09 Jan 2024
St Albans writer Becky Alexander is probably best known as an expert on the local foodie scene, but she is now hoping to break new ground as a novelist, with her first book exploring the dark side of the highly-competitive theatre world.
“Two years ago, I went to a literary festival and thought right, it’s now or never, I needed to see if I could write a novel. I’d just turned 50, my grandma had died and left me a couple of thousand pounds and I thought, ‘Shall I spend it on the kids and all the boring stuff or on a writing course?’ I was not thinking I’d become rich and famous, just like, can I do it? I didn’t want to have any regrets, so that’s why I sat down and tried to do it.”
The course, by Curtis Brown, proved to be technical, rigorous and difficult, but she persevered.
“They teach you about structure, about the common mistakes that writers make, about the logistics of sitting down and getting on with it, and self-editing.
“There were 15 of us in the group and we checked each other’s work and were encouraged to comment ruthlessly, but also in tactful way. So it’s a very good process.”
Surprisingly, she always knew that she wanted to write about the theatre world.
“The idea was to write about cutthroat actors, directors and producers and the idea of why do people want to get on stage? Because that terrified me, the whole idea of it. Why do people attract that criticism and competition?
“I know I do quite a lot of actors and casting people and it’s quite exposing going out there on stage. I wanted to write about those characters and took it down a sort of thriller route because I thought it sort of makes it more interesting and engaging. It’s about these people and what they get away with.”
Someone Like You is about a down-to-luck actress who gets a break and tries to make it in the acting world.
“She goes to an audition in Soho, and it’s really creepy but she doesn’t quite know why, and she comes out of it feeling like, that was so weird and I’m not sure about all this. Anyway, as the novel goes on, you realise that there’s a bit of a Me Too type thing with a producer who’s interested in her, maybe not for good reasons. So it’s her story and the people she meets and the places she goes to and the jobs she gets, and what happens.
As part of her research into the technicalities behind theatre, she contacted local company OVO to watch the rehearsals for their production of Macbeth, and was warmly welcomed by directors Janet Podd and Adam Nichols.
“They were so nice! I remember how professional they were and how lovely they were actually! So there’s no characters based on it, but I sent it to Adam, and told him, ‘don’t worry, you will not recognise anybody in here!’ One of the scenes in the novel is at The Minack Theatre [in Penzance], so I also went and watched them there. They were brilliant, absolutely brilliant!
“I also started doing drama lessons with St Albans Best Drama School, and that was fascinating because you get this little glimpse into the local am-dram scene, which is very lovely but also competitive.
“I read a lot of articles in The Stage newspaper, pieces on actors in the Sunday supplements, their Wikipedia pages… You think, God, that’s such a weird life. They go through so much rejection and so much judgement. Then there’s the producers and theatre owners and you think, how do you own a theatre? How did you get to that point? Who did you tread on to get to the point where you own five theatres? I mean, it’s a bit weird. It’s a big world, it’s very competitive.”
She also received some pointers from local novelist – and good friend – Matt Arlidge: “His main advice that stuck with me was treat it like a job. You sit down every day and you write it. He took himself up to Waterstones, he wrote up there, and he said, even if you don’t feel like you’ve got anything to write about, you have to sit down and you have to do it. I think it was like, get on the ****ing chair! And that’s good advice, because otherwise everything else gets in the way.
“When I had to finish it I just did it every day, weekends, bank holidays!”
So what did her family make of it? “My children were so embarrassed by the sex scenes, as you can imagine. Oh God what’s mum up to now? But they’re actors so in the end they were OK with it!”
Surprising for someone with a food background – Becky also edits food books for Penguin – she wasn’t tempted to write about the comparatively competitive world of high-end cookery.
“I saw a really good play at the Edinburgh Festival, ages ago, about a murderous, weird chef, and I was quite interested in food critics. But most chefs tend to be quite nice people, they just want to feed people and be nice and hospitable so on the whole I thought it was less cutthroat but maybe next time!”
Someone Like You is available digitally from Storm Publishing from January 10.
