to terms with the death of his beloved first wife, Cissy. Other relatives were generous with their time and, of course, there is so much historical information about Titanic it’s almost daunting.

I have always made sense of the world by writing it down. It is how I process. I’m quite a fast writer, but I’m a very slow thinker. It can take me years to work out not just how to tell a story, but also what I want to say. I write drafts and drafts of every book, often losing them entirely when they don’t work.

So, I wrote down a lot of what I discovered about Lawrence and Titanic, feeling my way to a story. This wasn’t a chronological process at all and sometimes I didn’t open the document for months, maybe even a year, at a time. I don’t even want to work out how many hundreds of thousands of words I’ve written about him, but it’s a lot. Despite all this though, I was never able to commit to it as my next book because, even though without adding anything it was an amazing story, I didn’t yet know how to tell it.

Then, about five years ago, I went to see my great-aunt Dinah. We had a lovely afternoon as I picked her brains but, as I was getting up to leave, she said, quite out of the blue, that Lawrence had loved to read crime novels. He would have liked your books, she said, sweetly. All the way home I turned this over in my mind and the more I thought about it, the more I started to see Titanic and even his story in the light of a thriller.

A couple of years ago I finally told my agent about the book and showed her some of what I’d written. She said she liked it, but I was no where near to the story I should be telling. Perhaps, she said, you’re too caught up in the fact that you’re writing about your great-grandfather and you need to let go of this. Then she told me to think about the people I usually write about, the themes I usually explore.

In my research I had become fascinated by the people traveling first-class, which I’d thought to be irrelevant to my story as Lawrence was in second and nothing like the aristocratic luminaries to be found in first. But I couldn’t stop reading about some of the women on board, in particular the American wives of British Aristocrats. I was being sucked down rabbit holes where I read about rich American heiresses almost traded as commodities, marrying in to the penniless British aristocracy. I read so many tales about these women, who were mistreated and ignored, their only value the cash they brought to crumbling mansions.

What if, I asked myself, one of these women were also on board with Lawrence? Because these were the women I usually wrote about. These were situations that had become my themes over the past four books I’d had published. As soon as I’d had the thought, Lily, pregnant and trapped in a terrible marriage, on her way home to be with her much missed family, leapt on to the page. She became the perfect counter point to a miserable Lawrence, desperate to escape the misery of a life without Cissy in it. What if, I asked myself, two people board Titanic, one who doesn’t even want to reach New York and one who fears she isn’t going to, while we know that in fact a terrible accident is going to change everything.

This was a story I knew I could tell and this was the idea that became Hidden Depths.

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Araminta Hall is a critically acclaimed suspense writer who loves to delve into the female psyche. Her first novel, Everything and Nothing was a Richard and Judy Book Club pick and her fourth, Imperfect Women, is being adapted for TV by Elisabeth Moss. Hidden Depths and the character of Lawrence are inspired by her Great Grandfather’s journey on the Titanic. Araminta lives with her family in Brighton
Follow @aramintahall on twitter and Instagram.

HIDDEN DEPTHS

‘I loved Hidden Depths. Immersive, suspenseful and humane, this is a novel to savour’ Louise Candlish

Passenger…
Lily is pregnant, travelling onboard the Titanic to her beloved family in the United States, hoping she can get there before her mind and body give up.