A lasting legacy
The times change but people are always people, historical drama author Katherine Webb tells Tina Jackson
Tina Jackson
Bestselling author Katherine Webb writes involving historical dramas that immerse their readers in a tangled web of consequences. In her newest novel, The Hiding Places, she’s taken it a step further, and given grip-lit a historical slant.
Its setting, Slaughterford, is a sleepy village where nothing ever happens – until, in 1922 and in the aftermath of the first World War, a murder is committed. ‘The Hiding Places almost is a crime novel!’ exclaims Katherine. ‘I always loved detective fiction and watching detective programmes on TV, and suddenly I really wanted to write the solving of a crime! The 1920s had these very classic detective novels, though the real twist of this story is that the solving of this crime is for a very definite reason, which is the saving of a life, so there has been a shift of emphasis.’
There’s a dark secret at the heart of every one of Katherine’s books, and this one is no exception, although it’s the first time she’s involved actual sleuthing in her narrative. ‘Something awful happening is a feature of all the books, and finding out the why and the psychology of how a person got to this desperate state. And it’s there in The Hiding Places – but the difference is this amateur detective work.’
Like all of Katherine’s six preceding novels, The Hiding Places is characterled: in this case by the brittle, unhappy society bride Irene, and resourceful, pony-mad teenager Pudding. Unlike many of Katherine’s characters, Pudding is uncomplicated and the challenges facing her are external.
‘Pudding may be the favourite character I’ve ever written!’ says Katherine. ‘Generally there’s nothing autobiographical about any of my characters, but I was rediscovering the pony books I used to read in my early teens – and it was such a happy time! Boys didn’t get a look in, I was obsessed with ponies – and Pudding embodied that endless optimism. So there’s that small element of me that she embodies.’