Q&A with marianne rosen about her new novel The Doors of Riverdell

Give us a brief description of your book, The Doors of Riverdell.

The Doors of Riverdell explores what it means to have a home, to be part of a family and to live with individuality. It weaves in and out of the distant past, recent past and present of the troubled Threlfall family as the future of their home is thrown into question by the death of the heir. The story is split around three main characters, Isabelle, Moth and Kit, and how their past impacts upon their emotions. It is centred on Riverdell House in the historic rural town of Ludlow, England but also incorporates a travelogue in Europe.

Where did the story start?

At the beginning the house was a lot clearer than the family or the plot. I drew floor plans, created colour schemes, wrote up the history of pictures and furniture. That was the easy part, then I had to spend a year just listening to my characters before the story really came together. Listening to them made me understand how the world expects us to fit very narrow pathways. Every way we turn we’re told how to act, think, behave and that comes strongest from our families. It takes a huge amount of courage to really be true to yourself. I was also heartily sick of the strong woman trope. I was tired of opening a book knowing that the protagonist was already equipped to answer the challenge. I wanted my characters to be as messy and contradictory as the families I’d worked for. 

The Doors of Riverdell has a character who sews for a living. Is she based upon you?

No. Not at all. A lot of the time I wanted to shake Isabelle, she’s terribly indecisive! But, in the same way that Riverdell is a Frankenstein of all the houses I have worked in, I wanted to give all of my characters a slice of real life. All of them are connected to someone I have known, even if in the smallest of mannerisms. To Isabelle, I gave my love of sewing and craft, as a way of letting go of what I was giving up and as a way of remaining connected to the incredibly gifted, meticulous craftspeople I have shared my working life with.

And this is the first in a series?

Yes. My need to make things on a large scale apparently moved careers with me! The first draft came out at a whopping 295,000 words! My heartless editor, Peter Salmon, trawled his way through the whole MS and got out his scissors. In the end we realised it was going to be a four-book series, with the distant past sections being narrated by four childhood friends as they reveal their influence on the present characters. Book 2 is coming out in April 2021. The third and final books are being polished now and will follow at six months intervals. I’m a huge fan of series, so I know how important it is to complete the process for a reader.

The narrative structure of the novel is precise. Can you tell us about your methods?

The book follows a set structure of moving between four narrative perspectives. The first one is the distant past, then each main character, Moth, Isabelle and Kit, are the focus of a section. This was challenging to keep on track and I ended up unpicking the writing process into narrative chunks, before stitching them all back together. It was the only way I could keep the voices of the characters true. I didn’t want to be there, as an author, or a narrator in the text. I wanted them to tell their own stories, in the way that I think we can only ever know our own stories, from the inside out. Clarity, the kind of clarity that frank feedback can give us, is denied the characters, as it is mostly denied us in real life. The result has been called nuanced and intimate and I certainly wanted the intimate moments of the book to be experienced intimately by both the characters and the readers.

Talking of intimacy, you don’t shy from this in the novel.

Yes, there is a lot of steam in the book. I hope I’m not going to win any awards for awful sex writing! I also hope I’m never going to be asked to read those sections out. The importance of sexual liberty against the expectations of our family backgrounds was crucial. My characters are doing a lot of ‘unsuitable’ stuff and I love them for it. I wanted to give my readers hope that no matter what their backgrounds, or formative experiences, or current relationship, they could find a way to explore their desires, those deemed suitable and unsuitable.

The setting of The Doors of Riverdell adds a further intimacy to the book, doesn’t it?

I chose to set it in my local town of Ludlow because I think this small town is both unique and universal. Ludlow is a medieval border town, famous as the castle where King Henry VIII’s older brother died, and now known for its slow living and culinary reputation. Its historic roots are constantly reinventing themselves. You can’t help but fall in love with its charm and yet, beneath the pretty facades and behind the ancient doorways, are real families with modern difficulties.

The house does not actually exist, although the location is 100% real. You can go to the cafe on the Dinham weir in Ludlow and pretend you are sitting in the garden at Riverdell. It helped to have the town to visualise as I crafted the story. I love that you can go to the train station, the hillside viewpoints, or walk the Dinham weir or see the house that Mrs Staines lives in. You can literally follow Isabelle’s path as she walks home in the first chapter, and the bridges and river of Ludlow form a constant thematic backdrop to the story.

How is the idea of home particular in this book?

Maya Angelou said, ‘The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.’ The Doors of Riverdell asks, what if the place you call home is not safe? Or you are questioned there? Or you can’t go there?

What was the most challenging part of writing this book?

Definitely the intimate scenes. It’s quite a challenge to write outside of your own experiences, and to do so with humility about your own ignorance. My characters range from fourteen to sixty-eight, across the sexuality spectrum. I had to do a lot of research. I had to reach past my own invisible biases, look at them from the other side. I know I won’t have got it all right, but I’m hoping I’ve done it with integrity. To be honest, though, it was also some of the most fun to write too!

What can readers expect to get from this book?

LeToya Luckett said, ‘Love is never easy. It never is. And I’m not just talking about girl and guy, girlfriend, boyfriend, husband and wife. I’m talking about family, friends – all of that.’ All of that is what you’ll find in my book, along with plenty of steam! Love is never easy and it is vast. If you’re wondering if it’s worth it, I hope you’ll come on this great quest with me to find out.