Kate Mosse: Sepulchre
Book Club Discussion

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Kate Mosse

You've obviously engaged in extensive research which, alone, is impressive. The weaving of the two fictional stories into the historical aspect was genius! How did the idea for Sepulchre originally come about?

Thank you! I spend years researching – really getting under the skin of a period of history, a place, a landscape, so it's fabulous when readers appreciate that, as much as the story too. Sepulchre, like Labyrinth before it – they are part of a Trilogy - was inspired by place. In this case, a tiny village called Rennes-les-Bains in the south of France, in the foothills of the French Pyrenees. My family and I have had a little house in Carcassonne, in the Languedoc region of France, for the past twenty years. In that time, I've got to know the mysterious, ancient woods around Rennes-les-Bains and read up on the history – prehistoric, Roman, Visigoth, medieval. What interests me, at the beginning of a story, is the relationship between 'real' history – ie the kings and queens and dates – and mythology, the stories that local people tell one another by the fireside over generations. So, Sepulchre, builds on this – the 19th century spa town, the explosion of interest in the occult and esoteric then, the power of music which was spreading throughout France, the legends of the ancient woodland surrounding the village. All you need after that, with so much wonderful material at your fingertips, is a creepy and isolated country house. Et voila!

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Kate Mosse

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Kate Mosse

At the root of this story, more powerful than evil, is love. It is Leonie's love for her brother that allows her to stand strong against Constant. By the same token, it is Meredith's love for her adoptive mother Mary that allows her the strength and courage to track down her tumultuous past. Even Constant, as sick as he was, could arguably have acted as he did out of love. What does this say about the nature of the emotion? That it can be both extremely wonderful and enduring and at the same time extremely dark and dangerous?

I'm so glad that this comes out – that, in the end, it is love, not hate, that defines us. That was certainly the message behind the relationships I portray in Sepulchre. There are plenty of traditional love stories, as it were – and, in fact, the third novel in my Languedoc Trilogy will be an old fashioned girl-meets-boy story – but I am also interested in the power of other relationships of love – parent for child, sibling for sibling, the way in which we choose who to love and how. Your question is great because I think it's important to acknowledge that love is a powerful emotion, both for good and ill. In Sepulchre, Constant's love becomes a tortured, violent thing. Léonie's love becomes a sacrificing, selfless thing. And Anatole's love makes him blind to the damage he is doing and it weakens him. So, yes, love is all these things and more!

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Kate Mosse

A character whose storyline left me feeling vaguely confused and as if there were more behind it than given, was Audric Baillard. Was there something immortal about him? Leonie always noticed that although he was old, he seemed and acted young. She could never even be sure of his age. I feel certain that the same Baillard that lived in Leonie's time was the one who "died" in 2005 at the dig. Can you tell us anything about this mysteriousness?

You're right, of course, because Audric Baillard is a character that readers have first met in Labyrinth and there's more of his story there, than in Sepulchre. It's always a gamble, reintroducing a character that only some readers will know. He is a man who has lived for many hundreds of years. He is, in some ways, the timeless physical representation of the mountains and the landscape and the history of the Pyrenees. He is the, if you'll excuse the pun, the 'constant' in the story, reminding the reader that there are many different stories to be told, at different times and from different points of view, but that they all come from the same source. I'll let you into a secret, though. I hadn't planned for Audric to make an appearance in Sepulchre, he did just stroll in and demand to be written into the story. And, as all authors know, the moment the characters start to boss you about, you've just got to follow your instincts! He has a small cameo role in the third novel in the Trilogy, Citadel, too.

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Kate Mosse

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Kate Mosse

Is the history of the Vernier Tarot deck based on a history of any actual Tarot deck? How much of the story surrounding the happenings at Domaine de la Cade is based in actuality?

There are many different Tarots decks, inspired by the passion, belief systems and interests of different readers/cartomancers. I based the Vernier Tarot on the Rider Waite deck – a famous deck which was produced at the beginning of the twentieth century – because it introduced, pretty much for the first time, a narrative on each of the minor arcana, not just for the 22 major arcana. I liked the idea of that, that the 'less important,' as it were cards, might also have a story to tell. It was important that the Vernier Tarot was original, though, because I needed to code into the cards my own plot and story and individual characters, such as Léonie, Constant, Anatole and Isolde. It was great commissioning an artist to bring those characters to colourful life. As for the Domaine de la Cade, it is an entirely imaginary place – although based on similar domaine/maison de maître in my part of France – and the story itself, unless I specify it's 'real' history (such as the floods of 1891) is also entirely imagined. I know, though, that local French and English people living in Rennes-les-Bains like to point out where they think the Domaine de la Cade might be situated!

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Kate Mosse

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Kate Mosse

Was Meredith's mother crazy or was she, like Meredith, hearing the voices of ancestors past, specifically Leonie?

Each reader will make up his or her mind, but my feeling is that she was mentally vulnerable, and a combination (probably) of drugs and an unhealthy marriage tipped her over the edge. The key thing with Meredith's biological mother is – and this is something I feel strongly about – that anyone could, because of bad luck or chemical imbalance or circumstances – have a period of what we call madness. For me, therefore, she's not clairvoyant or psychic, not as Meredith is, but rather a woman in distress who doesn't get the help she needs. In ghost stories, an individual who hears or sees a ghost has to be ready or willing to listen.

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Kate Mosse

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Kate Mosse

Can you tell us anything about your current writing projects?

Sure! I've just finished my first play, Syrinx, which was a fabulous – and different – experience. So communal and so immediate, compared to the solitude of fiction writing. I'm also just about to publish an illustrated novella, The Winter Ghosts, which is a story set in 1928 about male grief. It is a ghost story, but more significantly, it's a novel about redemption and the ways in which grief is complicated by guilt. And, of course, I'm working on the final novel in my Languedoc Trilogy, Citadel, due out in Autumn 2010 in the UK. It's a love story set against the backdrop to the Second World War in my corner of France. It's about war, the consequences of war, about collaboration and about the passeurs who smuggled Jewish men and women, and others persecuted by the Vichy and Nazi regimes, to safety through the mountains. The research has been harrowing, but the stories of courage and honour are uplifting. I only hope I can do the history justice!

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Kate Mosse