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Writer’s Block: Louise Ells
In her new novel Lies I Told My Sister (Latitude 46), the reminisces of Louise Ells’s protagonist sisters Lily and Rose reach a boiling point as they uncover hard truths about their past and estrangement. In today’s interview, Louise tells us her dreams for her characters, the books she’s loved lately, and how a chef’s life would be a decent substitute to her writer’s life.
All Lit Up: What was your most rewarding moment as an author?
Louise Ells: A reader I’ve never met wrote of Lies that “This was such a personal book for me. Three times in particular I was gobsmacked because I thought somehow Ells was eavesdropping on my family. So real and raw!!” High praise indeed!
All Lit Up: What books have you read lately that you just can’t stop thinking about?
Louise Ells: Oooh, where to start? Here are a few I have recently highly recommended on Instagram: Multitudes and Intimacies by Lucy Caldwell, Tilting Towards Joy by Margaret Macpherson, Grief’s Alphabet by Carrie Otter, The Wedding People and Notes On Your Sudden Disappearance by Alison Espach, What the Living Do by Susan E. Wadds, Bury the Lead by Kate Hilton and Elizabeth Renzetti, We Rip the World Apart by Charlene Carr.
All Lit Up: What do you hope readers take away from Lies I Told My Sister?
Louise Ells: I hope they find whatever it was they were looking for in a book when they chose to read it – escapism, comfort, a different perspective – and feel the time they devoted to Lily and Rose was time well spent. If any reader smiles, or cries, or thinks lovingly about a family member or friend, or finds optimism – then that’s an amazing bonus.
All Lit Up: What excites you about the current literary landscape?
Louise Ells: There are so many wonderful books being published, and there are so many people talking about those books – in podcasts, in substack essays, on social media. Over the past several years I’ve discovered creative non-fiction, poetry, interactive essays, short stories, and novels through BookTok, and literary festivals, and modern word of mouth, which I might never have otherwise found. My TBR pile is ridiculously high – but isn’t that a marvellous ‘problem’ to have?
All Lit Up: If you weren’t an author, what do you think you’d be doing?
Louise Ells: I suspect I’d be working in a kitchen somewhere – either as an established Sous Chef in a restaurant with at least two Michelin stars, or in a series of diners, caffs, boats, and tourist eateries around the world as I traveled from place to place. I spent my original gap year (between High School and Uni) earning a Grand Diploma from the Cordon Bleu, but then I added another six years of gap by apprenticing under the Roux brothers, and bumming around the world cooking in chalets in France (to ski), on Caribbean islands (to scuba dive), and in any kitchen that would hire me when I wanted to stop and live somewhere interesting.
When I was 17 and wondering about my future, my grandfather suggested that someone who enjoyed eating as much as I did might do worse than become a chef, as “people will always need and want to eat.” That was great advice, and I’ve paid many bills over the years by making meals.
Who knows? Perhaps I’d have appeared on a few culinary shows by now (Chopped, Masterchef The Professionals, and the Great British Bake Off are my three favourites) and I’d be freelancing as a judge. Ha!
All Lit Up: How do you celebrate when you finish writing a book?
Louise Ells: This is a trick question, surely! Is a book ever “finished”?! Every time I read from my novel I find myself revising on the fly. I did celebrate when Latitude 46 offered me a contract for my short story collection – by driving to the closest bookstore and treating myself to a stack of books.
All Lit Up: If you could spend a day with one of your characters, who would it be and why?
Louise Ells: I would like to save Tansy from the fire, allow her to age, and spend time with her, to see who she becomes. I was not yet four when my oldest sister, Margaret Ruth, died and I mourn the years we were never able to spend together. It breaks my heart that Rose’s daughters will never have the chance to love, and be loved by, their Aunt Tansy, but I’m glad their Aunt Lily and their grandmother have stories about Tansy to share with Rose’s girls.
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Louise Ells combined random jobs (chef, roofer, co-pilot on a submarine) with years of travel before earning an MA in Creative Writing from Bath Spa University, and a PhD from Anglia Ruskin University. Louise has taught grammar, poetry, and fiction, and presented at academic conferences in London, Cambridge, and Vienna. She works for Cambridge Programmes, teaching at Churchill College, Cambridge, for two weeks every summer. She was awarded a Hawthornden Fellowship in 2017. She lives in North Bay.