Edinburgh International Book Festival: Louise Welsh

Louise Welsh’s event at this year's Edinburgh Book Festival was a variety box of delights, featuring readings from her latest book, a mini-masterclass in the craft of writing, thoughts on movie adaptations of books, and an exclusive preview of her next novel.

Chairing the event, Bob McDevitt described Louise’s latest book, The Girl on the Stairs as a haunting mystery story with some seriously creepy scenes. The main character, Jane, is expecting her first child. She and her partner Petra have moved to Berlin, where Jane encounters a girl in the neighbouring apartment whose relationship with her father generates unsettling questions. It’s the second time Louise has given Berlin a starring role in a novel, and she was asked about the city’s pulling power. “History is at the forefront, and Berlin is a city that’s been forced to confront its history; it’s something I think it has done rather well.” She stopped short of claiming to tune into the ghosts of the city’s past, but agreed that we give power in our minds to places where terrible things have taken place.

Responding to a question about how she writes, Louise described it as “sometimes like driving in the dark.” But she finds pre-planned structures and mind-maps helpful in charting her stories, although not to the point of turning her characters into puppets for the convenience of the plot. She agreed that cinema was a strong influence on her writing, perhaps explaining why reviews of her latest book have been favourably compared to Rosemary’s Baby and Don’t Look Now. Asked who she would want to direct an adaptation of The Girl on the Stairs, Louise tentatively suggested Roman Polanski – “but he’s probably too busy!” 

As a finale, Louise read an extract from her next book, opening with three apparently unconnected murders by a trio of unlikely killers. Which left her audience to ponder another mystery in the making. [James Carson]