Q&A with Poppy Alexander

 

 

 

Poppy Alexander is the author of the new novel The Battle of the Bookshops. Her other books include The Littlest Library. She lives in West Sussex, UK.

 

Q: What inspired you to write The Battle of the Bookshops, and how did you create your characters Jules and Roman?

 

A: So often I couldn’t even tell you the moment when a new book idea comes to me, but this one? Totally can… I live in the UK, and obviously the head of my editorial team, Tessa, is in the US. It was when we were on a Zoom call spit-balling about my next book, and we immediately agreed it should be another “book about books,” following on from The Littlest Library.

 

I told her I was dying to do two things: write another story set in the same world and center my book on the most perfect bookshop, which I would create if I ruled the world! Capelthorne’s popped into my mind fully formed, and I started telling her about the low ceilings, twisted beams, dusty shelves full of treasures, in a bookshop that had been at the heart of the steep little high street for a hundred years…

 

She mused around whether there could be a rival bookshop opening opposite, and there it all was: the central conflict, the protagonists, the two warring families which made for the Romeo and Juliet vibes…

 

Then, I was thinking of how my “enemies-to-lovers” had to be about their opposing characters. Roman, all slick, hard-nosed businessman with his spreadsheets and ultra-logical decision-making, contrasted with Jules, who was fighting to protect her precious bookshop and her family, all heart and passion and maybe not always that objective…

 

It put me in mind of The Hating Game, because Sally Thorne did such a genius job of creating that conflict between her two characters in that way. As soon as I got off the call, I threw the idea down in a one-page concept and pinged it over, with its strapline “Let the battle of the bookshops commence…”

 

Tessa said “yes” pretty much straight away, and the rest is history! It was the best fun to write, and I even got to weave in a kickass feminist thread, with my 17th century witch trial mystery, which is one of my many current preoccupations.

 

Q: How much did you want to echo Romeo and Juliet as you wrote this story?

 

A: Actually, not that much… it’s not a retelling (spoiler alert: zero teen suicides here, thankfully!) and, really, the Shakespeare thing was limited to the fun I was having pitching the two local families against each other. (Okay, I admit, I indulged myself quoting the play when it fit the narrative, and messing with the character names, too 😉).

 

Essentially, it was a way of looking at how family ties and divided loyalties can sometimes be another barrier to true love. Anything I can do to make it HARD for my protagonists to get to the end goal makes for a better read!

 

Of course, my readers know there is a “happily ever after,” but I need them to sometimes wonder how on earth we are going to get there, and that extra layer of complexity, on top of them being total character opposites, with opposing goals, just dials up that delicious conflict even more.

 

Q: You bring back some characters from The Littlest Library in this new novel--why did you decide to set it in the same community?

 

A: Aw, I am just so fond of my world, and my people that I wasn’t, and am still not, quite ready to let them go. I hope the readers enjoy seeing some of those characters again.

 

In fact - and there is no need to read them in order - my The 12 Days of Christmas story is also set in Portneath and Middlemass, with my love interests in that story - Finn and Freya - then going on to get married in The Battle of the Bookshops.

 

What can I say? It’s all so vivid in my head. I enjoy giving my other characters another chance to shine in subsequent stories, and the world I have created is probably my favorite place to retreat to. I hope my readers will enjoy seeing what happens next with characters they have already met in other books.

 

So, to recap: The Littlest Library, The 12 Days of Christmas, and The Battle of the Bookshops are all set in Portneath/Middlemass, and were published in that order. Next year’s book, How to Find a Romance in a Bookshop, is also set around Capelthorne’s bookshop, so watch this space…

 

Q: Did you need to do any research to write the book, and if so, did you learn anything that especially surprised you?

 

A: Although it is no surprise that I love books, and therefore adore a physical bookshop, I have never worked in one! Luckily, I am surrounded with friends who have, and I shamelessly swapped running a bookshop tips for cake.

 

One thing that doesn’t surprise me, but does sadden me, is that – in the UK – lots of bookshops tend to overlook romance books, which is mad when you think of what a huge part romance books play in the book industry as a whole.

 

I gather in the US there are many, many book shops just for romance, which is amazing. That is starting to happen in the UK too, but it’s early days.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: It’s edit time for my next book, How to Find a Romance in a Bookshop, which touches on my previous point. The play on words in the title is how sometimes it can be hard to find a romance in a UK bookshop!

 

It is a “friends-to-lovers” story, which centers on a struggling novelist and a failing literary agent, who encounter each other in Capelthorne’s, even though they have both fallen out of love with books.

 

Somehow, through their friendship, they help each other recover from the difficulties life has presented to them, and then – of course – they fall in love…but can their relationship survive all the difficulties I have taken great delight in placing before them!

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: It means the world to authors when readers review their books, and I always try to practice what I preach here, by leaving a brief review on somewhere like Goodreads.

 

Also, the best way to see all my books - and decide whether I might have written your next favorite read - is to check out my website: poppy-alexander.com, which has all my books, and links to the main sellers. 

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Poppy Alexander.