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Helen Ward May 24, 2011

By day Lydia Silverstream is a mild-mannered local government officer in Oxfordshire County Council’s Payroll Section. By night she is a family history enthusiast and, when she finds what looks like the diary of a murderer in a box of old photographs that she bought from an Eynsham auction room, an amateur detective.

In his first published novel, local author DJ Wiseman has created a credible mystery and an entirely plausible amateur sleuth. Lydia’s only tools are those available to any family history researcher:  gravestones, census records; birth, marriage and death registers; old copies of the Oxford Mail and a dogged attention to detail. 

She begins by identifying the family in the old photographs, successfully traces a living descendant and gradually builds up a picture of the family’s lives, loves and tragedies. Finally, with a little help from a well connected academic, she fits the final pieces into the jigsaw and, in an unexpected twist, uncovers the real story behind the mysterious diary.

A Habit of Dying is a well-written, well-paced piece of puzzle solving that will please family history buffs and fans of old-fashioned detective stories alike.

Oxfordshire writer DJ Wiseman’s first published novel, A Habit of Dying, has been receiving good reviews (see below). The novel features Oxford-based family historian Lydia Silverstream who turns detective when she finds a hand written journal that hints of murder. Daily Information caught up with the author recently to find out more.

Presumably you’re very pleased with the way the book’s been received?
I think it’s wonderful. Fantastic things have been said and I can hardly believe it’s my words.

How did you get from researching your family history to writing a detective novel?
Once the family history bug bites, it’s for life. Unravelling family history is your own personal detective story. It’s about more than simple facts, because many of the things you’re presented with are far from simple and far from facts. You have to use some kind of intuition or judgement about what you’re presented with - if you don’t, you end up accepting all sorts of rubbish. It’s all about evidence- there’s a piece of paper, but that doesn’t mean it’s true.

It’s quite a winning formula, appealing to family historians and detection fans alike.
The problem with a family history-based story is that it isn’t in itself a strong enough thread. It is if you’re a family historian but could be stunningly boring for people who are not.
Although I had the story of Lydia and the family she investigates, I knew that, on its own, it wasn’t strong enough to hold someone other than a dedicated family historian. I knew I needed something else. Writing is a hugely self indulgent thing, but if you want people to read it, you have to give them some respect and give them something that will keep them interested.

There needs to be a point of connection?
Yes. I had two stories in my head - one was the story of Lydia and her work with family history and then there was a completely different story about a journal. Then one day those two stories went “click” and I saw how each story could ride on the other and I could make something that was actually interesting.

How did you come up with the character of Lydia Silverstream?
No idea. And, you’ll have heard this from other writers. My characters do things that I didn’t expect them to do.
Where she lives, (Osney Island) comes from my perambulations around the Thames and Oxford. I wanted the island element because I think she’s an isolated person and I wanted her in an isolated place. But does she look like anyone I know or live like anyone I know? Not really.

And she works for the County Council?
Yes. I wanted her to work somewhere that was identifiable yet faceless. I could have chosen a big corporation or the NHS, but I thought the County Council would do. It had to be big enough for her to be a bit lost in it. She had to be sufficiently disinterested to be able to walk out of the door and not really think about it in terms of work; only the social interaction. She had to work with people who were very different from her.

Why did you choose a woman as your main protagonist?
I think that she chose me. Other readers have asked me how and why I wrote this from a female perspective. I did think “Have I bitten off more than I can chew here – it’s alright for me, but would Mrs Average think Lydia is a plausible female?” I’ve been pleased by what people have said about that.

There’s a hint of romance with the forensic archaeologist Stephen Kellaway, but you didn’t really follow that through...
It’s so easy to do that but it wasn’t what the story was about. It would have been so easy to have them walk off into the sunset.

Do you think that Stephen Kellaway fulfils the role of the traditional detective’s sidekick?
I suddenly became aware that Lydia needed to talk to someone about what she was doing: just doing it was not enough. His purpose in the story was partly to explore Lydia, but he’s much more important than just a sidekick – I think he’s critical to the actual process of telling the story and I didn’t know that when I set out the framework of the story.

What do you do about ideas? Do you keep a writer’s diary?
I do all the things that writers do – wake up in the night and write,- although sometimes I can’t read my writing in the morning! I always have some means of writing on a piece of paper with me.

How do you plan your writing?
The first draft of A Habit of Dying was three lines. I do most of the next stage in my head until I arrive at a point where I think I’d better start making some notes. I will end up writing one or two line notes; not necessarily in sequence and not necessarily ever used – just scenes and flashes. That might happen over quite a long period and I’ll end up with a bunch of stuff.

So how do you turn “a bunch of stuff” into a narrative?
When I want to take a story on from there, I will map it out. I’ll have a sheet of A4 and put one line at the top and one line in the middle, sequential events, and then I’ll start to fill in the gaps under the headings until I have some kind of time line. I may go back and do that page again or add a big arrow saying “no this is number 17, not number 22”.
I plan it out in that way and then have a go at writing and seeing if all I’ve done actually translates into something I can feel some passion about; I have to feel that I want to write it.

Do you do a lot of rewriting?
I don’t do a huge amount of rewriting once I’ve started to write - I’ll edit, but I usually don’t rewrite. I usually only do a few hundred words before I realise "no this is not quite making it". No more than that.

So the actual writing is really like the tip of an iceberg?
Yes – certainly for me.

Would you recommend this approach to other aspiring writers?
No - it’s what works for you. People want to know the secret of writing a book and I have to say that there isn’t one; if you think you can do it, do it – keep trying – have a go. But I can’t give people a formula.

Are there any books or writers who particularly inspired you?
I have so many different lists of favourite books and writers - I think it’s very difficult to pick one out. I’ve always enjoyed reading. There are so many fantastic books.
In recent times, when I first read Phillip Pullman’s Dark Materials trilogy, my mind was just completely blown away – I just felt “if only I had written this” – I think it’s an amazing feat of imagination.
Then there’s John Le Carré and The Perfect Spy, which I think is the quintessential spy book. John le Carré’s written some brilliant stuff. I wouldn’t want you to think that was a rounded answer to your question, because I’d also say Arthur Ransome’s Swallows and Amazons…

So what’s next?
Well, I’ve have been really surprised and pleased at the number of people who have responded to A Habit of Dying and suggested that they would like to see another Lydia Silverstream story. I do know what the next adventure is likely to be, but it’s not the book I’m writing at the moment. I’m writing a different mystery story – not featuring those characters. I lived with Lydia for quite a long time. She and I need a holiday.

And the new mystery?
I haven’t said to anyone and I’m not going to say to anyone – it’s a mystery!

Helen Ward was talking to DJ Wiseman 29 May 2011

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