LS Hilton’s breathless bestsellers Maestra and its sequel Domina have sex, thrills and art in equal measure as the 20-something Judith Rashleigh expertly negotiates the perilous waters of high and low society. The 42-year-old author was in Bengaluru as part of a promotional tour. While digging into a chocolate cake at The Humming Tree, Hilton who writes history books and historical fiction as Lisa Hilton, spoke of social media, sex and society in this free-wheeling chat. Excerpts.
Did the protagonist Judith talk to you?
She did actually. I am glad you used the word talk because I have no idea what she looks like, I have a very good idea of what she sounds like. Her voice came to me quite easily which is unusual for me. I am someone who has to plod at writing.
Judith is not very fond of the “shoot first and scream later” generation…
Domina has a lot to say about social media. Judith uses it as part of her plan but it is also the reason she kills Alvin — he won’t stop with Instagram! It is a comment on the way in which thriller writing has been influenced by phones and social media. I realised I couldn't not address it. I thought it is so omnipresent in our world that writers who don’t address it are almost being dishonest. This maybe is a reason why a lot of thriller writers are either working in the past or working in a kind of imaginary vacuum where these things dont exist.
I thought I would embrace it. The phone is integral to the second book because I felt I cannot have a realistic character without smart phones and social media. Judith hates it, because she is naturally a secretive person. She says at one point, ‘why dont we all wear bracelets like convicts.’ She does not particularly like authority in any form. She experiences social media as a form of oppression. She sees technology as something that stops people from being people; in contrast to pictures, which to her are alive.
Do you use social media?
I am on Instagram but I cannot do it at all. My 11-year-old daughter is better at it than me. I am like a monkey stabbing at it. I find Instagram dull.
You have described her as a murdering sociopath. So is Judith an anti-hero?
I wanted to see if I could create a character who is unsympathetic and make people root for her despite themselves.
In Domina we get to know of a traumatic event in Judith's past. Is that real or something Judith made up?
That is a very good question (laughs). You will find out the answer in book number three .
I am asking this because in Maestra when Judith is asked why she is the way she is, she makes up a story...
The Americans made me cut that out. They said you cannot make jokes about sexual abuse. The Americans made loads of cuts. It is funny— you can graphically describe someone cutting someone's head off and that is fine. But a woman having her period is disgusting so they cut that.
So to get back to your question, in Maestra Judith says, look there is no trauma, I am like this. One of the rules for female characterization is that promiscuity is permitted if it is a consequence of trauma. Lizbeth Salander ( Millennium trilogy) is a case in point or Amy Dunne ( Gone Girl ).
The sex…
Let’s talk about sex she said, eating chocolate (laughs)
Did you have to work the sex into the narrative?
No, the sex is very much part of the story. Like the clothes, Judith's libido is very much part of herself in a way that the reader can understand her. The difficult thing about writing sex scenes is you have got to get the choreography right. You do not want a spare arm or leg sticking out somewhere! I don’t find writing about sex difficult because I do not find sex shameful or shocking.
Did you have fun with designer labels?
I did! When I was growing up, I used to love what in the UK we call bonkbuster novels — sex and shopping novels. There would be these fabulous women who changed their lovers as often as they changed their Versace jackets. I couldn’t even say Versace but I knew I wanted one. Women enjoy fashion magazines not only to have those clothes but also to have the life they seem to promise. Judith is a millennial, she is a product of a generation for whom branding is no longer rarefied but internalised, people quite unself-consciously speak of themselves as brands. They are a brand literate generation. For Judith, brands are an objective correlative of her. Her clothes are part of her character. I had enormous fun with the brands and it annoys me when people think it is some vulgar product placement. Also I would hasten to add DH Lawrence's Women in Love is obsessed with clothes. It is all about Gudrun and Ursula's stockings, dresses, hats.
Judith is obviously fond of the continent
I would like to go back to the bonkbusters for this. I grew up in a boring place in the middle of nowhere in the north of England. I remember reading about places like Gstaad and Sardenia and they seemed so exotic to me. When I was writing this book I had this idea of someone going to work on a cold grey morning on the tube. And suddenly for 10 minutes between stops you are in the Mediterranean. I think it is joyful! So I chose places that are joyful. Then in the second book, I undermined all that.
Apart from the sex, violence and exotic locales, the novels are also about art.
I didn’t set out to write in genre. I wanted to write a story that was fun. I wanted to write about these artworks that are stuck in dusty museums. You can have a book which has branded shoes and guns and mafia and it can also talk about pictures in an intelligent way. The novels are about seeing—what we think we see and what we see. In fact if there is a common thread in the books, it is perception.
Art is a big part of Judith's life...
That is because she is not capable of emotion in the conventional sense. The only real, powerful love, she feels is for paintings. She feels able to communicate with art in a way she cannot manage with actual human beings.
What is the status of the movie?
They have an option on Maestra and it should be on screen in 2018.
Do you have any idea about the casting?
I do not know who would play Judith because I do not know what she looks like. I think that is interesting because she could be anyone. I imagine her as an athletic body type, we know she runs and she is physically fairly strong. Her hair is shoulder length. I don’t imagine her as drop dead beautiful, I imagine her to be the sort of woman who if she walks into the room one way nobody would look at her and if she straightens her back or opens her eyes, suddenly she is the only woman in the room. It is to do with charisma more than beauty.
Could you comment on the names of the books?
The first one was called Maestra for several reasons. The artist who inspires Judith in the first book is Artemisia Gentileschi. She was the first woman to be admitted into the Guild of Painters in Florence in the 17th century. So they had to change the traditional appellation from maestro to maestra for a woman. Second, when we think of the word maestro, we think of an orchestra conductor, someone who is capable of maintaining a lot of complex narratives simultaneously. That struck me as being the kind of intelligence that Judith has. Also Maestra translates into mistress in English which has a sexual connotation as in a lover, but also someone who is in authority, someone who is in charge, a mistress of her destiny. It is an apt collection of tropes which gathered around the character.
While Maestro starts with a woman who has very little power or authority, she is not a mistress, she becomes one. At the beginning of Domina, she seems to be in control, but actually she is not. Also there is a little bit of playfulness because, with Domina you think of dominatrix and BDSM. Everyone said my book was like Fifty Shades of Grey so I thought let’s have some fun with that idea. The idea is that each title suggests something and then you find out that it is the opposite of what you expected. The point of Domina is that it undoes whatever happens in Maestra. The idea that she is in control is deconstructed. Hence the titles. The third book, which will be out in June 2018, is going to be called Ultima.
Why did you choose Latin words?
It was serendipitous. I picked the titles before the books were published. As it turned out, it is now published in 43 countries and they can keep the title in all 43!
When you wrote the first book, did you already think of it as a trilogy?
To be truthful, I had thought of writing two books, I had mapped out the story in my head, but three is the magic number in publishing. Basically what I did is I borrowed a bit of the second part of the story and stuck in number one and I chopped the rest of it to make three. That’s an honest answer. I should try and make up an artistic one.
The first book is complete in itself while the second book ends in a cliff hanger...
That was not my choice. That was my publisher’s choice. If it had been up to me, I would have ended it when Judith arrives in Calabria on the beach. But I guess because it grew so much as a brand between 1 and 2, I had to take a bit more editorial direction than I like. I have more people to please.
Is Judith Becky Sharpe's millennial counterpart?
I adore Becky Sharpe. She is one of the few transgressive women in the English cannon who is not punished. I loved her spiritedness. She is also unflinching about virtue being a luxury commodity. I could never hope to create anything as enduring and brilliant but I think if I had to choose a model, it would be Becky.
Any chance of Judith coming to India?
I did have an idea for an Indian character in number 3 before I came here and now I am a bit nervous about it because I am not sure I could do it justice.
