Chapters (67)
- Cover
- “And may I say, those shoes are adorable.”
- Title Page
- Copyright
- Dedication
- ( I )
- ( one )
- ( two )
- ( three )
- ( four )
- ( five )
- ( six )
- ( seven )
- ( eight )
- ( nine )
- ( ten )
- ( II )
- ( eleven )
- ( twelve )
- ( thirteen )
- ( fourteen )
- ( fifteen )
- ( III )
- ( sixteen )
- ( seventeen )
- ( eighteen )
- ( nineteen )
- ( IV )
- ( twenty )
- ( twenty-one )
- ( twenty-two )
- ( twenty-three )
- ( twenty-four )
- ( V )
- ( twenty-five )
- ( twenty-six )
- ( twenty-seven )
- ( twenty-eight )
- ( twenty-nine )
- VI
- ( thirty )
- ( thirty-one )
- ( thirty-two )
- ( thirty-three )
- ( thirty-four )
- ( VII )
- ( thirty-five )
- ( thirty-six )
- ( thirty-seven )
- ( thirty-eight )
- ( thirty-nine )
- ( forty )
- ( forty-one )
- ( forty-two )
- ( VIII )
- ( forty-three )
- ( forty-four )
- ( forty-five )
- ( forty-six )
- ( forty-seven )
- ( forty-eight )
- ( forty-nine )
- ( fifty )
- ( fifty-one )
- Acknowledgments
- Acknowledgments
- Questions for Discussion
- 1. What inspired you to choose 1920s Paris as a setting, and a beautiful, shoe-obsessed woman as a protagonist?
The story began with the title, The Shoe Queen. It popped into my head one day and stuck there. I’m a shoe-obsessive myself (though with far fewer pairs than Genevieve!) and thought it would be great to feature a strong but emotionally complex heroine with a fabulous shoe collection. In researching shoes, I discovered the story of Pietro Yanturni, the Parisian-based shoemaker who inspired Paolo Zachari. He was the first big-name shoe designer and there was an almost mythical quality to his life and working practices that was utterly compelling. It was initially because of my choice to base a character on Yanturni that I decided on the 1920s Paris setting. But when I began to read about the fashion, art, and literature scene in those “Crazy Years,” I was utterly bewitched by it all. I found myself wishing I could have been a writer at that time, hanging out in Left Bank cafés and bars with Hemingway and Fitzgerald, et al. The stories of real-life Montparnasse are so vibrant and colorful that it was hard to rein myself in and make myself focus on my story. I’ve never been so in love with a setting for one of my novels. - 2. How long have you been writing fiction? Were you a novelist before working at a literary agency? Did one inspire the other?
I’ve always written fiction. I was one of those children who was only half plugged-in to the real world because I was constantly dreaming up stories and scribbling them in notebooks. At university I took a creative writing course as part of my degree, and started writing more seriously. When I graduated I was already at work on my first novel, The Dinner, but needed a job to support myself while writing. I was attracted to working in publishing and moved to London to become the assistant to a well-known literary agent. I carried on working on my novel sporadically on weekends. I liked my job and didn’t have much confidence that I’d get my novel published—so for a while I focused on becoming a literary agent. Then came a new year’s resolution to get the novel properly finished and see if anyone would publish it. I gave myself a kick up the backside and pressed on with the writing, and a few months later I had my first UK book deal. I didn’t want to give up the literary agenting altogether though, and took a part-time job with another agency. I think I have the best of both worlds now—time to write plus a job that gets me out of the house and gives me a different kind of fulfillment. - 3. Have you always lived in London? Have you visited or lived in Paris or the English countryside similar to where Genevieve grew up? If so, were the venues set on any specific places or experiences?
I’ve lived in London for about fourteen years, and am settled there with my family. I grew up in Cardiff (Wales) and studied in Manchester (in the North of England). I adore Paris and visit whenever I can, but have never lived there. Many of Genevieve’s haunts in the book were real-life places in the 1920s. The Select, La Rotonde, and Rumpelmayer’s are among those that still exist, though in a rather altered form. Montparnasse is very mainstream touristic these days and isn’t the crazy bohemian quarter that it used to be. Suffolk, the county where Genevieve grew up, is in the East of England, and is flat and marshy just as Genevieve describes it—though with a strange, quiet beauty, which she doesn’t appreciate. I’ve visited a few times but have never lived there. Ticksted itself is fictional. - 4. How did being a mother influence the mothers you created in your novel, i.e. Olga, Genevieve’s mother, Marie Claire, and Genevieve?
I was pregnant with my first baby when I wrote the first draft of the novel. I think this influenced the writing of pregnant-Genevieve—especially the way she becomes intensely attached to the baby inside her and knows, late on in her pregnancy, that she would lay her life down for her baby without a moment’s hesitation. Of course, you expect to love the baby inside you, but it was still a surprise to me to really feel the force of the mothering instinct before my baby was even born. Her labor, too, was somewhat informed by my own first labor—the contractions that come like great waves and threaten to overwhelm you; the need to try to keep on top of the waves rather than being swept under. I’m not sure that any of the characters are much like me as mothers, though. In the case of Lady Ticksted and Olga, I certainly hope not! - 5. Have the themes of your four novels been similar? If so, how? Or how did they differ?
The novels are all quite different. The first three are contemporary: The Dinner tells of a dinner party that goes disastrously wrong when the host’s deranged sister-in-law makes an unexpected appearance. Melting is about three con-artists working on a grand scam together but secretly betraying each other at the same time. Cheet is the story of a female London cabdriver who has five lovers—when she’s on the road, none of them know where she is or who she’s with. So plot-wise, there’s not much in common with each other. But beneath the surface, they’re all stories driven by secrets and lies. All of them concern people who are unable to deal with their own personal histories. They construct the kinds of lives and relationships that enable them to hide from the past. In each case, the main character’s over-reaching actions bring about their undoing and forces them to confront their demons. - 6. Compelling characters, skillful plotting, and vivid descriptions are difficult to master. How did you hone your skills?
Mostly by reading. Any half-decent writer reads as much as possible and tries to figure out why some books work and others don’t. It’s about practice, too. You have to write as much as possible, as often as possible. Perhaps the hardest stage of writing a novel is when you think you’ve got to the end. That’s when the real work starts. You have to learn to edit your own work (again through practice) and rewrite—again and again, if necessary. Like many modern-day writers, I took a creative writing course at university, but I don’t believe courses can teach you to write. What they do is offer you an opportunity to focus on your writing and to get good editorial feedback from your tutors and your peers. And, of course, they give you a deadline—they make you understand that if you want to be a writer you have to treat it seriously, like a real job. You have to “turn up.”