We chat with debut author Susan Stokes-Chapman about Pandora, which is an exhilarating historical novel set in Georgian London where the discovery of a mysterious ancient Greek vase sets in motion conspiracies, revelations, and romance.
Hi, Susan! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
Of course! I was born in 1985 and grew up in the historic Georgian city of Lichfield (where my love of the era began) before moving on to spend four years in the coastal town of Aberystwyth, graduating with a BA in Education & English Literature and an MA in Creative Writing. My debut novel PANDORA which came out originally in the UK became an instant #1 Sunday Times bestseller, and was previously shortlisted for the 2020 Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize and longlisted for the Bath Novel Award that same year. I now live in North West Wales, endlessly pestered by a pair of very beautiful (and very naughty) British Shorthair cats named Byron and Brontë.
When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?
I was always an avid reader. The first book that made me fall in love with reading was undoubtedly Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery. Like me Anne was a dreamer with a passion for literature, and I really connected to that, to see a character that echoed myself in some way. I think it was around twelve that I started to dabble with short pieces of fiction and fan-fiction too (I loved Star Wars in particular), but it wasn’t until I was fourteen that I knew I wanted to write for a living after reading the historical romance novels of American author Shirlee Busbee. She wrote what my mother jokingly calls ‘corset rippers’, but Busbee’s books were more than that – they had a richly researched historical setting (typically eighteenth-century) which completely fascinated me.
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!
That’s hard! I’ve already mentioned Anne of Green Gables and the novels of Shirlee Busbee, but I read so many wonderful books in those early years. I grew up on Sweet Valley Twins and Goosebumps books, then later had a penchant for Anne Rice, Jane Austen, all forms of historical fiction, and gothic novels in particular, especially Jane Eyre! It was a very organic process that came about through a real immersion in a lot of different genres of literature growing up.
Your debut novel, Pandora, is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Indiana Jones meets Jane Austen.
What can readers expect?
Readers need to be aware that rather than a retelling of the Greek myth, my novel is more of a loose reinterpretation of it. I have taken the concept of the mythical Pandora and placed her into eighteenth-century Georgian London, and while the myth comes through loud and clear Dora Blake is her own individual character, not Pandora herself. Readers can expect visceral settings, dastardly deeds, some historical facts, beautiful jewellery, Greek antiquity, myth and romance, and characters you’ll really root for. Oh, and a magpie!
Where did the inspiration for Pandora come from?
Both Dora and Hermes popped into my head fully formed, and the myth of Pandora’s Box sort of came up along side it. I knew I wanted to combine them somehow, so set initially to researching the myth. On disappearing down a Google rabbit-hole I discovered that Pandora’s box was never a box at all, but a vase! It turns out that ‘box’ was a mistranslation, courtesy of the sixteenth century philosopher Erasmus. When he translated Hesiod’s tale of Pandora into Latin, the word pithos (a large storage jar, or, vase) was translated into the Latin word pyxis, meaning ‘box’. All I needed to do then was find a way to get an ancient and potentially magical vase over to eighteenth century England! I set then to researching antiquity in the Georgian period, whereupon I came across the name William Hamilton who was a collector of Greek vases, having collected many of them during his 35 years living in Naples. In 1798 when a French invasion seemed imminent, he decided to pack off his vase collection to England for safety. Ironically, some of this collection went down with the naval ship HMS Colossus off the Scilly Isles. It was this historical fact that allowed me to place the mystical Pandora’s ‘Box’ into the Georgian London.
Were there any favourite moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
I loved all scenes with Cornelius, especially ones where he and Dora are at loggerheads! My favourite scene between them is near the end though, where they both begin to see each other in a different light, and a revelation is made. Lady Latimer was also extremely fun to write – she brings quite a bit of light into an otherwise quite dark story.
With Pandora set in Georgian London, did you discover any fun tidbits during your research?
Fun tidbits is probably not the right term to use in this instance, but in the eighteenth century there was a distinct divide between the concept of ‘legal’ acquisition of antiquities (the excavations made by William Hamilton, for instance) and the acquisition of antiquities on the black-market. However both types of acquisition were technically stealing, so there are lots of ethical implications concerning that. There are also interesting parallels between contemporary attitudes to possession of foreign property. It just goes to show how history can teach us still about the modern world!
Can you tell us a bit about your journey of getting Pandora published?
A bit of a whirlwind to be honest! I spent ten years prior to Pandora focusing on another novel before finally admitting defeat and shelving it. Within two weeks of doing that Dora and Hermes popped into my head, but I was still feeling so raw after my last agent rejection I decided to sit on the idea for six months before doing anything about it. I told myself that if the idea was still there all those months later that it was solid idea and to pursue it and it was, thankfully! After that it took ten months from researching to finishing a first draft. During the writing of that first draft I’d submitted the first 15k to the Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize and later the Bath Novel Award. Getting longlisted for both was a changing point for me – after 42 rejections of my first novel it was strange to have agents actually reaching out to me! When I did send out to agents the process was incredibly fast – within 24 hours I was getting requests for the full manuscript, within a month I had five offers of representation, and a month further on I had a publishing deal. The deal was announced a year before the novel came out in the UK (January 2022), so I had twelve months of build up in terms of getting proofs out there, doing interviews, etc. It was very overwhelming!
What’s next for you?
I am currently working on my untitled second novel, which I can’t reveal much about at present. I’m already thinking about books three and four, and also a potential short story anthology, all set in the Georgian era!
Lastly, are there any 2023 releases our readers should look out for?
I have a short story appearing in The Winter Spirits, an anthology of ghostly stories which will be published in the UK in October.
You can find Susan on Twitter and Instagram, along with at her website.
