Storytelling magic: an interview with Judith Eagle
With an established reputation for immersive, atmospheric storytelling, inspired by classic authors such as Noel Streatfeild and E Nesbit, Judith Eagle has built up an eager following of readers. Her new book, The Great Theatre Rescue, is likely to win her even more fans. Joy Court, herself an admirer, interviewed Judith about the book for Books for Keeps.
It took quite a while for Judith Eagle to fulfil a request from Mr Mark, her Year 6 teacher, that she dedicate her first book to him. But an early creativity and ‘wide and indiscriminate reading’, encouraged by her two librarian parents, finally stood her in good stead. After a career in fashion and features journalism and an epiphany which took her to work in a school library, reigniting her passion for children’s literature, she enrolled on a part time MA in Children’s Literature, joined a writing group and in 2019 The Secret Starling was published. Since then, Judith has produced a book a year, establishing herself as a favourite writer of historical, mystery adventures. ‘I’m writing for my 11-year-old self’, she says, ‘With all the elements that I would have loved as a child.’
Her latest novel, The Great Theatre Rescue, set in 1930’s London Theatreland, vividly captures some other of her lifelong passions, this time for music and dance. ‘Growing up I loved to sing and dance. I dreamed of a career on the stage but in reality, I was far too shy to ever realise that dream!’ She was however lucky enough to be a frequent visitor to London’s theatres with her parents: ‘I literally used to get tingles on our outings …. The sense of all my nerve endings sparking, my whole body becoming alive and enervated. I wanted to somehow embody those feelings in a book.’ This she certainly does with the story of Charley, who has grown up behind the stage of the tiny Wren Theatre, but whose dreams of performing herself one day are shattered when the theatre is threatened with closure. In a page turning adventure, she must escape from a nightmarish boarding school, with the help of her new friend Jewel, discover the truth about her foundling father’s origins and defeat the dastardly villain who has been in the background all along.
When I ask about her writing process and inspiration, Judith confesses ‘I don’t do plot planning.’ Before beginning her MA, she worried that ‘I had lost my imagination’, which perhaps explains the appeal of historical stories and the research that she can mine for ‘the treasure trove of real-life stories.’ Amongst the ‘patchwork quilt’ of ideas behind this latest book was the story of Michael Maddox, founder of the Bolshoi, a baby who survived a shipwreck, washed up on shore in a basket, learnt the trumpet and tightrope walking before ending up in Moscow. Her jazz-loving husband showed her videos of the Nicholas Brothers, famous tap dancers of the 20’s and 30’s. ‘Charley would have wanted to be like them’ (and not just Charley, Judith also owns up to going to tap dancing classes!) Finding out that Duke Ellington came to London in 1933 was a ‘serendipitous’ plot bonus.
Judith still lives in London and loves to walk around the city. Down by Shad Thames, she discovered Horselydown Old Stairs, ‘these slimy green steps leading down to the Thames’ and thought, ‘I’ve got to write a story which is set in this place’ Redolent of Charles Dickens, they became the setting for the book’s prologue and where Toby, Charley’s father is found. She also discovered the grim basis for his story and the ‘babysnatchers’ that existed at the time, learning that ‘A baby had been snatched outside a house in Duke Street’ at the heart of her chosen setting. She studied old photos and paintings and pored over Bacon’s Atlas Guide to London to build her mental image of setting for her story. She tries to read not just books about the period, but also the books that her characters would have read. In Charley’s case this was mainly Just William.
So how about the characters that spring to life so vividly on her pages? Her love of Dickens reveals itself in some of the supporting cast, not least the Fagin-like baddie, Mabbs, but she delights that at least her Nancy (Jewel’s downtrodden mother), ‘has a chance’. But Charley definitely came from her reading of Charley by Joan G Robinson, as well as from her own thwarted theatrical ambitions. In a favourite book, A Vicarage Family by Noel Streatfeild, there is a young cook called Annie. ‘The image of this skinny tough, black-haired girl determined to acquire a family stayed with me and manifested herself in Jewel!’ Both girls were influenced by her love ‘for a brave indomitable heroine.’ Motherless only child Charley is a wonderfully flawed and relatable central character, and the reader cannot help but be swept along by her moving journey to accepting Jewel’s friendship and by Jewel finding her ‘family’. ‘It’s always my aim be able to move readers so that they can enjoy having a good cry!’, she explains.
With ideas, place and people decided, she then spends ‘ages over the first chapter, getting the voice right’. Each morning ‘I think about where I am in the book and just picture it in my mind and picture the scene unfolding as though I’m watching a film.’ Her visual sensibility, no doubt honed by her days in fashion, captures wonderful detail in costume and interiors and she loves writing about food too: ‘a really good way of placing the story in time ..I want the reader’s mouth to be watering’ She admits too, that she loves a ‘jaw- dropping plot twist’ and recalls gasping out loud reading Fingersmith by Sarah Waters: ‘I thought then if I ever write a book, I would love to be able to do that to readers’ and so in all her books she aims for that gasp-out-loud moment. At the same time, she is determined ‘to make the implausible, plausible … I really strive to make my stories believable.’ Indeed, all the elements of this intriguing mystery are satisfactorily and credibly resolved, Charley even learning to overcome her performance fears with the real-life advice of Duke Ellington.
Though she claims not to think of themes when she is writing, reflecting on The Great Theatre Rescue, she says, ‘it is all about celebrating the power of music and dance,’ and adds ‘Neuroscientists believe that making and listening and moving to music can make us better. It is essential to our wellbeing and key to self-expression. Music is what brings Charley and Jewel together and when they perform, it feels so right, it’s like magic!’ This is an author who has shown once again that she undoubtedly has the equally potent gift of storytelling magic, and I am already eagerly anticipating her next adventure, which is whispered to be set in World War 2, though readers will have to wait until 2026.
Joy Court is a trustee of The United Kingdom Literacy Association (UKLA), co-founder of All Around Reading and Conference Manager for CILIP Youth Libraries Group. She is a Past Chair of the CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals.
The Great Theatre Rescue is published by Faber, 978-0571363308, £7.99 pbk.
