Subtle heroes, Stuart Kings, and giant LEGO models: an interview with Laura Shepherd-Robinson

Kia ora and haere mai, welcome to the 235th instalment of author interview series, 9mm, which has been resurrected this year after going into hibernation and only occasionally emerging in 2021-2023, for a variety of personal reasons (230 or so author interviews were conducted in 2010-2021).

Looking ahead, I plan to regularly post on Crime Watch once more, at least in terms of reviews and author interviews and awards news etc. 

Thanks for reading and sharing the 9mm series, and Crime Watch in general (and my work elsewhere) over the years. I've had a lot of fun talking to some amazing crime writers and bringing their thoughts and stories to you. You can check out the full list of of past 9mm interviewees here. What a line-up. With lots more fun to come. Thanks everyone. 

If you've got a favourite crime or thriller writer who hasn't yet been part of the 9mm series, please let me know, and now I'm back on deck more fully, I'll look to make that happen for you.

Following the recent Capital Crime festival, we've got several interviews with cool writers 'already in the can' that will be published soon, so lots to look forward to in the coming weeks and months.

Award-winning historical mystery author

Laura Shepherd-Robinson in Bath, a setting

in her latest novel THE SQUARE OF SEVENS

Today I'm very pleased to welcome to 9mm an author who I first met at the Bloody Scotland festival several years ago, Laura Shepherd-Robinson. Now the award-winning, bestselling author of three historical mystery novels, Laura's books have featured on BBC television show Between the Covers, and won or been shortlisted for numerous prizes including HWA Crowns, CWA Daggers, the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year, and Specsavers Debut Crime Novel Award.

Her latest novel The Square of Sevens centres on Red, the daughter of a travelling fortune-teller, who is raised as a lady in Georgian society before trying to investigate the fate of her mother, and the enemies of her father. Along with being featured on Between the Covers, that book was a Sunday Times bestseller and a Novel of the Year choice in the Times and Guardian.

I caught up with Laura again recently at the Capital Crime festival, in the shadow of the famous St Paul’s Cathedral in London, where she took some time to become the latest crime writer to stare down the barrel of 9mm. 

9MM: AN INTERVIEW WITH LAURA SHEPHERD-ROBINSON

Sir Alec Guinness as George Smiley

Who is your favourite recurring crime fiction hero/detective?

It depends on how purist you’re being, but I want to say George Smiley. He is both brilliant and tragic, and a beautifully understated character and yes such a big, well-rounded character at the same time. The subtleties of his character, and how he sees nuance everywhere but at the same time he has an absolute moral core to him.

What was the very first book you remember reading and really loving, and why?

The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken. I loved it. It introduced me to history, but with a really compelling plot and compelling characters that you lived and died for. It’s actually a complex alternative history where Britain is ruled by the Stuart Kings and the Hanover Kings are the pretenders to the throne. I don’t think you’d get that kind of book for kids nowadays. It’s an incredibly sophisticated children’s book and I still so appreciate it today.

Before your debut crime novel, what else had you written (if anything) unpublished manuscripts, short stories, articles?

My debut was my first novel, Blood & Sugar. I’d written a few chapters here and there previously, but never tried to write a full novel before. But prior to that I’d worked in politics, in speechwriting, so I’d written a lot, including a political paper. But not fiction. That was my first go at fiction.

Outside of writing and writing-related activities (book events, publicity), what do you really like to do, leisure and activity-wise?

Once a day me and my husband go on a walk together, a short walk, about three miles, to our local Brew Dog and have a drink – not always alcoholic – and we just chat about the world and stuff. And it’s really nice. We also build giant LEGO models. My storylines in my books can be quite complicated, so it takes me out of my head and my book for a bit, as I have to focus on these giant LEGO structures. 

What is one thing that visitors to your hometown should do, that isn't in the tourist brochures, or perhaps they wouldn’t initially consider?

My favourite London museum is quite a small museum, the Sir John Soane's Museum. It’s really lovely for me as a lover of the eighteenth century. He was an architect and it’s his old house. It’s a museum of his life and the 18th century and it is just so evocative. You can also do candlelit tours of it at night. 

If your life was a movie, which actor could you see playing you?

Well, it can’t be anyone too tall! If she was playing a younger me, then maybe the girl from Game of Thrones who played Arya Stark, Maisie Williams. She’s short but fun and hard as nails.

Of your writings, which is your favourite or a bit special to you for some particular reason, and why?

I think the one I enjoyed writing the most was the last one, The Square of Sevens, because it challenged me to write it. And it was hard to write, but at the end of it I was really pleased that I felt I’d met the challenge. So I felt a good sense of achievement. Also, it was the book I wrote in lockdown, so other than my husband it was my companion in those days, and I went to places in that book that couldn’t go to in real life. So in that sense I look at that book as a friend, if that’s not too cheesy an answer. 

What was your initial reaction, and how did you celebrate, when you were first accepted for publication? Or when you first saw your debut story in book form on a bookseller’s shelf?

When I signed, I went that very same day (the day the auction for my debut finished) to a crime festival. I didn’t know hardly anyone then, and when people heard I’d sold my book people were so welcoming and so supportive and kind. And these were crime authors I’d admired for a long time, and it was just a great feeling and confirmed what people say about the crime fiction community. 

What is the strangest or most unusual experience you have had at a book signing, author event, or literary festival?

I had a very bizarre one where someone came up to me and had been in New Zealand with my Mum in the 1970s and had a photo with my Mum from when she was 17 or something. 

Thanks, Laura, we appreciate you having a chat with us. 

Have you read Laura Shepherd-Robinson's historical mysteries? What do you love most about blending mystery with history? Do you have any favourite historical eras?