To celebrate the release of Sue Moorcroft’s new book – Let It Snow, we caught up with the author to talk about the book and all things Christmas.
1. Did you always want to become an author?
Yes, from infants school, which was the first time it dawned on me that someone created what went between the pages of a book. By the time I was in junior school I was creating my own books, including drawing the covers. Five pages was about the limit I could manage though.
2. Where do you get your inspiration when writing your books?
It changes from book to book. Sometimes there’s a subject I want to shine a light upon or I hear an anecdote that captures my interest. Let it Snow was sparked by me hearing of twins who’d been conceived by artificial insemination tracing a multitude of half-siblings. A minute’s research took me from there to same-sex relationships and I saw that children of those families definitely fell in two camps – those who wanted to know their biological relatives and those who emphatically didn’t. I gave those two contrasting attitudes to Lily and her sister Zinnia. Also, my author friend Rosemary J Kind said if I set a book in Switzerland I could go there with her. So I set a book in Switzerland!
3. You’ve written so many great Christmas novels, but which one was your favourite to write?
I’m not just saying this because it’s my latest, but Let it Snow. Being invited on the road trip to Switzerland was fantastic and reliving it all for the book an absolute thrill. Maybe that joy powered the narrative along.
4. What’s next for you?
A summer book set in Malta. It currently has the working title Summer on a Small Island. The characters have ended up in Malta for a variety of reasons but all related to members of the family having been posted to Malta with the British army in the sixties – as my family was. I enjoyed a good wallow in nostalgia as well as spinning a contemporary view of the island as Rosa resists being forced down the wrong avenue leading from a crossroads in her life and Zach tries to escape past mistakes.
5. And finally, we like to ask everyone we interview – What’s Christmas like in the Moorcroft household?
Christmas Day is quiet and relaxed with too much food and maybe a couple of glasses of whisky by the fire. Boxing Day we visit family and then a few days later host another part of the family for a big lunch. Aside from those things we try not to be on too much of a schedule until we return to work after New Year. It’s nice to be either spontaneous or lazy as the mood takes us although we usually try and take in the latest movie from the Star Wars canon. I try and have a nice shiny new Formula 1 book to enjoy but generally get impatient and have read it before Christmas ever comes around.
We earn a commission for products purchased through some of the links in this article.
It was lovely to chat to Sue, you can buy Let It Snow for RRP £7.99 from Amazon.
