On research

From the cover of The Disgrace of Kitty Grey

Mary Hooper tells us why she loves researching her historical novels for children

Research is, for me, the best part of writing a book. It’s where you discover all those interesting little things that will make your book come to life. If you have done enough research and found enough interesting facts, then the book should more or less write itself. I do as much as possible to get going on the book, and then 'top up' as and when I need to.

When I start a new book, the first thing I do is get a nice big filing box and start collecting things. I will end up with much more than I need, but deciding what information to put in and where exactly it should go is part of the fun. One of the first things I think about is where my story is (mostly) going to take place, and this is usually somewhere in London. I get a map of the chosen area as near as possible to the right year. Then I mark the shop, house (or more likely room) my character will be living in and see what’s around it: church, park, market place, river, etc: these can all be brought into the plot to give it flavour. After that I usually go out and walk around the streets, trying to imagine things as they were, looking for alleyways, old signs or any traces of time gone by. Of course, this walking about isn’t essential, but it delays nicely the time when you must actually start writing the book.

When I’ve got this sorted, I then begin to think about what my characters are wearing. Also what they are eating, drinking, sitting on, how they speak to each other and what they do to earn their living. Sometimes what I discover can change the course of the book. For instance, when I was researching Fallen Grace I found out about the Necropolis Railway and was so taken with it that I altered the whole plot of the book to fit around it.

Research can take you to some interesting places: to the top of the Shard to check out the layout of the Thames as it curves away to the sea for The Disgrace of Kitty Grey, to the atmospheric Apothecaries Hall to see what they recommended as a guard against 1665’s Great Plague for At the Sign of the Sugared Plum, to a disused laundry for Velvet and to Ypres to visit the new Museum of the Great War for my forthcoming book, Poppy. You can find yourself in an overgrown graveyard one day and a hushed record office the next.

Without doubt, research is the most fun you’ll have - for after that you actually have to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard or whatever) and get down to the actual writing of the story.

Read our review of Mary Hooper's latest novel, The Disgrace of Kitty Grey