Chichester novelist Kate Mosse completes epic cycle of historic novels
An epic tale spanning continents and centuries comes to a conclusion with the publication of The Map of Bones.
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00:00Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sausage Newspapers. Always
00:05a fabulous pleasure to speak to Kate Moss, of course, but today, goodness, it feels like
00:09we're speaking at a really, really significant, maybe the most significant moment in your
00:15entire writing career. Oh, I don't know about that.
00:18You are completing an epic, a truly epic journey, aren't you?
00:22I am. This one, here it is, beautiful book, look at that, The Map of Bones.
00:27And the side, show the side. And the side. This is
00:29the independent bookshop edition, so if anybody wants a really special one,
00:33you have to order it from your local indie. Otherwise, all of the books are beautiful.
00:37It is the fourth and final novel in the Joubert family chronicles, which started
00:43in 2018 with The Burning Chambers, then The City of Tears, then The Ghost Ship,
00:47my pirate novel last year. And finally, I have arrived back where the inspiration for
00:51the story started in South Africa, in the 17th century and the 19th century.
00:57And it does feel really like the end of an era because the idea for this series of books,
01:04300 years of Huguenot history, a Romeo and Juliet story between a Catholic girl and a
01:09Protestant boy and their enemies and their family going through the generations,
01:13you know, it started, kind of the idea started percolating in me back in 2012, so it was 12
01:18years ago. So to have finally got to the end, and in The Map of Bones, which is a story about
01:25words, it's about the power of women passing down their stories from generation to generation.
01:30It's a story about pioneers arriving in a new land, South Africa, on the other side of the
01:35world and trying to build a new life when they fled from war and persecution. And yeah, writing
01:42is only going to get worse. When we first spoke about it, you were saying it was the furthest
01:46ahead that you'd ever looked as a writer. It was, yes. You'd never looked that far,
01:50into the future, had you? Never that far, no. And also, even though
01:55my earlier series, the trilogy, the Languedoc trilogy, Labyrinth, Sepulchre and Citadel,
02:00actually, I wrote Labyrinth, and then I wasn't quite done and I wrote Sepulchre and then I wasn't
02:05quite done and then I wrote Citadel. So they weren't planned as a series of books in quite
02:10the same way. This is the first time I planned like this. And hundreds of thousands of first
02:15letters. I finally got to the end. With an extra novel as well, though.
02:20Well, absolutely. An extra novel, because I thought it was going to be three and now it's four.
02:24And in this period of time, I've also written a very short novel for the Quick Weeds Literacy
02:29Programme and two non-fiction books. So when this novel comes out on the 10th of October,
02:35but you can pre-order it now, it'll be in the shops very soon, this will be seven books in
02:41six years. So, you know, I haven't been hanging about.
02:46You're about to do as you love to do, for obvious reasons, go on tour and talk about the book,
02:51but you're suspecting that once that publisher is finished, there might be a slight element
02:55of feeling a bit bereft, because it hasn't been a lot of your work, has it?
02:59I think I will. I think I'll feel a bit bereft, Phil, honestly, because I mean,
03:03I've been thinking of particularly the lead character in the first couple of books,
03:07Minouche Hubert, and now her descendants for such a long time. And they do feel very much
03:14part of this period of my life. You know, many huge things have happened personally to me in
03:19this period of time, apart from anything else, as it would for all of us in, you know, 12 year period.
03:26So I kind of look back on it and think, am I the same person I was when I started writing
03:30these books? And I think actually, in the end, you kind of are, you know, I've really loved
03:36loved writing. Yeah, exactly. You know, it's been it's been really fun. And the Maffa Bones
03:41is an old fashioned adventure story with a lot going on. Lots of chases across the South African
03:47countryside, lots of villains and baddies, as well as the goodies. And, you know, it's a race
03:51against time. And are you going to discover who is behind all of the things that are going on?
03:56You know, it's in a way, it's a kind of thriller. I mean, it's historical thriller. And I had great
04:00fun writing it. And I'm so much looking forward to readers having it in their hands and chatting
04:05to readers about it. And then I suspect come Christmas, I'll be like, a bit of a slump,
04:12go a bit sad. I will have earned it. I will have earned that mince pie. And then I will,
04:19then I'll think about 25 and all the fantastic projects that are coming up. And I've got a head.
04:24And that's the thing with being a writer. There's, as you know, Phil, there's always
04:28the next thing and you fall in love with the next idea and the next book and all of that. So,
04:33yeah, lots to look forward to.
04:35Congratulations on this.
04:37It was a monumental moment, a fabulous achievement.
04:41And look forward to speaking about what happens next.
04:43Absolutely. Fingers crossed.