ROBERT THOROGOOD

M U R D E R H E WROTE

Novelist and TV scriptwriter Robert Thorogood talks Death in Paradise and why he chose his Buckinghamshire home town as the backdrop for his latest cosy crime mystery

By REBECCA PITCAIRN

What does Marlow have in common with Guadeloupe? For Robert Thorogood, the small town on the edge of the Thames in Buckinghamshire and the collection of French islands in the Caribbean both provide the perfect backdrop for a good murder mystery.

Robert, who has lived in Marlow for almost 10 years with his wife, radio broadcaster Katie Breathwick, and their two teenage sons and whippets Wally and Evie, is the writer and creator of the hit BBC One television show Death in Paradise.

The family-friendly detective crime series, which has been entertaining audiences across the globe since 2011 and began its 12th series in January 2023, is now shown in over 200 countries around the world and is one of the BBC’s biggest commercial successes. But it took Robert, who went to Cambridge University and was part of the Footlights ensemble with David Mitchell, Robert Webb and Oscar-winner Olivia Colman, years of hard graft and disappointment before he got his big break.

“As a screenwriter, you’d have good years and then really bad years, but it was completely piecemeal, you couldn’t make any plans on it – it was really hard,” remembers the 51-year-old, who worked as a secretary in London to supplement his screenwriting income before his big break. “So, following 16 years of really scraping the barrel, it went from 0 to 100 pretty much overnight.”

The popularity of Death in Paradise not only enabled Robert to finally earn a decent, regular scriptwriter’s wage, but it also gave him the opportunity to follow his dream of becoming a novelist. “Novels have always been my first love, particularly murder mystery,” he says. “I’ve loved it my whole life, ever since I read my first Agatha Christie novel, Peril at End House, when I was ten.”

Robert’s first four books follow Death in Paradise’s original on-screen detective, DI Richard Poole (played by Ben Miller), in a spin-o series, which sees the detective tackle yet more murders on the fictional Caribbean island of Saint Marie.

“I was not a very successful teenager when it came to academics and I didn’t really do well at English, so I thought ‘I’ve got to learn how to write and how to write murder mysteries’, which sounds absurd when I’d written them for TV but it is very di erent,” Robert explains. “Because I knew the Death in Paradise characters inside out, I thought that if I do a DI Poole mystery, at least I’ll know the setting, the characters and the dynamics.”

But the Brits love nothing more than a good murder mystery and so it was somewhat inevitable that Robert might one day bring murder a little closer to home – and he landed it right on his doorstep.

The Marlow Murder Club series follows 77-year-old Judith Potts, who lives on her own in a faded mansion just outside Marlow, keeping herself busy setting crosswords for The Times newspaper and taking the occasional dip in the Thames. When one night while out swimming she witnesses the murder of her neighbour across the river, it sparks a series of events that see no-nonsense Judith joined by two other local women – Suzie, a

dog walker, and the vicar’s wife, Becks – to try and solve the mystery of ‘whodunnit’.

“Marlow is the perfect place for the style of murder mystery I like because, on the surface, it’s quite posh, it has bunting, Michelin-starred restaurants and a beautiful church. It just looks so smart. Then you peel away at the layers of all that pretention and reveal that actually everyone has a dark heart of murder within,” Robert explains. “That’s what Agatha Christie was so great at doing, she’d take you to a very smart country house and show all of these people who you thought of as being your betters, but then you’d discover, during the course of the book, that they were much worse than all of us.”

While the main protagonists fighting crime in Death in Paradise have all been men (alongside Ben Miller, the lead detective has been played by Kris Marshall, Ardal O’Hanlonand Ralf Little), Robert says it was important for his Marlowbased sleuths to be women and drew on characteristics of his own family members to create his new team of crime fighters.

“I’d been in this world of male detectives for so long and I just wanted to do something that was far more conversational,” he explains. “I wanted to do a love letter to all these wonderful women who helped raise me. From my mother to my great aunts to my grandmother, who were all very eccentric women and much brighter than their husbands.”

Robert adds that he wanted the heroines of his novels to investigate matters “the old-fashioned way”. “They solve the murders without reference to any forensics or post mortems or the science that goes behind it all,” he says. “It’s proper old-fashioned Agatha Christie, walking around a town and solving the crime by talking to people.”

Death Comes to Marlow, the second book in the series, sees the trio jump into action again when one of the town’s VIPs, Sir Peter Bailey, is killed during a party at his mansion on the Thames, which,

A BEAUTIFUL SETTING... FOR A MURDER?

BY MARLOW BRIDGE

Robert tells me, is based on the home of a rather famous Buckinghamshire comedian.

“I’ve taken Ricky Gervais’ house, which is a beautiful Georgian white stucco house just outside Marlow, as the idea for the setting and imagined a very posh family living there and written an old school, country house, locked-room murder mystery,” he says.

It’s not just Marlow’s rich and famous who have had an influence on Robert’s cosy crime novels either. “Fred, our postie, when he found out I was writing a book set in Marlow, he insisted he be in it and I knew if I didn’t then he’d stop delivering our post and you really don’t want to cross your postie,” Robert jokes. “So, one of the main characters in the first book is a postman called Fred Smith. At the moment I’m having to deal with the fact that he’s quite cross that I haven’t put him in book two, but I am writing book three and Fred is back because I can’t handle his disappointment.”

While setting the books in a real town, rather than somewhere fictional like his TV series, has its merits – “for research I literally just have to step out my front door,” Richard professes – there are some minor challenges.

“I did a talk at Marlow Rotary Club about the first book and when I asked for questions at the end, all I got was grief about the few changes I’d made to the geography of the town,” he says. “I’ve kept it 95% correct, but in order to put Judith’s house where I wanted it, I’ve had to put it where there isn’t an access road. And I know I’m going to get grief for book two as well because I’ve set part of it at the local radio station, Marlow FM, which I’ve had to relocate. So, it is funny setting something in your own town, but it’s also lovely because Marlow really is quite wonderful.”

Death Comes to Marlow is published by HQ Harper Collins and is out now in hardback RRP £16.99

Get to know… EMMA DENNY

BRACKNELL AUTHOR

Q What has been your writing journey up to this point?

A I’ve written for as long as I can remember, and I decided to be an author when I was about eight-years-old. I had dozens of notebooks that I would carry around with me in which I’d write my “novels” – at one point, I even sent a ten-page manuscript (in size 20 font) to a publisher. I got a very polite reply saying they weren’t accepting submissions at that time, along with some cute branded stationery.

I went on to study English and Creative Writing at university, where I found an interest in screenwriting, but I found myself stepping away from fiction for a long time. I rediscovered my love for writing fiction – especially romantic fiction – a few years after graduation by posting short stories online. It was the community I found online that really made my writing flourish, and I’m forever grateful for their support and love.

Q What did winning the Mills & Boon and RNA Romance Includes Everyone competition in 2021 mean to you?

A Winning the competition was a complete dream come true. The win has changed the trajectory of my writing career and thrown me into publishing in a way that I never thought would be possible. On a wider level, it’s also shown me that there’s a real demand for queer romantic fiction. I’ve always wanted to write queer romance, but was worried that there might not be a space for me – now I know how wrong I was. I’m thrilled to be a part of this ever-growing genre, and I cannot wait to see what comes next for me and other queer writers.

BRACKNELL OFFERS UP PLENTY OF NATURE

Q How long has One Night in Hartswood been in the making and what inspired it?

A Hartswood had been percolating in my head for a year or so before I actually wrote it down. It changed an awful lot during the writing process too, as the characters took over the story and made it their own.

I’m a huge fan of fantasy and historical romance, and a lot of Hartswood comes from the sorts of tropes and topics you fi nd in those genres. Things like Lord of the Rings, The Witcher and Game of Thrones – high fantasy media set in pseudo-medieval society – really got me interested in sword fi ghts, knights in shining armour and outdoor excursions. I can’t resist a good dagger fi ght, or huddling for warmth beneath the stars next to a campfi re.

Q What can you tell us about the storyline?

A One Night in Hartswood follows Penn and Ra as they journey north through Hartswood forest and, inevitably, fall in love.

Penn – whose given name is William – is escaping his cruel father, arranged marriage and his own earldom when he’s found by Ra in the middle of Hartswood Forest. Ra assumes that Penn is a fl eeing

I’m also a huge fan of craft beer, and it’s impossible to choose just one of our many amazing breweries for this list (Wild Weather? Double Barrelled? Elusive?) – so the third choice would probably be the Grumpy Goat in Reading. This amazing little shop sells top-notch beer and cheese and I always pop in whenever I’m in the area.

Q What else are you looking forward to in 2023?

A Mostly I’m looking forward to relaxing! Since winning the competition, life has been very hectic, and I’m looking forward to fi nally sitting down and taking a long, deep breath once Hartswood has hit the shelves. After that, I can really start to look forward to what comes next. This year is the start of my career as a published author, and I’m excited to see what it brings.

EMMA ENJOYS VISITING SWINLEY FOREST A SPOT OF SILVERSMITHING AT SOUTH HILL PARK ARTS CENTRE

servant, and Penn assumes Ra is a hunter who is visiting the keep with his own master for the wedding. Little do they know that Ra is in fact the brother of the woman Penn is supposed to be marrying, hunting for his sister’s missing groom.

Ra understands Penn’s desire for freedom, wishing to be free of his own duties, too, so o ers Penn his help in escaping. As they travel together, the tentative relationship between them fl ourishes into something more, despite both of them doing their best to resist. But, of course, secrets cannot stay secret forever, and when all is revealed they’re both forced to decide what they want, and what they will sacrifi ce for the person they love.

Q How long have you lived in Bracknell and what do you love most about it?

A I moved to Bracknell last year, so I’ve been here for around 18 months now. My favourite thing about Bracknell is how I’ve got so many lovely places to walk to right on my doorstep. I work from home, so being able to get outside and fi nd a bit of nature to get lost in is really important to me.

I particularly love Swinley Forest – I live a stone’s throw away from the edge of the trees, and it’s the fi rst place I take people who come to visit. I particularly love walking up to Caesar's Camp on summer evenings to look for deer and owls.

Q Where would your three favourite places in Berkshire be?

A Two of my favourite places in Berkshire are probably Swinley Forest, which I’ve already spoken about, and South Hill Park Arts Centre, which has a gorgeous little cinema and does some great workshops and art classes. I attended a silversmithing workshop there last year which was a lot of fun, and I made a Hartswood ring too!

SHE LOVES CRAFT BEER

One Night in Hartswood is out now, published by Mills & Boon and priced at £14.99 hardback