Kate Atkinson in Conversation

Author promotional photos credit: Doubleday.  All other photos belong to Girl Well Read — do not use without written permission.

Ben McNally Books and Doubleday Canada celebrated the release of Kate Atkinson's newest novel, Transcription. Kate engaged the audience with a reading and then spoke with Rachel Giese to talk about her writing process, inspiration, and what makes her novels so unique.

Atkinson's inspiration came from seeing the MI5 releases, she thought it would make a great story.  Godfrey Toby is her version of the "shadowy" and "slippery" MI5 agent, Eric Roberts whose alias was Jackson King, a bank clerk from Surrey.

Juliet Armstrong is her vehicle to make it fictional.  She is "the girl".  Atkinson described her as being a smart character, but with an incredibly active imagination.  Juliet lied throughout her interview because she didn't want the job, feeling that it is clerical and boring, and ended up being recruited.

Atkinson went on to say that all women are spies, we are the secret keepers.

Did the tradition of the classic British novel loom while you were writing Transcription?

"It was fun to put those cliches in and work within that framework, but really I was guessing the framework.  It's not really a spy novel, they just happen to be spies."  Atkinson said she never really read any spy novels—her story is more about the interesting dynamic between the four characters.

Atkinson says that she forgot to give her characters gas masks and that there were a few other overlooked details.  She spoke of the cliched spy items (invisible ink, letter drops, etc.) that were included because they were cutting edge at the time.

Do you think it was possible that people could leave the war and have a clear conscience?

"I think everyone in this book believes that they're doing the right thing, even if it's quite clear that they're not."

What is next?

"I finished a book several weeks ago.  It brings back characters from previous novels."  That book is Big Sky and is another Jackson Brodie installment—watch for the return of Reggie and her favourite character, Tatiana.

Transcription

In 1940, eighteen-year old Juliet Armstrong is reluctantly recruited into the world of espionage. Sent to an obscure department of MI5 tasked with monitoring the comings and goings of British Fascist sympathizers, she discovers the work to be by turns both tedious and terrifying. But after the war has ended, she presumes the events of those years have been relegated to the past forever.

Ten years later, now a radio producer at the BBC, Juliet is unexpectedly confronted by figures from her past. A different war is being fought now, on a different battleground, but Juliet finds herself once more under threat. A bill of reckoning is due, and she finally begins to realize that there is no action without consequence.

Transcription is a work of rare depth and texture, a bravura modern novel of extraordinary power, wit and empathy. It is a triumphant work of fiction from one of the best writers of our time.

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KATE ATKINSON won the Whitbread (now Costa) Book of the Year prize with her first novel, Behind the Scenes at the Museum.

Her four bestselling novels featuring former detective Jackson Brodie became the BBC television series Case Histories, starring Jason Isaacs.

The international sensation Life After Life was one of The New York Times's 10 Best Books of 2013, won the Costa Novel Award and the South Bank Sky Arts Literature Prize, and was shortlisted for the Women's Prize. Her companion novel, A God in Ruins, also won the Costa Novel Award and was an international bestseller.

Atkinson was appointed MBE in the 2011 Queen's Birthday Honours List, and was voted Waterstones UK Author of the Year at the 2013 Specsavers National Book Awards.