0:00:00 > 0:00:00spooked by the simmering tension between the
0:00:00 > 0:00:00spooked by the simmering tension between the US
0:00:00 > 0:00:00spooked by the simmering tension between the US and
0:00:00 > 0:00:00spooked by the simmering tension between the US and North
0:00:00 > 0:00:01spooked by the simmering tension between the US and North Korea.
0:00:01 > 0:00:03Now it's time for Meet the Author.
0:00:05 > 0:00:07Felicia Yap's CV reads like a character from a book.
0:00:07 > 0:00:09After a childhood spent in Kuala Lumpur, she's been
0:00:09 > 0:00:14a biochemist, a war historian, a catwalk model, and she won a half
0:00:14 > 0:00:18blue in competitive ballroom dancing at Cambridge University.
0:00:18 > 0:00:21If that wasn't enough, she's now written her first novel,
0:00:21 > 0:00:26which was snapped up for a 6-figure sum, after a bidding war.
0:00:26 > 0:00:30It's called Yesterday and it's a murder mystery with a twist.
0:00:30 > 0:00:33It poses the intriguing question, how do you solve
0:00:33 > 0:00:38a crime when you can only remember yesterday?
0:00:52 > 0:00:55Felicia Yap, Yesterday is set in a world where there
0:00:55 > 0:00:57are two types of people.
0:00:57 > 0:01:00There are Monos, who can only remember yesterday,
0:01:00 > 0:01:04and there are Duos, who can remember two days ago.
0:01:04 > 0:01:07Where did this extraordinary idea come from?
0:01:07 > 0:01:11Well, it all happened literally on the move.
0:01:11 > 0:01:14So I was on my way to a dance studio in Cambridge when this question
0:01:14 > 0:01:16just arose to my mind.
0:01:16 > 0:01:20How do you solve a murder when you only remember yesterday?
0:01:20 > 0:01:22And that question just so intrigued me, when I got
0:01:22 > 0:01:26to the dance studio I couldn't stop thinking about it.
0:01:26 > 0:01:28My mind was full of all the possibilities,
0:01:28 > 0:01:30the rich possibilities, which were inherent
0:01:30 > 0:01:33to this speculative world.
0:01:33 > 0:01:35So we got to the studio, started practising our tango.
0:01:35 > 0:01:38My mind kept returning to the question, and you could say
0:01:38 > 0:01:42that I worked out the early contours of that story on the dance floor
0:01:42 > 0:01:46and that twists and turns were built into the fabric of the novel right
0:01:46 > 0:01:48from the start.
0:01:48 > 0:01:50I started writing the next day, literally, and 15 months
0:01:50 > 0:01:52later I had a thriller.
0:01:52 > 0:01:55Good lord, well, we'll come back to some of the points you've
0:01:55 > 0:01:56just raised in a moment.
0:01:56 > 0:01:59But just to explain to people what happens in this book.
0:01:59 > 0:02:02In the world you create, people's memories become full
0:02:02 > 0:02:08by the time they're 18 and this is down to a protein.
0:02:08 > 0:02:11I wondered at this point how much you were drawing
0:02:11 > 0:02:13on your background as a biochemist?
0:02:13 > 0:02:14Quite a bit.
0:02:14 > 0:02:20So actually trying to work out the rationale for this novel
0:02:20 > 0:02:23and also how it could potentially function, I found my previous
0:02:23 > 0:02:26training as a biochemist to be incredibly helpful,
0:02:26 > 0:02:29because I actually write a lot of research papers about memory,
0:02:29 > 0:02:33what proteins in our own world actually could have an impact on how
0:02:33 > 0:02:36we ourselves make memories, and from all these papers
0:02:36 > 0:02:39I was actually able to put together this hypothetical protein in this
0:02:39 > 0:02:42world which I've created, which is responsible for the storage
0:02:42 > 0:02:44of short-term memories.
0:02:44 > 0:02:48And in this world you've created, it's segregated by memory.
0:02:48 > 0:02:51It's nothing to do with wealth or education or religion,
0:02:51 > 0:02:55and Monos are discriminated against by Duos, and I wondered
0:02:55 > 0:02:58if you had anything else in mind when you were writing about that.
0:02:58 > 0:03:01Well, I really wanted to explore this idea of memory,
0:03:01 > 0:03:07what difference does an extra day of memory make?
0:03:07 > 0:03:10So in my novel, the wife just remembers one day,
0:03:10 > 0:03:14just because she's a Mono, and her husband is a Duo,
0:03:14 > 0:03:16who remembers two days.
0:03:16 > 0:03:19And it just so happens the murder in my story happens two days before,
0:03:19 > 0:03:23so the husband is privy to information, memories,
0:03:23 > 0:03:27facts, in his own head, which the wife does not have.
0:03:27 > 0:03:30So I thought it was an interesting way of going into the story,
0:03:30 > 0:03:33to create a sense of conflict, true characters and bringing that
0:03:33 > 0:03:36to the sense of society and the entire novel itself.
0:03:36 > 0:03:41Which came first, the memory setting, or the idea of this murder?
0:03:41 > 0:03:44It was the concept which occurred to me first, but then I realised
0:03:44 > 0:03:47concepts are just broad canvases.
0:03:47 > 0:03:49They don't really mean very much.
0:03:49 > 0:03:52What really makes the story sing, what makes it resonate with readers,
0:03:52 > 0:03:55are characters which readers can identify with.
0:03:55 > 0:03:58So that's why I really wanted to make it real.
0:03:58 > 0:04:01What difference would this day make in the lives of real people.
0:04:01 > 0:04:04So in the case of Mark and Claire, the husband and wife in my story,
0:04:04 > 0:04:07that was what I was trying to look at.
0:04:07 > 0:04:09You tell the story from four different perspectives,
0:04:09 > 0:04:11from the point of view of the husband and the wife,
0:04:11 > 0:04:14Mark and Claire, also the victim, and the detective trying
0:04:14 > 0:04:15to solve the murder.
0:04:15 > 0:04:18Had you got it all planned out in advance, or did
0:04:18 > 0:04:19it evolve organically?
0:04:19 > 0:04:22It actually did evolve organically.
0:04:22 > 0:04:23Really?
0:04:23 > 0:04:25Yes, I started with Claire, then I went on to Mark,
0:04:25 > 0:04:28then I thought it would be interesting maybe to write
0:04:28 > 0:04:31from the perspective of the villain, the woman he'd been sleeping with,
0:04:31 > 0:04:33the one who was murdered at the start of the novel,
0:04:33 > 0:04:37so I started in her voice, and then I realised that my story
0:04:37 > 0:04:39needed a narrative drive.
0:04:39 > 0:04:41Something has to power the engine of the story.
0:04:41 > 0:04:43I thought maybe I should write from the perspective
0:04:43 > 0:04:45of the detective too.
0:04:45 > 0:04:48That was quite tricky, because I don't naturally think
0:04:48 > 0:04:51like a 40-year-old male detective.
0:04:51 > 0:04:56Whereas the female parts tend to come more naturally.
0:04:56 > 0:04:58So I struggled a bit at first, writing the fourth voice,
0:04:58 > 0:05:02the detective, but because I worked so hard at it and really tried
0:05:02 > 0:05:06to get his voice right, he paradoxically became the easiest
0:05:06 > 0:05:08character for me to write.
0:05:08 > 0:05:11Talking to you, there maybe some people who think this novel must
0:05:11 > 0:05:13be set in the future, but actually it's
0:05:13 > 0:05:16mainly set in 2015.
0:05:16 > 0:05:18Why was that?
0:05:18 > 0:05:22I wanted it to be real, like very immediate story to all of us,
0:05:22 > 0:05:25so setting it in the present day seemed to make natural sense.
0:05:25 > 0:05:28Also, the novel takes place over the course of one day and it makes
0:05:28 > 0:05:32sense to be drawing on things which are going on right
0:05:32 > 0:05:35now, immediate to us, so that's what I wanted to do
0:05:35 > 0:05:38when I was writing it.
0:05:38 > 0:05:41It's really a darkly skewed version of contemporary Britain, the story,
0:05:41 > 0:05:43that's what's at its core.
0:05:43 > 0:05:45Yeah, I was very intrigued by one particular line,
0:05:45 > 0:05:48where you say most novelists write to make sense of things
0:05:48 > 0:05:52that happen to them - and I wondered with this book
0:05:52 > 0:05:55what were you trying to make sense of.
0:05:55 > 0:05:59Quite a few things and it goes back again to this idea of memory.
0:05:59 > 0:06:01What we ourselves choose to remember and what we
0:06:01 > 0:06:03ourselves choose to forget.
0:06:03 > 0:06:04That's a very relevant question to myself,
0:06:04 > 0:06:07because memories change over time.
0:06:07 > 0:06:12They mutate, they transform and studies suggest that 80%
0:06:12 > 0:06:16of what we remember isn't actually what happened.
0:06:16 > 0:06:19In my case, I think back to things that happened
0:06:19 > 0:06:22to me a long time ago, it gets tricky, this whole
0:06:22 > 0:06:24slippery nature of memory.
0:06:24 > 0:06:26We do question ourselves, whether our own memories
0:06:26 > 0:06:29of the past is true.
0:06:29 > 0:06:31That's what I wanted to explore in this novel.
0:06:31 > 0:06:34The second thing is our own capacity for self-delusion.
0:06:34 > 0:06:37What's fact, what's fake?
0:06:37 > 0:06:42Really is memory a set of lies we choose to tell ourselves?
0:06:42 > 0:06:44You've done all these various different jobs.
0:06:44 > 0:06:47I know you were also a flea market trader at one point.
0:06:47 > 0:06:50I wonder how all those different experiences have
0:06:50 > 0:06:52influenced you as a writer.
0:06:52 > 0:06:54It has all been incredibly useful, because I've realised that
0:06:54 > 0:06:58everything is relevant when you're writing a book.
0:06:58 > 0:07:01All the conversations you've listened to, eavesdropped on,
0:07:01 > 0:07:04the tiniest, smallest details, they're all relevant
0:07:04 > 0:07:07when you are writing a novel because details make a novel sing.
0:07:07 > 0:07:11So to give you an example, from my catwalk modelling days
0:07:11 > 0:07:15I was trying to think back to some of my most vivid exciting memories
0:07:15 > 0:07:20of my modelling on runways, and trying to ask why
0:07:20 > 0:07:23were they the most exciting.
0:07:23 > 0:07:27That's when I realised that they were really vivid
0:07:27 > 0:07:30because they make me feel delight when the audience was clapping,
0:07:30 > 0:07:34cheering away, fear that I would fall flat, trip,
0:07:34 > 0:07:36land on my nose.
0:07:36 > 0:07:39Or just horror, shredding on a dress with my heel.
0:07:39 > 0:07:42So that's when I realised emotions help us decide
0:07:42 > 0:07:45what to remember, what to forget.
0:07:45 > 0:07:47Things which really trigger something deep within our hearts,
0:07:47 > 0:07:49touch us to the core.
0:07:49 > 0:07:51That's why we remember them.
0:07:51 > 0:07:53So that proved really useful when I was writing this book,
0:07:53 > 0:07:58because people must rely on diaries to understand their past and that
0:07:58 > 0:08:00really helped me write each diary entry in Yesterday,
0:08:00 > 0:08:06to infuse each line in the book with more emotion and movement.
0:08:06 > 0:08:10So as you said, this idea for the book suddenly came to you.
0:08:10 > 0:08:13Had you always wanted to be a writer, or was it just another job
0:08:13 > 0:08:16on your very long list of jobs that you were going to do,
0:08:16 > 0:08:18or wanted to do?
0:08:18 > 0:08:21I've always wanted to write and my dream to become a writer
0:08:21 > 0:08:24began with bedtime stories, which my dad used to tell me
0:08:24 > 0:08:27when I was growing up.
0:08:27 > 0:08:30When you read a lot as a child you begin to wish that
0:08:30 > 0:08:33you could tell the same delicious stories yourself, so there wasn't
0:08:33 > 0:08:36really a Eureka moment when I thought I wanted
0:08:36 > 0:08:38to be a writer.
0:08:38 > 0:08:41It was more of an increasing conviction that I really wanted
0:08:41 > 0:08:44to tell a story which someone would potentially enjoy,
0:08:44 > 0:08:47respond to and remember.
0:08:47 > 0:08:49Is this the path ahead for you now?
0:08:49 > 0:08:50Oh, absolutely.
0:08:50 > 0:08:52I would love...
0:08:52 > 0:08:54Nothing would make me happier than to be a writer.
0:08:54 > 0:08:56Right now, I'm writing a prequel to Yesterday,
0:08:56 > 0:08:59which is called Today.
0:08:59 > 0:09:01We look forward to hearing about it.
0:09:01 > 0:09:02Felicia Yap, thank you so much.
0:09:02 > 0:09:07Thank you so much.
0:09:21 > 0:09:21Good