In Conversation with Alex Lake, author of AFTER ANNA… The premise of AFTER ANNA is every parents’ worst nightmare. How did the idea for the book come to be?
I guess it’s because I’m a parent and it’s my worst nightmare! I think all parents have had a moment on the beach or in the supermarket or at the playground when their child is not where they last looked, and there's that sense of mounting panic and then, a second later, they spot them and it's all ok. But what if it wasn't? And that was the seed for AFTER ANNA. At the same time I also had an idea for a novel based around a married couple who decide to break up, but then have to stay together for some reason – a sick child, maybe, or some other crisis involving their kids. And then I put them together, and AFTER ANNA was born. And then of course, there's the twist - the abduction is only part of the story; we find out the rest when Anna is returned… Alex Lake is a gender-neutral pseudonym. Can you explain your choice for writing under a pen name? Does this have its challenges or advantages?
I chose a pen name because AFTER ANNA is a different kind of novel – a psychological thriller – to my other novels. I also found that writing as Alex Lake puts me in a different frame of mind. Alex is a different person to me in many ways - possessed, paradoxically, of both a darker imagination and a more playful side - and that is quite liberating. I write differently as Alex Lake, which sounds kind of pretentious, but it’s true. I don’t really think about why I have to pretend I’m someone else to let my darker (and more playful) sides out. I prefer not to know… AFTER ANNA was a runaway best seller in the UK. Tell us what that experience has been like. (Especially as a British writer who now lives in the US.) I found it thrilling, and a bit unreal. It was amazing that so many people were reading something I’d written. I was – and am – extremely grateful. Growing up I was a bookworm (something which hasn’t changed) and I used to read the Sunday Times Top Ten bestsellers as a teenager and pester my parents to buy me the books. To see AFTER ANNA there was amazing. The thing with living in the US is that I’ve never actually seen AFTER ANNA in a book store. I’m looking forward to changing that in a few weeks.