INTERVIEW
THE SPECTACULAR TRIUMPH of Rachel Joyce WORDS: MATT DICKS
Bestselling author Rachel Joyce captivated the hearts of readers with her award-winning 2012 debut, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, which saw her named the National Book Awards’ New Writer of the Year. Since then, she’s continued her winning streak with The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessey, Perfect and A Snow Garden and Other Stories. The recently released The Music Shop is Rachel’s fourth novel, and fifth book overall. Prior to becoming a writer, Rachel enjoyed a twenty-year career as an actor, performing leading roles for the RSC, the Royal National Theatre, The Royal Court, and Cheek by Jowl, winning a Time Out Best Actress award and the Sony Silver.
wrote my autobiography when I was eight. [Laughs]. It was quite short, but it was about my poetry, which I felt had been overlooked.
She has written over twenty radio plays for Radio 4, and won the Tinniswood Award for Best Radio Play in 2007. She now lives in the Cotswolds with husband Paul Venables and her children. Ahead of Rachel’s appearance at the 2017 Cheltenham Literature Festival, Matt Dicks caught up with her to discuss her runaway success.
I did! And I didn’t even tell anyone I was doing that. Yes, it was a children’s story. I went to the library and I made a list from the Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook. I only sent it to one publisher - I can’t remember which one - and I did it under a pseudonym as well. I don’t know why - I think I had the Brontës in my head a bit.
Rachel, you’ve been an actor and a writer of radio plays. But was writing novels where you always wanted to end up?
Your debut - 2012’s The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry - was amazingly successful. It won the National Book Awards’ New Writer of the Year Award. It was longlisted for the Booker. And it was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Prize. What was it like dealing with that smash success?
Yes, it was. It always was. Even when I was a child, that’s what I wanted to do. I always wrote, when I was a child - I was always writing stories and terrible, terrible poems. I
12
COTSWOLD HOMES MAGAZINE
I heard you sent a book to a publisher when you were fourteen.