A striking novel from the acclaimed author of Radio Girls about two daring women who escape McCarthy-era Hollywood for London, where they find creative freedom and fight the injustices of the Red Scare.
We chat to author Sarah-Jane Stratford about her new novel, Red Letter Days! She chats about its inspiration and its setting, along with book recommendations and what’s next for her.
Hi Sarah-Jane! Could you tell us a little about yourself?
I’m an overly ambitious knitter and moderate rabble-rouser, and I’m developing a minor addiction to Carcassonne. In 2016 I was awarded a visa from the Arts Council to come live the expat life in the UK and so now I live in London where I am always seeking the next weird adventure and good scones. I also like to write – mostly historical fiction about women breaking glass ceilings and attempting to avoid falling shards.
When did you know you wanted to be a writer?
I was originally interested in world domination, which mostly translated to acting, at which I was weak. But I’d been making up stories (nb: living in a fantasy land) since I could remember, and it became more interesting to try and create good roles for women than enact them. Then I got sucked into history and found a whole new world of stories. I was particularly interested in the stories that weren’t being told, which led me to searching for women’s lives beyond the historical record as it stood. From there, it was more fun to write fiction than historiography, which I realise is a flash way of saying I might possibly have been lazy, but I can live with that.
Red Letter Days publishes on February 25th. Can you tell us what readers might expect?
They will see a story that might feel a bit timely, what with a government persecuting its left-leaning citizens and conducting sham trials dressed up to justify itself and appear not to be so flagrantly unconstitutional as they were. In brief, it’s a fictionalised account of women labelled ‘Communist’ and slapped on the Hollywood Blacklist. Unable to work, and soon in fear of losing freedom as well as employment and good name, they find refuge abroad – though no place is as safe as they hope. One of the characters, Hannah Wolfson, is based on the real-life Hannah Weinstein, a former journalist who reinvented herself in Europe as a producer and went on to create The Adventures of Robin Hood, a hugely successful TV series known in part for its excellent writing. That excellent writing was down to her hiring the best — which for her meant blacklisted writers. The chief writer was Ring Lardner Jr, an Oscar-winning screenwriter, but every single Robin Hood script was written by someone on the blacklist. It was a tremendous risk, as Hannah could have lost everything, but she was determined to keep people’s careers going whilst also getting some of the best writing on TV. My main character, Phoebe, ends up working for Hannah and they become friends and allies in the attempt to push back against the blacklist.
What inspired you to write this story and why now?
After my novel Radio Girls published in 2016, I was pondering what I wanted to do next – I knew of course it must be another story about an interesting woman in history, someone whose story had gotten buried and needed bringing back to life (not in a Frankenstein’s monster sort of way). But nothing was quite coming together. Then the American election happened.
Along with everyone I know and half the country, I was sunk in gloom and despair. With a healthy dash of stone-cold fury. Then I started to think about American history, and how the country has often not adhered to its own ideals – certainly not for large swathes of the people living there. In many ways, the 2016 election was an attempt by the patriarchal power structure to push back against the gains made in civil rights and the whole ethos of liberalism, much as the efforts of the House UnAmerican Activities Committee was a blatant attack on liberalism and the fight for civil rights. Once that thought cohered, well, it was only natural to start re-telling this older story. It wasn’t the escape I often enjoy, but fortunately I also enjoy a certain amount of outrage so that worked out all right.
With it being a historical novel set in the 1950’s, what kind of research did you have to do?
My favourite sort of research involves a deep dive into the contemporary works of the era – novels and periodicals, films and television. I love vintage advertisements, and of course this is the era of the most spectacularly sexist advertising. I wouldn’t want to have lived through it, but it’s such fun to read. I also love all the advice columns to wives of the era, telling them how to successfully run the house and keep their husband happy. By ‘love’, of course, I mean absolutely not that, but it certainly tells you a lot about the era. Even if few wives adhered to the suggested standards, the fact that they were so exhorted to shows how desperate some people were to return to a world where women (by which they meant white, middle-class women) didn’t work outside the home or do anything the least bit boat-rocky. So in the 1950s you have the racism, sexism, classism, political oppression, and heavy emphasis on social conformity, but there are some great clothes and interesting music. So that’s something.
Were there any parts of the novel that had you feeling stuck at one point?
Erm, all of them? Many sequences had to be rewritten several times before they behaved as I wanted them to, the midpoint in particular. I was dealing with a vicious character and a lot of action and emotion, all based on a real incident, and it took dozens of rewrites to get the balance right. Also a lot of swearing.
If you had to choose a favourite quote or moment from your novel, what would it be?
It was a lot of fun putting words in these characters’ mouths, so choosing any single one as a favourite is borderline impossible. I admit, I’m pleased with a thought Hannah has when she considers her career trajectory and how, as a woman, she’s always been underestimated:
Low expectations could be useful, she found. They left a lot of space for you to work your way up long before anyone noticed.
Speaking to the blacklist, I do like when one character observes:
“If there’s a listening device in here, it doesn’t stand a chance of hearing us over Ethel Merman.”
What do you hope readers take away from reading Red Letter Days?
Mostly, I hope they enjoy the ride! But I also hope they are inspired and encouraged. It was a bleak and dangerous time – the playwright Lillian Hellman titled her memoir of the period ‘Scoundrel Time’ – and many people did awful, unforgivable, democracy-destroying things. But other people fought back, said no, or just plain carried on doing what they thought was right even at the risk of imprisonment. There are a lot of ways to resist when your government is going off the rails, and it is the resisters who end up being well considered by history.
What’s next for you?
After a whirlwind trip to the States for the fastest book tour in the east, I’m thinking sleep. Then noodling away with some exciting new ideas whilst also catching up on my reading. That TBR pile by my bed is threatening to topple and give me a concussion.
Lastly, do you have any book recommendations for us?
I’m currently reading Fiona Davis’s upcoming novel, and it’s super. And I recently finished The Humans, by Matt Haig. It is a gorgeous book – intelligent, provocative, and funny as hell. I absolutely loved it.
You can find Sarah-Jane on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, along with at her website.
