Q&A with Gill Paul

 

 

 

Gill Paul is the author of the new novel Scandalous Women. It focuses on the lives of novelists Jacqueline Susann and Jackie Collins. Paul's other novels include A Beautiful Rival. She is based in London.

 

Q: Why did you decide to write a novel based on the lives of writers Jacqueline Susann and Jackie Collins?

 

A: I love writing about women who were trailblazers in their chosen field, and those two were phenomenal. They created a sea change in the publishing industry with their gossipy, easy-reading novels about the real-life problems women faced, served up with a splash of aspirational glamour.

 

They included sex scenes that women initiated and participated in rather than being the mere “recipients” they tended to be in men's novels. In that way, they provided a modern sex education to a generation of young people growing up in the ‘60s and ‘70s (including me) who borrowed their parents' well-thumbed copies.

 

When I started my research, I realized that both Jackies faced tough challenges in their personal lives, which would make great material for a novel. I was impressed by the way both dealt with attacks on them in the press, on television chat shows, and in hate mail from the public.

 

Together they paved the way for women novelists who came after them to write about any subject they wanted to, and I think we all owe them a debt of gratitude. I certainly do.

 

Q: The writer Louise Fein said of the book, “Gill Paul has a sublime talent for mixing fact with fiction, and just like the two real subjects of this captivating novel, Jacqueline Susann and Jackie Collins, she is a wonderful storyteller.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: I love Louise Fein's novels – don't miss her latest, The London Bookshop Affair, set in postwar London – so I'm genuinely thrilled that she enjoyed Scandalous Women.

 

I've developed my own methods of mixing fact and fiction over the years, and the proportion of each varies from novel to novel. I try not to change the facts of real lives, but to fictionalize the gaps in the historical record in order to illuminate character or satisfy my dramatic arc. Sometimes biographies don't answer key questions, and that's where novelists can step in and imagine our version of the truth.

 

Jacqueline Susann often defended her novels by saying, “I'm telling great stories.” They were entertainment for women with busy lives who didn't have time for challenging literary classics. Writing a satisfying story is a terrific skill, in my opinion every bit as admirable as creating poetic prose and clever metaphors, so I will always cherish being called “a wonderful storyteller.”

Q: What do you think the novel says about the role of women in the publishing industry of the 1960s?

 

A: I encountered a fair amount of misogyny when I started work in publishing in the 1980s, so it wasn't a huge stretch of the imagination to write the scenes in which my character Nancy is groped, belittled, and overlooked for promotion in the workplace.

 

There were a handful of female editors and publicists in the 1960s, but most women were stuck in secretarial roles and the decision-makers were exclusively male. The situation began to change gradually from that decade onwards, especially as it became clear that women were the biggest buyers of fiction, and that they like to read novels by other women.

 

According to a recent survey, 78 percent of editors and 92 percent of publicists are now female – but they are paid far less than employees in other media industries. Go figure!

 

Q: What do you see as the legacy today of Jacqueline Susann and Jackie Collins?

 

A: Jacqueline Susann single-handedly changed the way novelists promoted their books. Critics were universally scathing, so she reached out directly to the public through bookstore signings and nationwide tours. And her novels sold in the millions, topping bestseller lists for months on end. The author book tour she invented is now a gold standard in the industry.

 

There's still a wide readership for the sexy bonkbuster with rich and famous characters by authors such as Jilly Cooper, Danielle Steele, Shirley Conran, and Judith Krantz, as well as the two Jackies. Jackie Collins's backlist has recently been republished in the UK with snazzy new covers.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I enjoyed writing about the 1960s so much that my next novel is also set in that decade. Like Scandalous Women, it takes place in both the UK and US, and features complex, inspiring women and stories inspired by real lives. That's all I can say for now.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: Deborah, I want to thank you so much for the support you've shown for my novels. We've never met, but you first reached out in 2020 to help this Scottish author tell American readers about her books from the other side of the ocean, and I'm ever so grateful. Cocktails are on me if you come to London!

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Gill Paul.