{"id":44822,"date":"2024-07-09T09:42:08","date_gmt":"2024-07-09T08:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/suffolkcommunitylibraries.co.uk\/?p=44822"},"modified":"2025-09-26T09:48:45","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T08:48:45","slug":"meet-the-author-helen-simonson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/suffolkcommunitylibraries.co.uk\/bn\/meet-the-author-helen-simonson\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the Author: Helen Simonson"},"content":{"rendered":"

[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” da_disable_devices=”off|off|off” global_colors_info=”{}” da_is_popup=”off” da_exit_intent=”off” da_has_close=”on” da_alt_close=”off” da_dark_close=”off” da_not_modal=”on” da_is_singular=”off” da_with_loader=”off” da_has_shadow=”on”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font_size=”19px” text_line_height=”1.3em” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n

9 July 2024<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font_size=”19px” text_line_height=”1.3em” link_font_size=”19px” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n

Helen Simonson is the New York Times bestselling author of Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand<\/em><\/a> and The Summer Before The War<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0 She was born in England and spent her teenage years in a small village near Rye, in East Sussex. A graduate of the London School of Economics, with an MFA from Stony Brook Southampton, she is a former travel advertising executive, dual US\/UK citizen and a proud New Yorker. Helen is a longtime resident of Brooklyn and is married with two sons.<\/p>\n

Helen’s latest novel, The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club<\/em><\/a>, is published in July 2024. You can find Helen’s books on the Suffolk Community Libraries catalogue<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font_size=”19px” text_line_height=”1.3em” link_font_size=”19px” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″] <\/p>\n

When did you have your first experience of the world of books and reading?<\/strong><\/p>\n

From a very young age I remember being taken every Saturday to the local library and let loose among the children\u2019s books. My sister and I always took out the maximum and then Sunday mornings we would lie on the living room carpet surrounded by books. Mum and Dad would be cooking the Sunday roast and the radio would be playing \u2018Family Favorites,\u2019 dedicating records to British families spread all over the world. The richness of stories, the radio\u2019s slightly bittersweet messages, and the sharp tang of fresh gravy, are forever linked in my memory. \u200d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The East Sussex town of Rye is obviously very dear to you although you live in the US now. What was it like growing up there?<\/strong><\/p>\n

To a teenager from the suburbs west of London, Sussex seemed sprung from the pages of D. H. Lawrence, Thomas Hardy and H. E. Bates. Different county of course, but the rolling green fields, pebble-bank shore, chalk cliffs and medieval towns on steep hills were endlessly romantic. Of course, when the visions of myself running through the wheat in a white summer dress wore off, I realized the bus service to town only ran every few hours and the movie theater had closed years ago.<\/p>\n

But in the Rye bookshop I spent all my Saturday job money on \u2018local\u2019 authors \u2013 Henry James (and his visiting friend, Edith Wharton), Radclyffe Hall, Virginia Woolf, Rudyard Kipling, E.F. Benson and John Ryan (of Captain Pugwash fame). I still yearn to live in Henry James\u2019 house in Rye \u2013 but I\u2019ve managed to have coffee in the garden once or twice.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Is there such a thing as a typical writing day for you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m a dreadful procrastinator and there are always a million domestic obligations I can use to avoid the panic of the empty page. All who now work from home may at last understand how everything expands to occupy the working hours! But with this book I\u2019ve discovered something wonderful. After years of failing to write in the dawn hours, I\u2019ve discovered I may be an afternoon writer. So now, with my mornings free to pay bills, welcome the plumber and cable TV technician, and even indulge in some exercise, I find it satisfying to float to my desk after lunch and enjoy the sound and feel of spinning straw words into gold. \u200d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

You had a huge success with\u202fMajor Pettigrew’s Last Stand<\/strong><\/em><\/a>\u202fwhich became a New York Times bestseller and was sold in 21 countries. How did you deal with that experience after trying for so long to get published?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I always say I was an overnight success that only took fifteen years. Major Pettigrew<\/em> sold immediately (to Bloomsbury in the UK) and came out to unexpected fanfare. I was a middle-aged Cinderella suddenly thrust into the ball. I loved it all \u2013 the bookshop appearances, the award parties, the flying around and the hotel rooms all to myself \u2013 and yes, Ms. Simonson will charge that dinner to her expense account, thank you. It was every stay-at-home mum\u2019s dream. It only takes about three weeks to turn into a total diva but when one comes home, the children look up from their laptops, as if they never realized mum was gone, and immediately ask after their dinner and their laundry. It keeps one grounded! \u200d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In an interview you paid tribute to your editor when you were promoting\u202fThe Summer Before the War<\/strong><\/em><\/a>. How does the editing process work and how much of what you start with ends up in the final book?<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is a hard question to face now as my beloved American editor, Susan Kamil, died too young in 2019. She was the kind of editor who never demanded changes, but only asked questions that prompted one to slash and burn and believe it was all one\u2019s own idea to do so. She once persuaded me to drop a stampeding elephant in the name of subtlety \u2013 and then congratulated me on (my) decision, as it \u201cthrew the exploding chickens into such high relief\u2019\u2019. My new American editor, Whitney Frick, shares her sensibility and sense of humour. Meanwhile Charlie Greig and my previous editors at Bloomsbury edit with an authentic English sharpness and are not shy about correcting my occasional Americanisms!<\/p>\n

I feel I have landed in such capable hands that I barely noticed myself agreeing to cut the entire interior tour of a German U-boat and a chapter-long treatise on post-war religious reckonings. To be serious about the editing process, it is the chance to take in all the editors\u2019 expertise and to be playful, and to refine, all at the same time. I feel like a sculptor with a fine chisel in hand, turning a rough marble block into a smooth work of art.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Can you tell us a little about\u202fyour new book,\u202fThe Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club<\/strong><\/em><\/a>?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Set in the summer of 1919, at the end of World War One and the Spanish Flu pandemic, this book is about a young woman named Constance who is forced from her job and her home as the men return, and is expected to be grateful to be sent to the seaside for a few weeks as a lady\u2019s companion. For Constance this summer of peace celebrations is a race against time to find regular employment and also to find herself. When she comes to the rescue of Poppy, a young woman who is being turned away from tea at Constance\u2019s rather grand hotel, she finds herself catapulted into Poppy\u2019s group of fiercely independent, trouser-wearing young women who have founded a Motorcycle Club to keep themselves riding and employed as the women of Hazelbourne, and all of England, are asked to return to their kitchens and drawing rooms. \u200d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What drew you to write about 1919 and the immediate post war period?<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the midst of Covid, it was both an escape and a sanctuary for me to visit the English seaside in 1919, where people were emerging from a pandemic and taking stock of their futures. The summer of peace celebrations allowed me to feel optimistic about our own future in a dark time. And I was eager to follow the women of England, who had sacrificed so much for the war effort, as they fought to keep their hard-won freedoms. The inter-war years are so rich in women\u2019s achievements \u2013 establishing themselves in professions, setting flying records, entering politics \u2013 and I thought 1919 was fascinating as a foundation year for the successes and the struggles to come.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u200dWhat’s next for you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Right now, I\u2019m luxuriating in having time to read, time to sort out the endless chaos of my writing office, time to meet readers and talk about writing. But writers are like magpies, always collecting shiny objects. So, I\u2019m also taking notes on subjects, objects, issues and images that catch my eye. I\u2019m joyfully waiting for the strange alchemy to occur that will translate some of these things into living characters who will walk into my head and demand I tell their tale. \u200d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What is the funniest or strangest thing one of your readers has shared with you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The strangest thing, shared with me by multiple readers of my newest book, is how many people had a relative who died of the Spanish flu. And they report this to me as if my book has highlighted an otherwise overlooked piece of family history. There are monuments everywhere to those who died in the First World War but none to those who died of the flu. Perhaps my book, in this small way, has allowed them to be remembered.<\/p>\n

The funniest response was a pilot who wrote recently to ask if I would shoulder the blame for his breach of a civil aviation association\u2019s honour code. He had borrowed my book from a friend and loved it so much he was deliberately neglecting to return it! I resisted the urge to suggest he buy his own copy \u2013 simultaneously restoring his honour and contributing to my retirement fund \u2013 but insisted he must return it when and if asked directly. \u200d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Can you tell us one thing about yourself that your readers may not know?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Writing being a sedentary occupation, readers may not picture me hiking to Everest Base Camp, Machu Picchu or along the length of Hadrian\u2019s Wall. But perhaps from a youthful attachment to the Girl Guides I am an avid hiker and never feel more youthful, free and inspired than when I\u2019m strapping on my boots and slogging over a mountain pass. I have many expeditions left on my bucket list \u2013 though Kilimanjaro is now in question as this outdoorswoman is not quite as fond of primitive camping as she used to be![\/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_divider][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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