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The Writers Write Interview – Lesley Pearse 2017
Writers Write creates writing resources and shares writing tips. In this post, we share our second interview with Lesley Pearse.
Lesley Pearse is one of the UK’s best-loved novelists. She is best-known for Belle
The Writers Write Interview With Lesley Pearse 2017
Author: Lesley Pearse
Date of Birth: 24 February 1945
Date of Interview: 10 May 2017
Book on Promotion: Dead To Me
Place of Interview: Winehouse, Ten Bompas Hotel
Interviewer: Mia Botha
We were fortunate to host Lesley Pearse for a second time. (Click here for our 2012 interview) We enjoyed a five course fine dining experience as Lesley let us in on her writing secrets. She was in South Africa to promote Dead To Me, her 24th book. Her previous novels include The Promise
1. Who is your favourite hero of fiction?
Etienne from Belle
2. What is your most treasured possession?
My children.
3. Which living person do you most dislike?
Fred and Rose West.
4. What is your greatest fear?
Losing my eyesight.
5. Who or what has been the greatest love of your life?
My second husband.
6. What is your greatest regret?
That I didn’t work harder at school, and that I didn’t go to University.
7. If you could choose to be a character in a book, who would it be?
Scarlett O’Hara
8. Which book have you read the most in your lifetime?
The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough
9. What is your favourite journey?
I like going to Italy.
10. What is your favourite quotation?
Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself. They came through you but not from you and though they are with you yet they belong not to you. – Khalil Gibran
11. Dogs or Cats? Which do you prefer?
Dogs.
12. What do you most value in a friend?
Complete loyalty.
13. What quality do you most admire in a woman?
Generosity of spirit.
14. Which book that you’ve written is your favourite?
Belle
15. What are your favourite names?
I wouldn’t mind being called Demelza and I also like Tabitha.
16. What do you do as a hobby?
Gardening and sewing.
17. Which are your three favourite books?
- Great Expectations by Charles Dickson
- Divine Secrets of the Ya-ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells
- Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
18. Where do you get your greatest ideas for writing?
I would like to say there is this free number I ring up and ask for ideas, but there is no magic like that. I really don’t know.
19. What is your Writing Routine?
My day starts with taking the dog out. Then I have a cup of coffee and if the weather is nice I garden, if it is raining, I write.
20. What are your Top Writing Tips?
- Be organised. The beds must be made and my desk must be tidy.
- It helps to turn on the PC.
- Write, even if you think it is rubbish. Even if you can just save a few lines at the end of the day it was worth it.
- Read a lot.
- Stick at it. Your book is not going to get sold if it is lying in your drawer.
- Set it aside for a few weeks after you are done.
- Don’t write in order.
- Write the blurb at the back, if you get stuck.
Watch Mia Botha speaking to Lesley at our dinner on 10 May 2017
Follow this link for more photographs and follow Lesley on Twitter: @LesleyPearse
Read Mia Botha’s weekly blogs for Writers Write and follow her on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, Tumblr and Twitter.
If you want to read more of our interviews, click here
Posted on: 21st May 2017
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