Stacey Halls: The Monster in the House

(photo: Ollie Grove)

Stacey Halls is a journalist and bestselling novelist who grew up in Lancashire, England. No stranger to historical fiction and atmospheric country homes, her previous novels, The Familiars and The Foundling, explore the tense and often fraught roles of women in relation to power in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries in Britain. Mrs. England, her third novel, will be published in the U.S. by Mira on April 12, 2022.

What initially sparked the idea for Mrs. England?

Two things: the setting of Hardcastle Crags in the Calder Valley of West Yorkshire, and coercive control. The former is a place very dear to me: an unusual, peaceful yet dramatic landscape of moors and crags and rivers and woods, with a 19th-century mill at the heart of it and heaps of atmosphere. And coercive control had been rattling around in my head ever since it was made a criminal offence in the U.K. in 2015; the definition is "controlling or coercive behavior in an intimate or family relationship." It interested me that behavior that has been prevalent since the beginning of time has now been classified and recognized, and I wanted to write something that explored it before anyone had that awareness.

What made Ruby the character you wanted to explore in this new novel?

I thought the position of a nanny, or a children's nurse as they were called in 1904, was a uniquely interesting one. It's neither servant nor family member, occupying the sometimes awkward space in between. Nursing would have been a thankless, friendless job, with none of the camaraderie or hierarchy of "downstairs"; Norland nurses were not permitted to eat with or mix with the servants. Along with the access they had to the master and mistress, who didn't really know anything about them, though they were with their children 24/7, it's a position ripe with tension.

What were you interested to learn more about while researching Mrs. England?

I found myself poring over anything I could find about Norland nurses. The college was the first of its kind to give women a qualification for childcare. It was founded in Kensington in the 1890s by a businesswoman called Emily Ward and was (and still is) the crème de la crème of childcare. The royal family and mega-rich employ them, Mary Poppins was based on one, and they are distinguished by their iconic uniforms. Nurses and nannies are common in literature, particularly children's and Victorian, but always fade into the background; sometimes they're even nameless. I wanted to make a heroine of one.

This is such an atmospheric book, as well as quite haunting. How did you approach crafting the slow-burning tension in the novel and what inspired its creepier elements?

Thank you! It took a lot of redrafting, because I haven't written anything slow-burning before. I had to balance the plot with pace and mystery and tension, so it took several attempts and lots of character work. Mrs. England is the least plot-driven of my novels, so I knew I had to keep people reading when the characters aren't racing around trying to find things out or escaping from villains. There had to be that element of "the monster in the house," though Ruby isn't sure who the monster is, if there is one at all. I wanted to create this sense of the ground constantly shifting beneath her, which is a term victims of control use. As well, she has a secret of her own that could destroy her if it's revealed, so the drip-feeding of that is a parallel mystery.

What made characters like Mr. Booth and Sim seem essential to you in writing Ruby's story?

I thought it was important to have someone who brings Ruby out of herself and challenges her morality. Mr. Booth is engaged to Blaise, the housemaid, and if he hadn't been, she might have allowed herself to fall in love with him, but she wants to do what's right. I'd always planned to have them share a kiss, and wrote it into the first draft, but it didn't seem right: once I knew Ruby properly, it was clear to me she just wouldn't do it. I like being surprised by my characters in that way; they do take on a life and will of their own. Sim--Norland's principal, Miss Simpson--is Ruby's idol, and represents everything that is good and neat and safe. I feel like all supporting characters must act as mirrors held up to the main characters, to an extent; they are the only way we see the protagonists interacting and reacting, which shows us who they are, so they must be created with that in mind.

What was your biggest obstacle in writing Mrs. England?

Oh, where do I start? I think the fact that I finished the first draft at the start of the pandemic helped. But when it came to writing drafts two, three and four and working on the edits, I was locked up in my garret like the rest of the world. I always find the second draft more difficult and time-consuming than the first, because that's when you really have to figure out what the book is and what you're trying to do with it. The first draft is sort of a dress rehearsal, for me anyway. And though my day-to-day life didn't change much as I work from home, I've found the events of the last 18 months hugely impactful on my work. My concentration went out the window, my creativity down the drain. I've spent most of this year in a sort of apathetic procrastination. I suspect I'm not alone in that.

What other books, authors, or sources did you turn to while you were writing?

I read lots of Daphne Du Maurier to try and work out how she does slow-burning menace, because she is the master of it. If I could only read one author for the rest of my life, it would be her. I watched the 1940 film Gaslight and read books and watched documentaries on domestic abuse and coercive control. I also took a course on domestic violence called the Freedom Programme, which helps victims and individuals identify types of abuse. That was quite frightening, because you can see how it starts small and escalates gradually into this situation that you just feel entirely powerless in, where you start to think you're the problem. In Mrs. England, Ruby starts to conflate the Englands' behavior with something that happened in her own past: she can't see straight. There's a common misconception that victims of abuse understand or ought to understand what is happening to them.

Are you working on any other projects?

I've begun writing my fourth book, which is set in the mid-19th century and, like all my books, centers around a house and some women. This one is another fictional retelling of real events. That's all I'll say for now! --Alice Martin

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