Angela Rigley
I play Scrabble online with Angela sometimes so it was lovely to catch up with her for a chat. Now, when I say I 'play Scrabble', what I actually mean is I almost always am thoroughly trounced whilst playing Scrabble with the best player I have ever had the pleasure of playing!!)
Hi Angela, I am sure that you are tired of being asked the usual questions that would be interviewers ask authors, so hopefully this interview is an interview with a difference and I have come up with some unusual questions!
If your latest book Choices for Jamie was adapted into a TV show or a film, who would you like to play the lead role?
That’s a hard one, because in my latest book Choices for Jamie he is only 21 and Aidan Turner would be too old.
If, as a one off, (and you could guarantee publication!) you could write anything you wanted, is there another genre you would love to work with and do you already have a budding plot line in mind?
I want to try timeslip for my next project – something like Kath McGurl’s Emerald Comb.
Do you have any rituals and routines when writing? Your favourite cup for example or ‘that’ piece of music...??
I only write in silence, first thing in the morning, still in my nightie and dressing gown, with a cuppa at hand, to give my brain a break and pause when I have to think what’s coming next, or how to say something differently.
What is the worse book you have ever read? What made it unreadable for you?
The Summer of the Bear by Bella Pollen, a Richard and Judy Club choice. I didn’t finish it. Each chapter was only 2 or 3 pages so it was choppy and disjointed. Point of view was all over the place and even in the same paragraphs we had different views. The eight-year old boy used long words that an eight-year old would not know; someone appeared who seemed, to me, anyway, to be her husband, but he couldn’t have been because her husband was dead; and there were several other things that riled me that I can’t remember. It was about 4 years ago.
Other than writing full time, what would be your dream job?
I wish I had gone into nursing, but left it too late, but a gardener or a shepherd.
Coffee or tea? Red or white?
Tea always, as I don’t like alcohol.
If you had free choice over the font your book is printed in, what font/fonts would you choose?
Garamond or Ariel. I’m judging a children’s writing competition at the moment and one of them has made her entry so fancy, it’s hard to read.
Historical fiction authors have to contend with real characters invading our stories. Are there any ‘real’ characters you have been tempted to prematurely kill off or ignore because you just don’t like them or they spoil the plot?
No. In Florence and the Highwayman, Florence meets William Wordsworth’s son, also William, but he’s still alive and kicking at the end of the story.
Are you prepared to go away from the known facts for the sake of the story and if so how do you get around this ?
Not really. My stories don’t involve a lot of known facts, and I prefer to keep the ones I use accurate. Again, in Florence and the Highwayman, I had to do research on William Wordsworth and had to change the story because originally, William Jnr was travelling with his son, but I found out that his son died as an infant, so I changed it to his niece.
Do you find that the lines between fact and fiction sometimes become blurred?
Occasionally, because fiction seems like fact, while you are reading it.
Have you ever totally hated or fallen in love with one of your characters?
Not ‘in love’, but I love Jamie as a son.
What do you enjoy reading for pleasure?
Historical romance mainly
What drink would you recommend drinking whilst reading your latest book?
It would be tea.
Last but not least... favourite historical author?
Kath McGurl at the moment, but I like Jane Austen, Jean M Auel, Phillipa Gregory.
Thank you Angela... see you later over the online Scrabble :)
Biography: Hi, I, Angela Rigley, live in Derbyshire, England with my husband, Don, but was born in Sussex. I have five children and eight grandchildren. Educated at Alton Convent boarding school in Hampshire I have had various occupations, including owning a health food shop for 3 years, and working for the Civil Service. All my Jamie books are published by Bluewood Publishing. as is the latest book 'Lea Croft', a murder/mystery, also set in Victorian times. I self-published an anthology: 'My Book of Silly Poems and Things' and 'My Silly Poems for Kids' and also 'Nancie', a YA book about a girl who goes into service and hears noises in the attic. 'Florence and the Highwayman' is a romance and I have now branched out into children's books, 'Cal the Caveboy' and 'Baarlie the Naughty Lamb'. I love birdwatching and lambs; genealogy, having traced some of my family tree back to 1520; playing Scrabble; flower arranging; and singing in my church choir. Go to Nunkynoo to see some of my pictures.
Angela Rigley 18 August 2016 © Diana Milne July 2016 ©
It was lovely talking to you, Diana. Thank you so much.
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