Biography
SJ Bennett. Credit KT Bruce
The short bio says…
SJ Bennett wrote several award-winning books for teenagers before turning to adult mysteries. She lives in London and has been a royal watcher for years, but is keen to stress that these are works of fiction: the Queen, to the best of her knowledge, did not secretly solve crimes. You can find her at SJBennettBooks.com…
And here you are.
Those are the basics, but if you want to know where I grew up, and what it was like to get a life-changing deal in my fifties, here’s the longer version. (If you’d rather read my official bio you can link to it here.)
OK. Here we go.
Becoming a writer
I was born in Richmond, Yorkshire in 1966. As an army child, I spent my childhood travelling the world with my family. We lived in West Berlin in the 1980s before the Wall came down (it ran around the back of our garden - no, really, it did) and in Hong Kong, twice. This was when I discovered my addiction to books. Until I went to boarding school, I changed friends with each posting. For a shy but friendly child, that was as tough as it sounds, so I learned to lose myself in the imaginary worlds of Noel Streatfeild, E. Nesbit, Anthony Buckeridge and a host of other writers who soon became my role models. When I grew up, I wanted to create imaginary worlds just like they did.
My mother was, and is, a massive fan of detective fiction, so I quickly added the Ellery Queen magazine, Dorothy L Sayers, Lawrence Block, Rex Stout and other classic mystery writers to my library. Meanwhile, I never lost my love of travel. Having failed to get into uni to study English and become a novelist (The Plan), I studied languages instead and went on to live and study in Paris, Rome, Florence, Venice and the South of France. That is as good as it sounds. Sometimes, not getting what you strive for turns into something even better.
But I was too scared to write. I wanted it too badly. The Plan was still there, in the background, but it scared me. If you’ve seen Back to the Future, you know what this is like. Writing was my version of “The Power of Love” for Marty McFly and the Pinheads. It might not go well, and then what?
So I became a lobbyist, got a PhD in Italian Literature at Cambridge (picture me lounging around the riverbank, watching people punting, although to be honest I spent a lot of time in libraries), and working as a management consultant. The type of management consultant who has a PhD in Italian Literature, i.e., a rare beast, not convinced I was entirely in the right place. I enjoyed the job, though, because it meant constantly meeting new people and finding out about what they did and Reader … that is kind of what I still do. Though nowadays I don’t try and tell them how to do their jobs better. I just fictionalise whatever they tell me.
The first book I ever tried to write, in my early thirties, was a detective story featuring a prima ballerina detective, called The Body of a Dancer. It didn’t get published, but it did get the approval of PD James’s editor, so I knew it was worth persisting with my dream, even if The Plan was taking a Very Long Time.
It took another ten years, during which I interviewed for the role of the Queen’s Assistant Private Secretary that Rozie Oshodi has in the books. I really wanted that job! I’ve been a fan of the Queen since 1977, her Silver Jubilee year, when aged 11 I became fascinated with her working wardrobe. If you want to see what hooked me, you need to read a book called The Queen’s Clothes by Robb and Anne Edwards. I still have my original copy.
Anyway, I digress. After four unpublished novels, a screenplay and many rejections, I won a writing competition with my first children’s novel and that led to a decade-long career as a full-time children’s writer. The Plan worked out after all. I was published from Australia to India, Norway to Brazil, and won a couple of awards, including the RONA Romantic Novel of the Year in 2017. I began teaching writing too, which I adore, mentoring new talent and running a podcast for unpublished writers called Prepublished, where I talk to writing friends about all the elements of craft I didn’t know when I was setting out. I learned the hard way, but my listeners don’t have to!
Changing direction
After ten years and ten books, the time had come to try something new. I was going to write an adult detective story I’d been planning for years, but as I was driving up through the heart of England to get going on it, I had the idea for Queen Elizabeth II as a crime-solver instead, and as soon as it came to me, it wouldn’t let go. It was prompted by thinking about a scene in series 2 of The Crown, when the Queen misplaces a soldier on a model battlefield. It was a tiny action, but I thought “She would never do that!” The Queen was an expert on military history, and she would recognise that battle. She’d also know it was bad manners to pick up a soldier without asking. I grew up with model soldiers on battlefields. I felt I knew this woman so well, knew what she cared about and how she thought, and how knowledgeable she was in different fields … and suddenly I really, really wanted to write about her.
In the course of his army career, my father met the Queen many times, so I felt I had a personal insight into what she’s like behind the scenes. And I’d interviewed at Buckingham Palace for that job, all those years ago... If she chose to (and by the way, I don’t think she did choose to, but that’s the only fictional bit), the Queen could be brilliant at noticing things that were wrong in her world of politics and palaces – and she’d have the power and access to investigate and put them right. But she’d have to do it secretly, because the whole point of the British monarchy these days is that it mustn’t be seen to interfere. What if the Queen was a secret detective? YES!
Getting the deal
The premise stuck through my diagnosis with breast cancer at the end of 2018 and subsequent recovery (we caught it very early; I was very lucky). Once the radiotherapy was over, I wrote The Windsor Knot in a rush of creativity in the summer of 2019. I don’t see that as remotely coincidental: grasping life with gratitude went hand in hand with relishing my rediscovered creativity. My husband Alex, who was himself gravely ill during that time, is my first reader and biggest supporter. We worked on our plans for the series together with plans to self publish it if we needed to. Then along came my agent, Charlie Campbell, in early 2020, and our lives changed.
So did yours, no doubt. It was just as lockdown was starting. Suddenly, I was at home all the time with Alex and the children, as my UK editor, Ben Willis at Zaffre gave me a FIVE book deal (that’s not a thing, but he did it anyway), and there was a six-way auction for the series in the US, and more auctions in France and Germany, and deal after deal was done around the world. It was what all novelists dream about, and absolutely as amazing as it could possibly be – but I couldn’t meet any of the people involved. There were no parties, no clinking of glasses. Just lots of emails with exclamation marks and the occasional Zoom.
Meanwhile I was writing book two, set in the second half of 2016, which as you may remember was a year not without incident. I would finish each writing day in my shed at the bottom of the garden, wondering which world was real and which I’d made up. It has been, shall we say, an adventure. We made it through safely and I hope you and your family did too, and if they didn’t, you have my deepest sympathy.
Her Majesty the Queen Investigates kept me going through this time. I love a world in which a wise and experienced older woman quietly, subtly, keeps things on track by working for good behind the scenes. I love the loyalty and devotion of the people who work for her in these books, and hers to them. I love the sense of tradition mixed with curiosity about the present and a real commitment to making the future the best that it can be. I plan to live in this world for as long as possible, as there are so many stories about the Queen (my Queen) that I want to write.
Enjoy reading them! Please let me know if you do.
Sophia
Check out my podcast
I have taught creative writing and mentored aspiring writers for years. With my brother, I run a podcast called Prepublished, in which I talk to fellow writers and editors about what it takes to get your amazing story published. Check it out here.
Other writers I love
My favourite writer at the moment is Kate Atkinson, whose latest book is Shrines of Gaiety. But I can recommend all sorts of writers in my favourite genres of crime, thriller, spy novels, comedy and royal biography. Click here for some suggestions.