0:00:00 > 0:00:07Now it's time for Meet the Author.
0:00:07 > 0:00:11There is something about Louisa Clarke, Lou, that has turned the
0:00:11 > 0:00:15novels of Jojo Moyes into international bestsellers. She's a
0:00:15 > 0:00:18heroine whose life appeals to readers who do not want to let her
0:00:18 > 0:00:25go. Now after me before you and after you, Kums Still Me, in which
0:00:25 > 0:00:29Lou fetches up in New York in a different worlds, as personal
0:00:29 > 0:00:34assistant to a socialite whose rich family holds out a few secrets. What
0:00:34 > 0:00:39will happen to Lou's old boyfriend, paramedic Sam, when she meets and
0:00:39 > 0:00:43falls for an American who bears a spooky resemblance to an old flame
0:00:43 > 0:00:48she knew before Sam? If you are a reader who follows blue, you will
0:00:48 > 0:00:53want to know. Welcome.
0:01:06 > 0:01:14What do you think it is about Lou that makes us such a compelling
0:01:14 > 0:01:18character for your readers?I think she's every woman, the fact she is
0:01:18 > 0:01:22on the surface such an ordinary person makes a very easy for a wide
0:01:22 > 0:01:27variety of people to identify with, but she also has an inherent
0:01:27 > 0:01:31goodness. Not necessarily a niceness, because she can be sharp.
0:01:31 > 0:01:37But there is no us narked to her and in an age of snarkiness, people find
0:01:37 > 0:01:44that refreshing.In this book she is transported to a new job in New
0:01:44 > 0:01:49York, and she finds herself in a family, a slightly weird family, of
0:01:49 > 0:01:52course, because that's what stories are made of, and she is thrown into
0:01:52 > 0:02:00the social world of very rich New York life. Of course, it squarely
0:02:00 > 0:02:04completely beyond her experience. Part of the joy of having a
0:02:04 > 0:02:06character you can revisit is to put them in an alien landscape. There's
0:02:06 > 0:02:14not much more alien than the fifth Ave social world. Something I found
0:02:14 > 0:02:17interesting about Louisa's position is that when you enter the world of
0:02:17 > 0:02:21the very rich or the super-rich, they are people who have become
0:02:21 > 0:02:25accustomed to having people living around them, they are observed at
0:02:25 > 0:02:29all times yet they have to live as if they are not. There is that
0:02:29 > 0:02:32inherent tension between the people who are serving them and the people
0:02:32 > 0:02:37who are living, that I find really interesting.Without going into
0:02:37 > 0:02:41details, I don't want to spoil the plot for those who will enjoy
0:02:41 > 0:02:44reading the book, but it all comes unstuck for her in a pretty to
0:02:44 > 0:02:48refine way. It's sort of put back together again which fulfils your
0:02:48 > 0:02:54reassuring criteria, but I like the description of the Everywoman,
0:02:54 > 0:02:58because you do sense that this is somebody who is going through
0:02:58 > 0:03:03something we can all imagine. We can feel what it's like for her.
0:03:03 > 0:03:05Exactly, when I might Louisa I try to really put the reader into her
0:03:05 > 0:03:13shoes. You feel things as she feels them, it's almost like, I don't
0:03:13 > 0:03:16know, inhabiting somebody's skin in that's quite different if you are
0:03:16 > 0:03:21writing in third person. I found it very easy to pull people along with
0:03:21 > 0:03:27Louisa.We are inside Louisa, Lou, her love life is a bit of a mess in
0:03:27 > 0:03:32this situation, in New York. Sam on the paramedic, who is her man back
0:03:32 > 0:03:38in London, he turns up. That's all very nice but she has an encounter
0:03:38 > 0:03:42with someone who reminds of another man.I don't think it's too much of
0:03:42 > 0:03:48a spoiler to say Josh reminds her of will, but when I speak to people you
0:03:48 > 0:03:53have lost someone, they see them everywhere. That can be quite
0:03:53 > 0:03:57discombobulated, because I think you don't just see them in the street,
0:03:57 > 0:04:01you project onto them, and I think that is something that happens a bit
0:04:01 > 0:04:06in this book.Do you ever find yourself getting a bit fed up of
0:04:06 > 0:04:09her? This is the third outing, clearly she's very successful so you
0:04:09 > 0:04:13are fond of her in that sense, but do you everything, oh, I must think
0:04:13 > 0:04:17of something else for her to do? That's it, this is the third book,
0:04:17 > 0:04:22from the day I was writing but two I saw it as a trilogy, a horseshoe
0:04:22 > 0:04:26shaped trilogy. So that is it. I actually felt really sad to let her
0:04:26 > 0:04:35go because you know what it's like, some characters come to life
0:04:35 > 0:04:38immediately, others you can write off a book and still not be entirely
0:04:38 > 0:04:40sure who they are and that can be really frustrating because they
0:04:40 > 0:04:44don't lift off the page in the right way. With Lou, as with well in the
0:04:44 > 0:04:47first book, they landed fully formed in my lap. I knew what their
0:04:47 > 0:04:51responses would be in any situation and that made it an easy thing to
0:04:51 > 0:04:55write.It's a great gift for an author to have that sense of the
0:04:55 > 0:04:58character, fully formed. How did that come about? What was it about
0:04:58 > 0:05:03her that allowed you to have that clear idea of how she would respond
0:05:03 > 0:05:07to any challenge?It was quite bizarre, I sometimes have scenes
0:05:07 > 0:05:11into my head and it was the scene in the first book where they are
0:05:11 > 0:05:16dancing at a wedding and she is sitting on his lap, a man in a
0:05:16 > 0:05:19motorised wheelchair, she slow dances with him at a wedding to the
0:05:19 > 0:05:22appalled fascination of the other guests, and he says to her, because
0:05:22 > 0:05:27she's sort of year, you would have never let those breasts so close to
0:05:27 > 0:05:32me if I hadn't been in a wheelchair, and you said you would not have
0:05:32 > 0:05:35noticed my breasts if you were not in a wheelchair. And in that moment
0:05:35 > 0:05:39I knew who they both were and how well they understood each other.
0:05:39 > 0:05:43It's interesting that you describe that seem almost in filmic terms.
0:05:43 > 0:05:47Are you one of those writers who almost imagines in a way that you
0:05:47 > 0:05:53are behind a camera, which is moving and picking up scenes?Absolutely. I
0:05:53 > 0:05:57had to play a seen through filmic Lee in my head to see if it will
0:05:57 > 0:06:00work. I lie on the floor of my office and run through lots of
0:06:00 > 0:06:04different varieties.There are writers who, and is quite difficult
0:06:04 > 0:06:08to understand this, but you don't see it in that way, don't see it
0:06:08 > 0:06:12like a stage with people walking in and off and the camera moving. But
0:06:12 > 0:06:16they have some sort of different mental process. It's quite a
0:06:16 > 0:06:20difficult thing to grasp.I'm always fascinated by how other writers do
0:06:20 > 0:06:25it because you just never know. I don't understand writers who don't
0:06:25 > 0:06:29plot, I can't imagine the fear of stepping off into the unknown and
0:06:29 > 0:06:32not knowing roughly way your characters will land.Some writers
0:06:32 > 0:06:35say they are terrified by the idea of having it all written out, with
0:06:35 > 0:06:42the Ark of the story or whatever, cliche we choose to apply. They must
0:06:42 > 0:06:47set off on the white ocean and see where the boat ends up. You can't do
0:06:47 > 0:06:53that?I have a rough idea. Four times out of five, it will deviate
0:06:53 > 0:06:56quite significantly.You will invent things as you go.Characters run
0:06:56 > 0:07:01away with the plot and all the rest, but I have to have a rough idea of
0:07:01 > 0:07:05theme if nothing else. My constant question to myself is, what is the
0:07:05 > 0:07:09story really about?I'm sure if there were a group of readers here,
0:07:09 > 0:07:13they would say to you, if they were keen on the books and had enjoyed
0:07:13 > 0:07:16them, they would say, why are you taking her away and they would ask
0:07:16 > 0:07:20you the inevitable question authors are doomed to answer, what happens
0:07:20 > 0:07:24to her afterwards?I quite like the idea that that might be in the
0:07:24 > 0:07:30reader 's imagination. Me before you was an odd book because it was
0:07:30 > 0:07:34peculiarly open ended, we ended up with her walking away in a street in
0:07:34 > 0:07:38Paris, and I found I kept asking myself the question, what would
0:07:38 > 0:07:42happen to you after being part of such a catastrophic life changing
0:07:42 > 0:07:46event? If you were part of somebody ending their life, you could not
0:07:46 > 0:07:50walk away from that with a bouncing off stride. Even if you thought you
0:07:50 > 0:07:55were OK, it would come back with a terrible kind of profound resonance
0:07:55 > 0:08:04in your life. The question, that was really the question. What happens
0:08:04 > 0:08:08next? But I feel like she's done now. I don't want people to think
0:08:08 > 0:08:12I'm flogging a stripey legged dead horse, so I might revisit her in a
0:08:12 > 0:08:19short story one day.Our!But as novels go, that's it.Readers are
0:08:19 > 0:08:23free to imagine she lives more or less happily ever after.I think
0:08:23 > 0:08:28they will have to read the book and the side.Jojo Moyes, author of
0:08:28 > 0:08:30Still Me, thank you very much.