We chat with Laura Shepherd-Robinson about her new novel The Square of Sevens, which follows an orphaned fortune teller in 18th-century England searches for answers about her long-dead mother and uncovers shocking secrets.
Hi, Laura! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
Hello! Greetings from London, my adopted hometown for the last 25 years. I was born in the city of Bristol, in the south west of the UK, but I moved here to do a master’s degree and never left. I studied politics at university and I worked in politics for the best part of 20 years, but a craving to write a novel came to me in my late twenties and refused to go away. So eventually, I bit the bullet, re-entered civilised society, and did an MA in Creative Writing. On that course I wrote the first draft of the book that became my debut novel. The Square of Sevens is my third book, but the first to be published in the US, which I’m obviously THRILLED about!
When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?
As a child I devoured every book in sight. I loved Joan Aitken and Diana Wynne Jones, but I also read a lot of classics and contemporary adult novels that were probably much too old for me! My parents were big readers and I was fortunate to grow up in a house full of books. My dad is an amazing story-teller, and that love for great plots as well as good prose was in me from a very early age. But it didn’t occur to me to write a book myself until quite late in life.
Quick lightning round! Tell us the first book you ever remember reading, the one that made you want to become an author, and one that you can’t stop thinking about!
Remember: the Miffy the rabbit books. I was reading them aged 2.
Author: An Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain Pears
Thinking about: I think about Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by John Le Carre almost every day. They’re books where you discover something new and brilliant each time you read them.
Your latest novel, The Square of Sevens, is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Magical, mysterious, epic, immersive, tricksy
What can readers expect?
A dive into Georgian England, from its glittering balls and assemblies to the rough ribaldry of the London fairs. My main character, Red, is a young fortune-teller who is trying to unravel the mysteries of her own past and parentage. In a Dickensian twist, she discovers that her family is at war in a famous court case over a disputed inheritance and she might be the rightful heir to that fortune. So she uses her fortune-telling skills to infiltrate her own family, encountering love, the law, and even murder along the way…
Where did the inspiration for The Square of Sevens come from?
I wanted to write a book about fortune-telling in the age of the Enlightenment. Early on in my research I came across a 19th century book called The Square of Sevens by an American journalist, E Irenaeus Stevenson. It outlines an 18th century method of fortune-telling with playing cards, which became central to the plot of my book. I also, in a moment of madness, decided to structure the book around the method too: the four parts of the book correspond to four fortunes that Red tells during the course of the story, and each chapter is headed by a playing card that has significance to the events in that chapter.
Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
I loved writing the character of Red, but I have a secondary point-of-view character named Lazarus Darke who I also fell in love with. Lazarus is an antagonist to Red, but he’s a complicated character, and his story provides a lot of the emotional heart of the novel.
Another thing I loved about writing this book was the varied settings: from ancient Cornish inns to the Georgian splendour of Bath, to London society both high and low, to a grand country estate in Devon. Taking everything full circle to arrive at the end of this book was a fabulous moment, as I’d conceived the end very early on.
This is your third published novel! What are some of the key lessons you have learned when it comes to writing and the publishing world?
Try to avoid comparisonitis, however hard that is. Every author’s journey is different – and the only thing truly in your power is to write the best book you can.
Lots of people will tell you there’s a right and a wrong way to write a novel. The only right way is the way that works for you, the one that gives you a publishable novel at the end of that process, one that readers will love. I listen to other writers describe their process and I think ‘I could never do it like that’ and they think the same about mine.
One of my favourite things about writing is the combination of the noisy times when you’re out on the road doing events and giving interviews, publicising your book, and the quiet times when you’re on your sofa in your pyjamas, immersed in the really difficult, but infinitely rewarding task of writing a novel. The contrast appeals to both the introvert and the extrovert in me. I feel like this is the job I was born to do, it just took me a long time to figure that out!
What’s next for you?
I am writing another 18th century novel about a recently widowed confectioner, who owns a beautiful shop on Piccadilly in London. Her struggle to run her business in a man’s world is thrown into confusion when the magistrate decides her husband’s death was a murder, and she falls under suspicion…
Lastly, do you have any book recommendations for our readers?
Apart from the novels mentioned above, I love the books of Mick Herron, Abir Mukerjee, Anna Mazzola and Catriona Ward. Basically, anything that marries clever plotting with lovely prose and I’m there!
