Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Desert Island Discs
Presented by Roy Plomley
Prolific historical novelist who has published about fifty books spanning the Tudor and Stuart eras, and also writes Gothic fiction as Victoria Holt.
Eight records
The keepsakes
The luxury
Not recorded.
In conversation
Presenter asks
How old were you when you developed this fascination for the past which has stood you in such good stead?
I don't know how old I was. I think it was always with me. I think I discovered it when I first went to Hampton Court when I was about seventeen, and I really felt the fascination of that place and it just gripped me. And I think perhaps then I knew subconsciously that I had to write historical novels.
Presenter asks
What was the turning point?
The turning point was when I was selling my stories to the Daily Mail and the Evening News, and the fiction editor there was a very kind man, and he became an agent. And he said to me, ‘Now, look here, why don't you write something which is saleable? … Why don't you write some romantic novels, lightish romantic novels?’ So I took his advice and I did, and I wrote some of these. And then I wrote my first historical novel.
Presenter asks
When you go off on a cruise around the world, how many books do you come back with?
Well, usually only one, because I write in my cabin in the mornings only. … I really am working very, very hard on publicity in the various ports that I need a little bit of relaxation on board. So I if I come back with one book I should say that's pretty good.
The recording
Timestamps play the recording from that turn
Jean Plaidy
This download is the only extract the BBC has of this edition of Desert Island Discs. The presenter was Roy Plumley.
Presenter
Miss Plady, are you a Londoner?
Jean Plaidy
Yes.
Presenter
How old were you when you developed this fascination for the for the past which has stood you in such good stead?
Jean Plaidy
I don't know how old I was. I think it was always with me. I think I discovered it when I first went to Hampton Court when I was about seventeen, and I really felt the fascination of that place and it just gripped me. And I think perhaps then I knew subconsciously that I had to write historical novels.
Presenter
You had that ambition as early as that.
Jean Plaidy
I had the ambition to write, but I didn't know very much about it. When I started writing I wrote nine novels, none of which were published. And now this is not quite so depressing as it sounds, because at the same time I was writing short stories and I was rather successful with those. I sold them to the Daily Mail and the Evening News and papers like that, so that I was selling something while I was writing those novels.
Presenter
Now what was the turning point?
Jean Plaidy
Well, the turning point was when I was selling my stories to the Daily Mail and the Evening News, and the fiction editor there was a very kind man, and he became an agent. And he said to me, Now, look here, why don't you write something which is saleable? You know you want to be a novelist, that's your ultimate ambition, which was so. He said, Why don't you write some romantic novels, lightish romantic novels? So I took his advice and I did, and I wrote some of these. And then I wrote my first historical novel.
Jean Plaidy
Which was actually it wasn't a historical novel really, it was a period novel and it was set in Australia. I hadn't been to Australia at that time.
Jean Plaidy
But um I was writing about Australia of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, and I thought, well, my view of uh Sydney is probably as good as anyone who who lives there and has the modern city imposed on their their view of it. And um this book was a moderate success. Not a big success, but quite a moderate success. It was a promising start, shall we say.
Presenter
I know Jean Plady isn't your real name. Was this the first time you used it?
Jean Plaidy
That was the first time I used it, yes, yes. And it was given to me by this agent, because at that time I was living at a place called Plady in Cornwall, and he wanted a new name for me, and he said, Well, she's living at Plady, and Jean doesn't take up much room on the back of a book, so we call her Jean Plady.
Presenter
Now Jean Plady made her first appearance with Beyond the Blue Mountains. How many books does she write a year?
Jean Plaidy
She publishes two. She may write more. Depends where she is. But two we have publication dates at the beginning of the year, in the spring and in the autumn.
Presenter
All historical novel.
Jean Plaidy
His diary book novels, yes.
Presenter
How many has she written?
Jean Plaidy
Or about fifty. Maybe a little more. But around about fifty.
Presenter
But raw
Presenter
Covering which period?
Jean Plaidy
Well, speaking chronologically.
Jean Plaidy
The first one is uh about Edward the Fourth and Richard the Third, and that's about that's about fourteen eighty or something like that. And the last one I wrote ends in nineteen hundred one with the with the death of Victoria. It's not published yet, but it ends there. So I've covered quite a wide uh field.
Presenter
Yeah.
Presenter
Five
Presenter
About four hundred and fifty years. Which is Miss Blady's favourite period?
Jean Plaidy
Yeah, which
Jean Plaidy
Well, it's always the one you're writing about at the time. It's very difficult to say which is the favourite. I think the Tudor period is a wonderful period for a writer.
Jean Plaidy
And also the Stuart period. They're not periods which I would like to live in, but they're wonderful for the historical novelist.
Presenter
Yes. She's also written a few non-fiction books.
Jean Plaidy
Yes, I've written three books on the Spanish Inquisition, the Rise, the Growth, and the End, and also a book of short biographies of poisoners.
Presenter
Mm-hmm.
Presenter
Now all Gene Clady's books, although fiction, have been carefully researched. The backgrounds are authentic.
Jean Plaidy
Oh, yes, yes, yes. They are authentic history in the form of the novel, really.
Presenter
Yes. I've been referring to Jean Plady in the third person because she's only half of a literary split personality. You're also Victoria Holt.
Jean Plaidy
Yeah.
Jean Plaidy
Yes.
Presenter
Miss Holt also writes historical novels of a rather different style.
Jean Plaidy
Well, I don't call them historical novels. They're what we call the Gothic novel.
Presenter
Mm.
Jean Plaidy
And they have fictitious characters set against a period background. It's an authentic background, but it's period as as uh uh compared with historical you know what I mean.
Presenter
In other words,
Jean Plaidy
A vague background. Yes, ev everything that uh the the things they use are the things that would be used at that time, but history does not really play a big part in it.
Presenter
Yes. Miss Holt is not so prolific as Miss Playdiff.
Jean Plaidy
Miss Holt publishes one book a year. Miss Padie publishes two.
Presenter
Which lady sells better?
Jean Plaidy
It depends in what part of the world you're in. Jean Plady sells very well here, particularly in the paperbacks. Pan publish the paperbacks and they sell quantities of them of the various titles. In America, Victoria Holt is a bestseller, and my nec the not not the last one, because the figures haven't come out for that yet, but the one before was one of the ten bestsellers of the year in the United States.
Presenter
Well, you've described the difference in in in the types of the novels. Do the two ladies aim at different sorts of readers?
Jean Plaidy
They don't really aim at anything because I never work mechanically. I never think I'm aiming at this, that.
Jean Plaidy
or or that sort of thing. I just sit down and and and write a piece of life, something that is I want is in me and I want to get out.
Jean Plaidy
But they are different publics, of course. Jean Plaidy's public are people who like history or want to learn something about it or know something about it and want to polish up what they already know. Victoria Holt readers are largely women. Jean Plaidys are both sexes, all ages. Victoria Holts are all ages, but women mainly. And they want a good story. They want to lose themselves in a story.
Presenter
Add
Jean Plaidy
They want characters whom they can love or hate, but there must always be one with whom they can identify themselves and feel sympathy for.
Presenter
Yes. In other words, Miss Holt is more advisedly commercial in in in approach.
Jean Plaidy
Well, I don't know. I never think of the commercial side of it at all. I don't think one could ever write successfully and think of how many people are going to buy one's books. One never writes with one's tongue in one's cheek. The essence of success is sincerity, and that is always before one.
Presenter
Yes.
Presenter
Miss Plady, how do you plan your writing day?
Jean Plaidy
I'm very regular in my habits. I get up rather early, particularly when I'm in the country, and I'm in the country for the summer usually. I write for about five hours every day, not five hours right off, because there are all sorts of little things one has to get up and do, domestic things and so on.
Jean Plaidy
and my five hours is spread over the day.
Jean Plaidy
And all my proofreading and research does not encroach on those five hours. It's five hours sheer writing, but it's regularly at my desk every morning. I don't get tired uh writing, actual writing. I find it very stimulating, but the working hard at the typewriter can be rather a physical strain.
Presenter
You work straight on the typewriter.
Jean Plaidy
I work straight onto the typewriter, but I'm the world's worst typist, and uh I have a typist who does it all properly afterwards.
Presenter
How much revising do you do?
Jean Plaidy
Quite a bit, really. Although I think it all comes out when I'm very, very excited. I think that's how you should write a novel. You sit down, you just pour it out, and you don't stop.
Jean Plaidy
To to wonder whether you've got your sentences round the right way. You just get on and get it. The story is the main thing, the characters and so on. How many days a week do you work?
Jean Plaidy
Well, I will work any day, but of course there are social engagements and things which crop up and and which can uh encroach on days quite a bit. But I do work every day, if I'm at home.
Presenter
Seven days a week.
Jean Plaidy
Seven days a week, yes.
Presenter
So you could be described as a compulsive writer. I'm absolutely a compulsive writer.
Presenter
You write sometimes in London, sometimes in the country. You like to go to a warmer climate for the winter.
Jean Plaidy
Yes, I do, and I find this is very profitable because I go round the world usually. I've been round the world about seven or eight times, I think, and I leave in January and come home in April, which is a lovely time to come home to this country. But when I go round the world I meet publishers and the public and do assigning sessions, and I've just been launching my latest Victoria Holt, The Shadow of the Links, which is set about forty miles north of Melbourne, so I did quite a lot in Melbourne for this book.
Presenter
When you go off on a cruise around the world, how many books do you come back with?
Jean Plaidy
Well, usually only one, because I write in my cabin in the mornings only. And um of course there is so much to do at the various ports. I really am working very, very hard on publicity in the various ports that I need a little bit of relaxation on board. So I if I come back with one book I should say that's pretty good.
Presenter
Yes. Now because of your large output and because your books are classified under the heading um romantic fiction, you're ignored largely by the critics. Does that worry you?
Jean Plaidy
No, it doesn't worry me in the least, because I have my dear, faithful public who are waiting on my books, and and some of them write to me and say, Why don't you write more?
Jean Plaidy
You're not, it doesn't take us six months to read a book. Why don't you produce more? So I'm not the least bit worried about the critics. I don't think they're important to me at all.
Presenter
You laugh all the way to the cruise ship.
Jean Plaidy
That's right.
Presenter
Miss Blady, what are your interests other than literary?
Jean Plaidy
Well, I don't really have any. I don't have time really. I have to do such a lot of research. I spend my time at libraries, going through letters, and so on. I have very little time for anything else. I do like a game of chess if I can get hold of a partner.
Presenter
I see.
Presenter
but no pursuits that might be useful to a castaway.
Jean Plaidy
Well, I'm afraid not.
Presenter
On all your travels abroad, have you visited any places that'll give you some ideas for putting up a shelter, and could you put up a shelter?
Jean Plaidy
Well, I don't think I'd be very good at at putting up a shelter. I can't see myself chopping down a palm tree, but I think I'd make some sort of refuge with the branches and leaves, something to crawl in. Yes, I have been to islands, which would be desert islands if you push the people off them.
Jean Plaidy
The one I particularly like is Linderman Island and the Barrier Reef, which is an absolute paradise of a place if I had to go there.
Presenter
And one I think.
Jean Plaidy
Um I would like to go to that one.
Presenter
What about food ever done in fishing?
Jean Plaidy
No, I don't do I wouldn't do any fishing, because uh I wouldn't like to kill them. I should hate to catch a fish and have it looking at me with those awful eyes. But if there's plenty of fruit I shall be all right, because I practically live on oranges now, so if you can provide oranges and coconuts I'll be perfectly happy.
Presenter
Uh
Presenter asks
Because of your large output and because your books are classified under the heading romantic fiction, you're ignored largely by the critics. Does that worry you?
No, it doesn't worry me in the least, because I have my dear, faithful public who are waiting on my books … some of them write to me and say, ‘Why don't you write more? … You're not, it doesn't take us six months to read a book. Why don't you produce more?’ So I'm not the least bit worried about the critics. I don't think they're important to me at all.
“I think the Tudor period is a wonderful period for a writer … and also the Stuart period. They're not periods which I would like to live in, but they're wonderful for the historical novelist.”
“The essence of success is sincerity, and that is always before one.”
“I think it all comes out when I'm very, very excited. I think that's how you should write a novel. You sit down, you just pour it out, and you don't stop.”
“I should hate to catch a fish and have it looking at me with those awful eyes. But if there's plenty of fruit I shall be all right, because I practically live on oranges now, so if you can provide oranges and coconuts I'll be perfectly happy.”