Whether she’s waiting for a train, having a meal in a restaurant or walking round an exhibition, Erica James thinks nothing of starting a conversation with a stranger.
‘Maybe it’s because I spend so much time on my own,’ she says, ‘but when I’m released from my bubble, I’ll chat to anyone. I never know what little gem might fall into my lap. A throwaway line might appeal to me, and I’ll make a note of it later and see where it might lead. As an author I can’t work in a vacuum.’
Erica has certainly accumulated plenty of material over the years.
She has now published 26 bestselling novels and also draws on her own interests and experiences of life to fuel her stories of family sagas and relationships.
‘With me nothing is wasted. That is one of the magical things about writing, often the pieces of the jigsaw naturally come together.’
In her latest book, published this spring [25 April], the idea for the story came from friends who had recently experienced a shocking turn of events in their family.
‘At the time I thought it would make a great premise for a book and the idea stayed with me for some time. Eventually I turned the events on their head by asking the “what if” question you always have to ask yourself as a writer.’
‘An Ideal Husband’ was the result.
After 30 years of marriage, Louisa is stunned when her husband Kip asks for a divorce.
He is starting a new life with a much younger woman, the former girlfriend of his son.
Louisa has to sell the family home and negotiate the fall out for her adult children as well as dealing with her own emotions.
Despite the difficult subject matter, the novel is warm, uplifting and at times, humorous.
‘I’m known for this,’ says Erica. ‘One moment you might be feeling sad or even angry with the characters, and the next you’re smiling.
‘I want you to care about each character so as the author I’m fully in their shoes, empathising with their situation. It was quite a challenge presenting the different viewpoints in ‘An Ideal Husband’, not wanting anyone to come across as a victim but being realistic about the hurt they’re experiencing.’
Erica has set the novel in her adopted home county of Suffolk.
‘I can only write about a place that I really like,’ she says. ‘There has to be that emotional connection. I’ve felt that with Suffolk and knew I had to write about it.’
She moved here about 10 years ago after visiting the printers of her books, Clays in Bungay.
She had already decided it was time to leave Cheshire after almost 20 years, so she had been poring over websites looking at properties in Devon, Oxfordshire and Dorset.
Her train journey on the east coast reminded her how much she loved the Suffolk landscape.
‘The countryside is so beautiful, no matter what time of year it is. It’s stunning. I looked at so many lovely houses in so many pretty, pretty villages while house hunting,’ she says. ‘I was hooked. Every time I had to drive away I felt sad to be leaving this lovely magical land. After ten years of being here, I feel as though I am in the right place.’
First living in Lavenham, she is now in a village a few miles away with her cottage overlooking the green.
‘I’m effectively channelling Miss Marple,’ she laughs.
Her back garden borders a stream and vast weeping willow.
There’s a summer house and Erica’s study overlooks one of two small courtyards with its colourful planting of hydrangeas, acers and hostas in pots and containers.
A kitchen garden at the side of the house is where she grows potatoes, tomatoes, onions, garlic, and a manicured box hedge borders the lawn and rose beds.
‘I wanted a bigger garden but I needed to look after it myself, so it had to be a manageable size,’ she says.
‘I’m a complete control freak, so I’ve enjoyed designing the layout myself and keeping order in the garden.’
When she’s not writing, her garden fills her time during the summer months and in the winter she is no less industrious with craft activities, many of which she posts on her Instagram account.
Knitting, crochet and needlecraft have won her prizes in the village show but she has also recently taken up decorating and furnishing doll’s houses.
During lockdown she started decorating a second-hand doll’s house she hoped would amuse her grandchildren when they were next able to visit, but she found herself so engrossed, it became a new obsession.
She started making tiny needlepoint rugs, bedspreads and cushions and collected furnishings from other makers whom she found on the internet and through attending exhibitions in London and Coventry.
‘There’s a fascinating world of miniatures on Instagram,’ she says. ‘These amazingly creative people also often make up stories behind the rooms and furnishings they build. They make these perfect little worlds. I love that, but I put all my ideas into the written word as a book.’
Indeed in ‘An Ideal Husband’, the central character shares Erica’s passion for miniature plates, pictures and furniture and in Erica’s previous book, ‘A Secret Garden Affair’, she explored the life of garden designers.
It will be interesting to see what activity, or conversation, inspires the next Erica James novel.
‘An Ideal Husband’ is published by HQ price £16.99
