Writing And Location: Jo Platt

Several years ago, having just written my first novel, Reading Upside Down, I was asked by a journalist how important setting was to the book, and to my writing in general. It was an interesting question, with location of course being integral to many novels, often taking centre stage alongside the characters:

Cathy and Heathcliff are synonymous with the moor; Pemberley mirrors Darcy’s impressively intimidating exterior, as well the more relaxed reality behind the façade; and Harry Potter’s repressed, muggle upbringing is perfectly accented by his claustrophobic understairs bedroom, from which he is released into the vastness of Hogwarts.

However, at the time that I was asked the question, and faced with giving an immediate response – something at which I am notoriously hopeless – I replied that Reading Upside Down was primarily concerned with character, dialogue and plot, rather than with buildings, scenery and points on a map.

Now, in terms of the proportion of actual words on paper that I had devoted to the description of my characters’ surroundings in Reading Upside Down, my response wasn’t an unreasonable one. I had initially written much of the book as dialogue only, returning later to dress the set, so to speak: a clear indication in itself of my writing priorities and focus. Nevertheless, when I sat down and thought again about the interview later that day, I began to regret the answer I had given, worried that I had implied that location and a sense of place was largely an irrelevance to my writing – something which is actually far from being the case.

I can’t deny that it was, and still is, my preference to shine the brightest light on characters and what they have to say, rather than on the room, building, village, town or city in which they might happen to be saying it. But while I would rarely opt for describing a house in John-Lewis-catalogue detail, or providing a tour-guide description of an area of outstanding natural beauty, an awareness of location, and the relevance of that location to my characters, is vitally important to me as I write.

In short, whilst I might not feel a need to make location an issue of importance for the reader, it is always of enormous importance to me.

The truth is that far from setting being irrelevant to Reading Upside Down, the novel is actually packed with references to locations which are deeply personal to me and which are, in fact, woven into almost every single chapter of the book. The second-hand bookshop, Chapters, co-owned by Reading Upside Down’s hapless protagonist, Ros Shaw, is based on Darcy Books, in which I spent many hours as a teenager when growing-up in the small market town of Devizes.

For the purposes of the novel, I transported Darcy Books to St Albans, having lived there in the early noughties, and knowing from the moment I put pen to paper that its narrow streets, historic buildings and cosy pubs, would provide the perfect retreat for Ros, as she sought refuge from the exposure, pessimism and pressures of her London life.

What’s more, Ros’s home, a three-bedroomed, semi-detached house, complete with enormous garden and elusive fox, is the one in which we as a family lived, and were extremely happy, during our time in the city. And in addition to these pivotal locations swiped from personal experience, the book also includes fleeting references to: my previous place of work; my brother-in-law’s wedding venue; my sister’s house; my Wiltshire childhood home; Liverpool (the city of my birth); Seattle (my home from 2001-2003); and to the Muswell Hill flat in which my husband and I lived before having children.

That is what I should have said when asked about location in that early interview. But of course, I didn’t.

And several years on from the wholly misleading, off-the-cuff response which I actually delivered, I’d love to be able to tell you that my ability to think on my feet has improved. Sadly, that is not the case. The panic always sets in and, in an attempt to avoid giving a babbling response, I veer towards delivering concise, but inevitably incomplete, answers to any and all questions posed about my books.

However, on the upside, I am at least now crystal clear regarding just how important the matter of connecting personally to a location was to me when writing Reading Upside Down – and, indeed, when writing my three subsequently-published novels: It Was You, You Are Loved and, my latest romantic comedy, Finding Felix.

I’m clear that, for me, not only is every novel I write a celebration of character and situation, it is also an affectionate nod to everywhere I have ever called home.

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Jo Platt was born in Liverpool in 1968 and, via the extremely winding route of rural Wiltshire, London, Seattle and St Albans, she is now happily settled in Bristol with her husband and two daughters. She studied English at King’s College London before going on to work in the City for ten years. In 2000 she escaped into motherhood and part-time employment, first as an assistant teacher in a Seattle pre-school and then was a Bristol-based secretary to her husband.

About YOU ARE LOVED

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Author Grace Waterhouse has hit rock bottom. Her ex-husband has just had a baby with his new partner and her latest novel is… well, the less said the better.

Desperate for distraction, Grace impulsively takes on a friend’s cleaning job, parachuting herself into a new social circle including an eccentric OAP, a heartbroken twenty-something and one James Brooke, an enigmatic lawyer with an unblinking stare.

Add to this mix an anxious literary agent, a hairdresser who doesn’t mince words and a newly repentant ex-husband, and Grace’s career break proves to be more breathless than breather.

They say that all you need is love – but what if that’s the one thing you haven’t got?

The heart-warming, funny and unputdownable new novel from bestseller Jo Platt is perfect for fans of Mhairi McFarlane, Anna Bell and Joanna Bolouri.

 

Tags: featured, women writers

Category: On Writing