A series running for the next few weeks
where my guests are female writers
talking about their female characters
(and yes, I'll be doing the chaps next!)
Today:
Susan Grossey
and her character
Martha Plank
When I started writing the first of my Sam Plank novels, I did not know that it was going to be that: “the first of my Sam Plank novels”. In the first draft, the narrator was the banker at the heart of the story while Sam was just a bit player. And it was going to be a standalone book – I had no idea about a series. But one day I made a fateful decision: I realised that the story would be better told by the magistrates’ constable who arrested the banker. And by the time I finished that rewrite, I had fallen in love with my narrator and decided to write another few books simply so that I could spend more time with him. But I was only ever the second woman in his life, because standing alongside Sam Plank throughout the series has been his wife Martha.
I realised quite quickly that Sam would need someone to confide in – not least to explain to the reader his thought processes as he sets about unravelling various financial crimes. And although he has a junior constable, William Wilson, for the work stuff, he needed someone more personal for his moments of introspection and uncertainty – and so Martha pushed her way into the spotlight. She would disagree stoutly with that description, but it felt that way to me: her increased presence in the books was inevitable.
By the time we meet Sam and Martha in 1824, they have been married for nearly a quarter of a century. It is a childless marriage, which is a sadness to them both – and an important element of the plots of two of the books. They are perhaps closer than many couples (both then and now) but I am very careful not to make them a modern couple: Sam is the breadwinner and the decision-maker when it comes to their interaction with the outside world, but Martha is the still calmness at the centre of it all.
So what can I tell you about Martha? She is the daughter of an innkeeper who drank the profits, which left her with a distrust of strong drink. She was illiterate until she met Sam, but now they enjoy reading together – and he is justly proud of his intelligent wife. She is a good cook (readers tell me that Sam refers to her pies perhaps more often than he should) and a compassionate person. She knows that the life of a constable is difficult and unpredictable and she provides Sam with encouragement when he needs it and criticism when he deserves it. She likes nothing better than a stroll through the exciting streets of London on the arm of her handsome husband, looking at the finery in the shop windows. And with just one question or observation, she can prise open Sam’s investigations and reveal the nub of the issue.
At the start I intended her as a sounding-board for Sam but she quickly outgrew that limited role and now every time I tell readers that a new Sam Plank book is on the way, the cry goes up for “more Martha”! Perhaps I shall have to embark on a Martha Plank series… (And in case you’re wondering, no, that’s not a naked Martha on the cover of “Portraits Of Pretence”!)
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Martha (and Sam) are such wonderful creations! They would be an ideal couple in any age but here they represent a side of pre-Victorian life that we don't see often.
ReplyDeleteThat's a lovely comment, Richard - thank you. Yes, I think the ordinary home life of people in that time is rarely addressed - it's all dukes and soldiers, and very little "man in the street".
DeleteThat's exactly what I meant, Susan!!
DeleteThank you so much, Helen, for your unstinting support for and promotion of the Sam Plank novels - I can't tell you how much comfort I take from both.
ReplyDelete