Where The Ideas Flow with Robin Stevens

Today on the blog, I am pleased to welcome Robin Stevens, author or the highly successful Wells and Wong books. Robin has written   a post that clearly shows if you really want to write, you will write anywhere!

Most ‘where I write’ posts are glorious things. Writing rooms! Writing sheds! Colour-coordinated notebooks and Anglepoise lights and coffee cups with inspirational quotes. It’s wonderfully jealous-making in an aspirational way, and so I’m very sorry to tell you that if you’re reading this post for that kind of experience, you’re going to come away disappointed.

Because the place I write, where the Murder Most Unladylike Mysteries are first created . . . looks like this.

Actually, that’s on a good day, when I get a seat. Sometimes, it looks like this.

These lovely pictures are from my daily commuter train, and this is  where I write because this is how I get to work. It always surprises people when I tell them this, but the fact is that I’m not a full-time writer. I actually have another full-time job, as Assistant Editor at Egmont, and so writing is something I do in my time off. I’ve got a very small window of time (35 minutes each way) to get my daily words down, and that time pressure is extremely useful. The more time I have, the more I waste (I know this from trying to write on weekends) - when I hardly have any, I can’t afford not to use it wisely.

People usually react with horror at the thought of writing a book sitting on the floor, squashed between some woman’s handbag and some other guy’s slightly smelly cycling rucksack. But there’s something about it that I find weirdly enjoyable. It feels like a challenge - it quite literally turns writing into a problem that I have to solve. And it also reminds me that writing, especially the first draft, is all about bashing words out. To meet deadlines you’ve got to very unglamorously just get on with it, even on days when you’re not particularly inspired (and also squashed in the luggage rack next to the loos).

And if you’re looking for peaceful silence and a total lack of internet connectivity, I highly recommend a commuter train at 8am. There aren’t any distractions, or noise, or even much light during the winter months - it’s actually an almost perfect writing cocoon. I’ve had to teach myself to close myself off from the people around me, and not mind whether they read over my shoulder. Actually, I doubt anyone even notices what I’m doing. Even though we’re all squashed up together, we’re all in our own little worlds.

I can get about 500 words done in each 35 minute slot, enough to get the first draft of a book written in three or four months if I keep at it every day. Yes, it’s full on, but I can’t complain at all. I don’t even really feel as though it’s work. It’s way too much fun. So, here’s to writing on the floor, or in the luggage rack, or wedged into a seat next to a man with a perilously open and wobbling cup of coffee. Wherever I end up each morning becomes my own little space - and that’s really all I need.

I adore this post! I feel quite wasteful with my time now after reading this. 

The first two books in the Wells and Wong series are already available to buy. The third book, First Class Murder will be published this June by Corgi.

To find out more about Robin Stevens:

Twitter / Website

Arsenic for Tea by Robin Stevens

I looked at Daisy.

  Her eyes were glittering and her cheeks were pink.

  This was Daisy with a Plan.

Published by Random House in January 2015

352 pages in paperback

Cover by Laura Bird, illustrations and maps inside by Nina Tara

Summary adapted from Robin Stevens’ own website

Schoolgirl detectives Daisy Wells and Hazel Wong are at Daisy’s home, Fallingford, for the holidays. Daisy’s glamorous mother is throwing a tea party for Daisy’s birthday, and Daisy’s eccentric family are all invited, from eccentric Aunt Saskia to dashing Uncle Felix.  But it soon becomes clear that this party isn’t about Daisy at all.  (Naturally, Daisy is furious.).

Then one of their party falls seriously, mysteriously ill - and everything points to poison.

With furious storms preventing anyone from leaving, or the police from arriving, Fallingford suddenly feels like a very dangerous place to be. No one at Fallingford is what they seem - and everyone has a secret or two. And when someone very close to Daisy looks suspicious, the Detective Society must do everything they can to reveal the truth . . . no matter the consequences.

Reviewed by K. M. Lockwood

I read the first Wells & Wong Mystery with a mixture of surprise and delight: I had not expected a Malory Towers - Holmes and Watson mash-up to be quite so enjoyable. I have now to add that this follow-up is even better!

So often sequels can be a disappointment, but Arsenic for Tea is definitely not. There is still the same fun, still the same intriguing relationship between Daisy and Hazel (though it does develop further in this one) and still the same convincing portrayal of 1930s England. This time we have the classic country house set-up, butler and all, and as well as the Cluedo elements, there is an understanding of the effect such awful events would have on a family.

As before, Robin Stevens does not Photoshop some of the more unpleasant aspects of that era - there’s one snobby line in particular that actually made me gasp! Having said that, there’s enough humour and cleverness to keep any competent reader happily entertained.

The plans and summaries are a useful feature for any sleuths keeping up with our heroines. Likewise the addition of Kitty and Beanie as Assistants to the Detective Society help us to follow what’s going on - and add to both the mystery and the laughter.

I have always had a soft spot for books with glossaries and the like - and Daisy’s Guide to Fallingford is a joy.  Like the first book, you don’t have to read it to enjoy this story - but it might well increase your pleasure as it did mine.

I can’t really say much about the plot - the whole point of a mystery is that it remains, well, mysterious. The only two points I will make are that all does make sense in the end - and that I am so looking forward to First Class Murder in summer. It’s set on The Orient Express!

Decidedly recommended for any historical mystery fan - the Wells & Wong books are best read in order, but Arsenic for Tea works perfectly well as a standalone.

Murder Most Unladylike by Robin Stevens

This is the first murder that Wells and Wong Detective Society has ever investigated, so it is a good thing Daisy bought me a new casebook. The last one was finished after we solved The Case of Lavinia’s Missing Tie. The solution to that, of course was that Clementine stole it in revenge for Lavinia punching her in the stomach during lacrosse, which was Lavinia’s revenge for Clementine telling everyone Lavinia came from a broken home. I suspect that the solution to this new case may be more complex.

Also known as ‘Murder is Bad Manners’ in the US

Published June 2014 by Corgi

UK cover design by Nina Tara

316 pages in paperback

Summary from Robin Stevens’ own website: http://robin-stevens.co.uk/

When Daisy Wells and Hazel Wong set up their very own deadly secret detective agency at Deepdean School for Girls, they struggle to find any truly exciting mysteries to investigate. (Unless you count the case of Lavinia’s missing tie. Which they don’t, really.)

But then Hazel discovers the Science Mistress, Miss Bell, lying dead in the Gym. She thinks it must all have been a terrible accident - but when she and Daisy return five minutes later, the body has disappeared. Now the girls know a murder must have taken place . . . and there’s more than one person at Deepdean with a motive.

Now Hazel and Daisy not only have a murder to solve: they have to prove a murder happened in the first place. Determined to get to the bottom of the crime before the killer strikes again (and before the police can get there first, naturally), Hazel and Daisy must hunt for evidence, spy on their suspects and use all the cunning, scheming and intuition they can muster. But will they succeed? And can their friendship stand the test?

Reviewed by K. M. Lockwood

I should first point out that I received this book by accident. I retweeted the competition to support a fellow writer - and then blow me, but I won it. It would not normally be the sort of thing I’d go for. The jolly blue cover gives you the feel of it - I thought well, it looks fun.

So I read it fully expecting an Agatha Christie crossed with an Enid Blyton - which isn’t too far off. It has both the page turning attraction and the clever plotting of those two, together with oodles of period charm. I thought ‘Daisy’s Guide to Deepdean’ at the end was a delight and very handy. There’s a plan and a list of characters too.

But - it’s better than that. You can read it happily enough as a cosy crime for younger readers - yet there’s rather more to it. Robin Stevens has gone beyond nostalgia to cover both difficult school relationships most readers will recognise, and racism in a subtle yet effective way. She also did not shy away from recognising the impact of such a crime as murder. I was not expecting those aspects at all - very impressed. I have ‘Arsenic for Tea’ ready to read soon.

I would highly recommend ‘Murder Most Unladylike’ for any fairly fluent reader who likes mysteries and boarding school stories with a sense of fun, but also with intelligence and heart. A kind of Sherlock Holmes for schoolchildren. It would be great for a book club to discuss!