AJ West’s The Spirit Engineer won the 2022 HWA Debut Crown award for the best first novel by a historical fiction writer. Praised by the judges as “haunting, deeply moving and witty”, it looks at the subject of spiritualism during the Edwardian age through the experiences of a deeply troubled man. We’re delighted to begin Historia’s series of interviews with the authors of Crown Awards shortlisted and winning books by talking to AJ about his book, his writing and his tips for first-time authors.
The HWA Debut Crown Award celebrates new voices in historical fiction. What does winning the Debut Crown mean for you?
Winning this award means the world to me. My novel tells a rather strange story through the eyes of an unreliable and not always loveable narrator, so it was very difficult to find a publisher and impossible to land an an agent. Thankfully, the popularity of the novel has been a great encouragement to me, but this award is the most wonderful proof that there’s a place for my writing and I have to keep following my heart. Thank you. Every other book I write will be a testament to the faith the HWA judges have shown in my work.
Has history always been a passion?
Yes absolutely. The parish church in my home town used to be lit up at night when I was a boy, and I used to peer out from my bedroom window staring at it, imagining the tower was a castle. I’d make up stories about the people living there and spend time reading books about how castles were built and renovated across the centuries. Even then, history helped me understand the present. In fact, the very first story I wrote was about Howard Carter’s discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb. I read it to the class and — even though I was painfully shy — I felt so happy to be sharing my writing. I knew then that I wanted to be a novelist one day, and that my stories would have to be set in the past.
How did the initial idea for The Spirit Engineer come about?
I was reading Harry Houdini’s book, A Magician Among The Spirits, when I stumbled across a fleeting mention of Professor William Jackson Crawford from Belfast. I was living in Belfast at the time and it became apparent that his story was almost entirely forgotten. I decided to do a little digging and before I knew it, I was gripped by a determination to render his story as fiction.
Your characters are, I think it’s fair to say, flawed. Which one was most fun to write?
Yes, all the characters are flawed, really — because all people are flawed. William certainly gets most of the stick from readers and that was absolutely my intention. He’s there precisely to make the reader question his behaviour, and to explore the hidden life and motivations of an Edwardian man. Lady Adelia Carter is another particularly flawed character. Vain, manipulative, judgemental, snobbish. She offers a little comedy and colour in the gloom of the attic and I just love some of her quips.
Are there any authors who particularly inspire you?
Thomas Hardy inspires me, and Charles Dickens. MR James is an inspiration too. He understands how to play with our innermost fears and then toys with them so masterfully. I love Isabel Allende and Michel Faber. It’s wonderful to read a book and truly feel it. I wanted The Spirit Engineer to have the same emotional charge; to make the reader feel sad, frightened, amused, angry, and troubled.
I have seen a couple of one star reviews from people saying they hated the book because William made them so angry! They found him so loathsome they haven’t been able to finish the book. I just grin and think: Gotcha! But thankfully, most readers understand that he is a flawed man trying to be a success, and he’s a victim too.
Is historical research a pleasure – or a slog?
Oh, it’s a pleasure. I can honestly say I’ve never found it a slog. You can see some of my research on my website and I hope my enthusiasm comes across there. I had no money, no home and very little sanity at the time I was researching the book, so the historical research gave me a purpose — a feeling that something was important in my life. The project was a way to focus on the past and remind myself that other people have lived, loved, adventured, and made embarrassing mistakes long before I appeared.
I suppose the only thing I do sometimes find difficult is when I’m writing a tricky chapter and I’m suddenly having to research Georgian wherry boats or Edwardian underwear, but even then it’s really not a chore. You can guarantee the next time I’m down the pub, everyone will receive a fascinating lecture on the history of rowing boats and historical underpants.
Were you surprised by anything you discovered during your research for The Spirit Engineer?
I was surprised to find myself chatting to Kathleen and William’s descendants. That was extraordinary. Thankfully, both families are wonderfully supportive of the book. In fact, we laid a plaque on William’s grave together in July to commemorate the anniversary of his death and — to my disbelief — they included my name and the title of the book in the inscription!
It hit home then that my little passion project had brought William and Kathleen back to life and, whatever we think of their story, I do think they deserve to be remembered.
From initial idea to publication, was it a smooth path or a rocky road?
Oh, it was an absolute nightmare. I initially had some interest from a wonderful editor at a big publishing house. I didn’t have an agent and I thought maybe I didn’t really need one. I spent two years writing the first draft but then the publisher decided it wasn’t for them at the last moment. I was pretty devastated and figured that was it for my book.
I then started querying agents but didn’t get a single manuscript request and hardly any replies which was infuriating. In the end, I resigned myself to being unpublished and was working in a very stressful job.
Then one day I followed a lovely man called Matt Casbourne on Twitter and realised afterwards he was an editor at Duckworth Books. I made a last ditch submission and a couple of days later they offered me a book deal. I fell off the sofa and sobbed because I couldn’t believe it. My childhood dream was coming true.
I then contacted a long list of other agents, thinking they might be interested in working with me but alas — not a single one of them asked to read any of my work and the vast majority ignored me completely. I guess a man writing a chauvinist isn’t really the zeitgeist in historical fiction these days! I see now how naive I was, but I’m proud to have brought something different to the bookshelves. So I was alone during the editing process — which I loved — and I got to work very closely with Matt and the team, designing the illustrations and book cover and working on our marketing plan.
I have a great agent now in David Headley at DHH, and in a way I’m glad I faced so much rejection from the industry, because it’s going to make every achievement — not matter how small — even sweeter.
Have you got any tips for someone starting their first novel?
I would say focus hard on the purpose of your book. What is the driving force that justifies its existence? Then get that in the mix from the very beginning. Sometimes people describe The Spirit Engineer as a ‘slow burn’, because the seances take a while to appear, and perhaps I might have started the book with a seance scene but actually, the purpose of my story wasn’t to tell a ghost story, it was to explore the tragic downfall of a fragile and flawed man of his time.
Still, I am learning as an author and future books will benefit from feedback. That’s another thing I’d say — don’t be too attached to what you’ve written. The paragraph or chapter you love is nowhere near as good as the one you’ll replace it with.
You’re working on your second book. Can you give us a few clues about what to expect?
Love, adventure, mystery, terror, and — I hope — a time machine to somewhere entirely new.
The Spirit Engineer by AJ West was published in hardback on 7 October, 2021 and in paperback on 21 July, 2022.
AJ has written about the moral dilemmas he faced while researching his novel in Should historical authors feel guilt when they write real people as antiheroes?
He’s an award-winning former BBC journalist, radio broadcaster and voice artist from Buckinghamshire. AJ has also written for newspapers and magazines and appeared on television, including on Big Brother. He now lives in South London with his husband, Nicholas Robinson.
Images:
- AJ West: portrait by Leigh Keily
- Photograph of William Jackson Crawford: supplied by the author
- Photograph of the ‘medium’ Kathleen Goligher from The Reality of Psychic Phenomena by William Jackson Crawford (John M Watkins, 1916): Wikimedia (public domain)
- AJ visiting William Jackson Crawford’s unmarked grave: from video on AJ’s website
This is the first of our series of interviews with authors who won or were shortlisted for the 2022 HWA Crown Awards. The next will be with Clare Mac Cumhaill and Rachael Wiseman, whose Metaphysical Animals won the HWA Non-fiction Crown.
