We chat with author Frances Quinn about The Lost Passenger, which is an immersive historical drama about a young mother who starts a new life with her son in New York after faking their deaths on the Titanic.
Hi, Frances! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
I’m a British author, grew up in London but now live in Brighton, on the south coast of England, with my husband and three very spoilt Tonkinese cats. I studied English at King’s College, Cambridge, realising too late that the course would require more than lying around reading novels for three years. After snatching a degree from the jaws of laziness, I became a journalist, writing mainly for UK magazines, then later branched out into copywriting, producing text for everything from pizza packaging to airline in-flight brochures. So one way or another, I’ve been sitting at a keyboard writing words for a living almost all my life.
When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?
I can’t remember a time when I didn’t love stories. My mum read to me even when I was a baby.I have very hazy memories of her reading me The Water Babies by Charles Kingsley (a children’s book written in the 19th century) when I was really too little to understand the story, but when I came across a copy many years later, there were bits I could remember. She taught me to read before I went to school, and as a child I always spent my pocket money on books. I wrote my first ‘novel’ when I was seven, about a squirrel who liked pork chops. I was 57 before I had a novel published so perhaps procrastination is my super power.
Quick lightning round! Tell us:
- The first book you ever remember reading: Five on a Treasure Island by Enid Blyton
- The one that made you want to become an author: Probably Five on a Treasure Island!
- The one that you can’t stop thinking about: The Wedding People by Alison Espach
Your latest novel, The Lost Passenger, is out February 25th! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Downton Abbey, Titanic, New York
What can readers expect?
A riches to rags story about a strong young woman who’ll do whatever it takes to save herself and her young son from a cold, miserable life among the British aristocracy.
Where did the inspiration for The Lost Passenger come from?
I wanted to write a story about a historical event we all know about, but give it a different angle. It struck me that the chaos of the night the Titanic sank would be a perfect chance for someone who wanted to disappear, to do so. And then I worked backwards: who is this woman, why does she want to disappear and how does she do it?
Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
I loved researching and writing about life in the tenements of the Lower East Side of New York City. It was such a melting pot, with people who’d come from all over the world bringing with them their food, their traditions and their different skills. People lived in such poor conditions, and yet they were always looking forwards, striving to make a better life, if not for them then for their children and grandchildren. That was the perfect contrast to the world of aristocratic England that my heroine Elinor had left behind, where everything was focused on looking back and keeping things the same.
Can you tell us a bit about your research process?
I start by reading lots of books, to give me a general feel for the place and time I’m writing about, and I might also watch TV or movies – I gladly took the opportunity to rewatch Downton, and also The Crown, as Elinor’s situation has parallels with the then Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s marriage (complete with their own Camilla). I’d never seen the movie Titanic, and I deliberately didn’t watch it until I’d written the first draft, but as by then I’d read a lot of books on the Titanic, it was interesting to see what the film makers had done with it.
Once I get into the story, there’s always a lot more specialist research to do. For The Lost Passenger that included finding out about the Lancashire cotton industry, the laws of inheritance in Edwardian England, pushcarts on the Lower East Side, Swedish proverbs and train services between New York City and Minnesota in 1913! That comes from yet more books, websites, and sometimes tracking down obscure academic papers. If I really can’t find out the answer I need, I put an appeal on X and someone always knows, or knows someone who knows.
Did you face any challenges whilst writing? How did you overcome them?
Writing is always a challenge! With this one, I had to give the reader enough of an insight into Elinor’s awful situation for it to be convincing that she takes the really quite crazy decision that she does after the Titanic goes down – but at the same time, I didn’t want to take too long getting her on to the ship, because I knew that a lot of readers would be picking up the book because they’re interested in the Titanic. That kind of issue you overcome by doing draft after draft until the pace feels right – there’s no shortcut.
The other challenge was simply steeling myself to read the Titanic survivors’ stories while I was researching. The sinking has become such a part of popular culture that it’s easy to forget what a terrible tragedy it was, and what people went through. The survivors’ stories are harrowing and brought me to tears more than once.
What’s next for you?
I’m working on my fourth novel, which is loosely based on the true story of a lady called Nettie Honeyball, who caused a scandal when she founded the first British ladies football club in 1894. Except she wasn’t really called Nettie Honeyball and no one knows who she really was, so I’ve dreamed up a backstory that might answer that question.
Lastly, what books are you looking forward to picking up this year?
The Day I Left You by Caroline Bishop, The London Bookshop Affair by Louise Fein and Alison Espach’s first two books.
