Eve Chase

Eve Chase was formerly a journalist before she began writing novels with great success. Black Rabbit Hall and The Vanishing of Audrey Wilde were bestsellers. Eve's latest book is The Glass House is due 14th May.

Who were your literary heroes and influences growing up?

I owe an immeasurable debt to my childhood library card. Growing up, the local library was my second home and I hungrily worked my way around its shelves, discovering many favourites including Judy Blume, Virginia Andrews, Agatha Christie and Oscar Wilde.

Black Rabbit Hall was your debut and you employed a dual time frame to tell the story. Did this require a lot of plotting beforehand?

Black Rabbit Hall, not so much. But I’ve plotted out subsequent books in more detail, partly out of panic I won’t be able to pull it off again! The Glass House, my new novel, deviated wildly from its original outline, but the feel of it - a mystery set in a forest, with a young nanny at its heart - remained the same.

Can you give Suffolk readers a flavour of your new book The Glass House?

A baby is abandoned outside a remote manor house in a forest. The family inside take her in, and an explosive secret is forged.

Reading The Glass House I was strongly aware that the forest was almost a character in its own right. Was this something you were aware of as you were writing?

As a reader, I want to be transported, so I honour that in my writing, and always try to create a tangible, immersive sense of place. The forest definitely has its own character - mysterious, intense, and unpredictable - and moods.

Can you share anything about what you are working on at the moment?

It’s a dual-time frame book set on the north coast of Cornwall, involving warring half-sisters, an inheritance and a deep dark mystery.

What is on your ‘to read’ pile at the moment?

I’m finally about to dive into Hilary Mantel’s The Mirror and The Light. I may be some time! I’m also looking forward to Kate Riordan’s The Heatwave.

Is there a book you wish you had written and why?

Mantel’s Bring Up The Bodies. It’s just superlatively good. I’ve never read anything like it before or since. Also Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones’s Diary because it was so fresh, and made me hoot with laughter.

Do you have a message for your readers in Suffolk?

Writers need readers. It’s you who make it all worthwhile. Thank you, thank you, thank you! Keep reading.

Can you tell us one thing about yourself that your readers may not know?

I’m a passionate gardener. I don’t think about writing or words at all when I’m gardening, and I absolutely love it.