Nancy Atherton: Aunt Dimity Down Under
Book Club Discussion
February 16, 2010. Nancy Atherton, author of Aunt Dimity Down Under,
talks about the latest book of the Aunt Dimity series
in an interview with Queenie D.
Book Club Discussion: Interview with Nancy Atherton
How
did the Aunt Dimity series get started?
The
Aunt Dimity series started when I woke up in the middle of the night with the first two lines of the first book in my head: "When I learned
of Aunt Dimity's death, I was stunned. Not because she was dead, but because I'd never known she'd been alive." I didn't know who was speaking,
and I certainly didn't know who Aunt Dimity was, so I wrote Aunt Dimity's Death to find out. The rest of the series grew--and continues to
grow--from those first two lines.
I hadn't the slightest notion that I was supposed to be a writer until I began to write the first book, so I'm very, very grateful to those two
lines for sending me on a journey that has given me so much joy.
Book Club Discussion: Interview with Nancy Atherton
Tell
us about the original idea behind Dimity and Lori.
I
have no idea where Aunt Dimity came from, but Lori and I have a lot in common. I definitely share her quick temper, her hasty tongue, and her
impatience, and I'd like to think I share her sense of humor. I'll leave it for others to decide whether or not I'm as good-hearted as she is.
Book Club Discussion: Interview with Nancy Atherton
This
is my first Aunt Dimity mystery so I'm curious, do most of them involve some type of quest, as Lori goes in search of Aubrey Pym, or is each mystery
wholly different?
All
of my mysteries--and mysteries in general--involve a quest for truth, but the nature of each quest is quite different.
Book Club Discussion: Interview with Nancy Atherton
I
was entranced by the colloquialisms of Finch's inhabitants, as well as the feeling that the whole town was living in a different century, where
manners and gentility prevail. Is it really like this in the English countryside?
I
have received astonishingly warm welcomes in every English village I've ever visited, but Finch is the way it is because it's a small, rural
community, not because it's in England. If you visit a small, rural community in America, you might feel as if it's from a different century. I
could write a dissertation on the subject, but I'll confine myself to an item you mentioned: good manners.
It makes sense to have good manners in a small town. If you're mean and nasty to someone in a small town, your neighbors will know about it before
the day is through and you'll have to face the consequences. You'll also have to face the person you offended, either at the post office or at the
grocery store or in church or over your back fence. You can't hide in a crowd in a small town, because there is no crowd, so if you want to have
friends who live nearby, it's helpful to be pleasant.
Also, Finch is inhabited by a large number of older people, who grew up in a world that valued good manners. If you spend time with older people
in America, you'll discover the same phenomenon.
Book Club Discussion: Interview with Nancy Atherton
Now
that Bree has the chance for a "normal" life, will she live up to her great-grandaunts' expectations and become part of the town?
The
truly magnificent thing about the Pym sisters is that they don't ask Bree to live up to any expectations. In the book they state quite clearly
that "a gift isn't a gift if it becomes a burden." It'll be fine with them if Bree stays in Finch. It'll be fine with them if she sells their
house and opens a surf shop in the Outer Hebrides. The Pyms love and cherish their great-grandniece without asking one single thing of her. Their
unconditional love is an entirely new experience for Bree. How she reacts to it remains to be seen.
Book Club Discussion: Interview with Nancy Atherton
Tell
us a little more about Nell and Kit. Is Kit much older than Nell? Why does their love seem to transcend that of a normal relationship?
It
would be a crime against reading to reduce Kit and Nell's long-running, suspense-filled, and utterly delicious love story to a few short answers
in an interview. To experience it for yourself (the best way to experience it, I promise), I suggest that you read Aunt Dimity's Christmas;
Aunt Dimity: Detective; and Aunt Dimity: Vampire Hunter, in that order.
Book Club Discussion: Interview with Nancy Atherton
Is
Willis, Sr., going to find a mate?
Your
guess is as good as mine. I don't plan things out for my characters. They reveal themselves to me as I write, which means that they always have
the capacity to surprise me. I would find it incredibly boring to know their stories in advance. Their unpredictability keeps me interested,
entertained, perplexed, charmed, involved. I never know what they'll do next!
Book Club Discussion: Interview with Nancy Atherton
Can
you tell us anything about the next Aunt Dimity story?
I
could tell you all sorts of things about the next Aunt Dimity story, but I'd prefer to let my readers take their own journeys of discovery.
Apart from that, my stories change as I write them, so whatever I say about the book now may no longer be true by the time I finish it. I will
tell you that the next installment in the Aunt Dimity series takes place in Finch.
BCQ: Any other current writing projects?
Nancy: Since I put my entire heart, mind, and soul into the book I'm currently writing, I have nothing left to give to side projects. The
Aunt Dimity stories receive my full and undivided attention. And much love.
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