Brighton-based novelist Josie Lloyd dives into cosy crime with the launch of a new series of books.
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00:00Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers. Always lovely
00:06to speak to Josie Lloyd. And Josie, you just happen to be holding the new book, and this
00:11is the first in a really super exciting sounding series. You are introducing a new sleuth,
00:18Miss Beaton. Who is she? How does she get involved in murder?
00:22Oh, well, thank you so much for having me, Phil. It's so nice to be able to introduce
00:27Miss Beaton's murder agency. This book came about when I was clearing out my mum's cupboard
00:32and I came across her copy of Mrs. Beaton. Mrs. Beaton was a very famous Victorian writer
00:40who wrote a book called The Book of Household Management, which was all about teaching people
00:45how to run a proper household. And she became a sort of byword for things done properly
00:50and good home baking. And so I have invented Alice Beaton, who is a very distant relative
00:55of the famous Mrs. Beaton.
00:57And she's inherited those qualities, clearly.
00:59Yes, she's inherited those qualities. And she runs the Good Household Management Agency
01:03in London. And she places staff, elite staff, in the posh households of Knightsbridge and
01:09Country Piles. So in Alice's Rolodex, she's got, you know, she's quite old fashioned.
01:14She's got maids, chauffeurs, nannies, housekeepers, mixologists, she's got everyone. So she's
01:19got a whole raft of people that come to her agency and she kind of places them. And this
01:24lovely young woman, Enya, comes just before Christmas at a time when Camille Messon, who's
01:30a very famous society person with her husband in a very posh house, needs a new housekeeper.
01:38So with great aplomb, Alice sends off Enya to work at the Messons. But then on New Year's
01:45Eve, Miss Beaton gets the call that Enya has been found murdered in the Messons study.
01:51And now she has to find out why. So, of course, she's a great fan of crime fiction. But she's
01:58like an armchair detective.
02:01So what's going to make her a good detective?
02:04Well, the thing is, she's going to get completely out of her depth because she has to go in
02:07and find out why. And she has to use her wits and she has to find out clues. But it's not
02:12like it is in crime fiction that she reads. And she's got a little dog called Agatha,
02:15named after Agatha Christie. So she's got some great references to her. But real life
02:20is not how Alice would really like to find it. So it's a really fun adventure.
02:27And I've used Alice's, all of Alice's friends, but also I've put loads of recipes in the
02:32books because I love a recipe in a book. And so I've put in Mrs. Beaton's original recipes
02:37for things like Christmas pudding and Christmas plum cake. But I've also put in the recipes
02:41that Alice comes along as well. So it's Tiffin and all sorts of things like that. So it's
02:45broken up with recipes as she kind of sets about her murder investigation.
02:51It sounds fantastic. So the new one, the first one, the first in the series is out this October,
02:57paperback this time next year, two years time, it will be number two in the series, won't it?
03:03Yes, that's right. And I'm just sort of like going about planning that now. But the world
03:08of Alice is so rich because she's got all these wonderful characters around her. And
03:12she runs the agency with her best friend Jinx, who is a sort of lapsed it girl from the 90s,
03:16who's got loads and loads of contacts, and is quite posh. So she's quite fun. And then there's
03:22down to earth Helly, who's the Yorkshire, very dour receptionist. And she's got a whole bunch
03:28of friends that are around. So it's a great world to set up all these characters so I can use them
03:32all again. So it's been an absolute joy to write. I mean, as I mean, I would say that eating and
03:40writing are two of my great pleasures. Writing this book has been a dream.
03:44Fantastic. It sounds brilliant. Really lovely to speak to you again. Thank you.
03:50Thanks, Bill.