An interview with Judith Cutler

Pam Freeman, Project Leader, Literary Heritage - West Midlands, interviewed Judith Cutler in January 2002. She asked the author how she felt to be included in the site and to tell us more about her writing background.

Pam: How do you feel about being included on the Literary Heritage - West Midlands website?

Judith: Very honoured: look at the other people on the site, far more distinguished writers (past and present) than I can ever aspire to be. But I feel I have a place there. I'm a daughter of the Black Country, and find enormous pleasure in introducing places I know and love into my novels. Though no one is more aware than I of the difference between the Black Country and Birmingham, I make equal efforts for the Second City. It seems to me a crying shame that the media still manage to ignore such a vibrant, vigorous area, with a wonderful heritage and brilliant future.

Pam: Your first novel Dying fall was published in 1995. Can you tell us the background behind your first novel being published?

Judith: I always wanted to write. I'd had considerable success with short stories, but couldn't find my voice as a novelist. I always told my creative writing students to write about what they knew, but failed to take my own advice until two things came together. I always knew that the building I worked in would be an ideal scene of crime, because there were so many escape routes. (Ironically, when some years later I myself was assaulted there the assailant took exactly the same way out as the villain in Dying fall--I wish I could flatter myself that she'd read it first!). I knew further education inside out, so it made sense to have a lecturer as a protagonist. But I needed another half to the plot, which was provided by the opening to the public of Symphony Hall before it was the complete and elegant building it now is. One of my musician friends agreed to change his name and to die horribly. And so the book was born.

Pam: Now you've written fifteen books, which book are you most proud of, and why?

Judith: That's like asking a mother which is her favourite child! I think that the second in the Power series, Staying power, is technically the best, because the plotting is very tight. But I'm very fond of the next Sophie novel, Dying in discord (May 2002). It's set in two of the Midlands' most important sites, both of which I was shown round by experts. That strange Gothic pile, the Birmingham and Midlands Institute, is cared for by Philip Fisher, who is proud of every inch of it; he and his colleague Andrew Peet spent the best part of a day showing me parts the public never see. Another day was spent in the company of the distinguished archaeologist George Demidowicz in Matthew Boulton's Soho Foundry. When the place opens as a World Heritage Site, as one day it must, this must become a place of pilgrimage. The architecture is wonderful, the sense of the past overwhelming. And I've been privileged to set a murder there. To my amazement, George Demidowicz was happy to make a cameo appearance as himself. Yes, I'm very proud of Dying in discord, whatever its literary merits.

Pam: Why did you create two heroines for your novels--Kate Power and Sophie Rivers?

Judith: So that I could eat breakfast. When I left full-time teaching, although I had plenty of part-time work, I needed to make up some of the financial shortfall. I wish I could come up with a more idealistic reason, but I can't. Having said that, I welcomed the chance to create a tougher protagonist, one with access to the huge resources of a major police force. As always, I was very lucky in that people were enormously generous with their time when I was researching the police background. I'd just moved house, so it seemed appropriate to inflict on Kate some of the problems I was experiencing. It was also pleasant to let the Birmingham experience work on an outsider.

Pam: Your books often feature Birmingham. What do you like best about the city?

Judith: I've been deeply involved with the musical scene since I was in my teens. The CBSO asked me to be a trustee of their Benevolent Fund many years ago, and then I was appointed to the committee of the Chamber Music Society. Add in BEAST, the WNO, the Birmingham Royal Ballet, the Barber Concerts - yes, I think Birmingham's wonderful for music. And for the other arts: I'll admit to being more at home in the Barber Institute than the Ikon Gallery, but think of the treasures in the City Museum and Art Gallery. Then there's Soho House and Blakesley Hall. And the lovely canalside developments.

It's also easy to get in and out of. Think of Wenlock Edge and the Malvern Hills. I don't remember I time when I didn't love Clent Hills: pride of place in my new house goes to a painting by Stourbridge artist Peter Shread of Walton Hill.

But a city's nothing without its people - and (after Black Country folk) Brummies are the salt of the earth. I love the racial mix, the additional cultures. Yes. Birmingham's a great place.

Pam: Can you tell us about your plans for the next year?

Judith: I shall still be writing about Birmingham. Newly-promoted Kate Power is due to have a very unpleasant case as her initiation to the rank of Inspector. Sophie is currently at Edgbaston Cricket Ground, exploring cricket archives. It may be that one of them will follow me to my new home, but Sophie will certainly be staying put for her eleventh outing, set once again at the University of the West Midlands, where she'll be a temporary lecturer.

Pam: Many thanks, Judith. I look forward to reading your latest novel, Dying in discord, to be published May 2002.