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Louisa Treger is a historical fiction novelist and author of the novel, The Paris Muse.
We recently caught up to talk about her latest novel, writing habits, book recommendations, and Louisa’s journey into publishing.
Hey Louisa, it’s lovely to have you on the blog. Thanks so much for joining me.
Please tell me a little more about yourself and your journey into publishing.
Thanks so much for having me. I am thrilled to be here.
I studied the violin at music college and later worked in orchestras, recording studios and as a teacher. And then, aged twenty-four, my life as a musician came to an abrupt end. I caught a virus, which turned into the debilitating condition ME.
For the best part of a year, I was confined to the house, suffering from overwhelming fatigue and limbs that ached as though I had flu. Playing the violin was out of the question. I didn’t have the strength to lift the instrument to my chin, much less perform on stage.
But something positive came out of it. Forced rest gave me an opportunity to rethink my life, and I realised I wanted to work with words, not music. Illness was my body’s way of telling me it was time for a change. As soon as I was well enough, I enrolled for a PhD at University College, London, focusing on early 20th century women’s writing.
While researching Virginia Woolf, I came across the writing of Dorothy Richardson, a personality I found so extraordinary I was later inspired to write a novel about her, The Lodger.
I began work on it once my three children started school, only to discover that having an English degree didn’t prepare me for writing fiction. I learned to write by working and working and getting it wrong, and weeping silent tears over my laptop, and then picking myself up and trying again.
Choosing the traditional publishing route was a bumpy journey strewn with rejection letters and ripped-up manuscripts. It took ten years to get my first publishing contract and there were times I was close to giving up. But there was always one more idea to try, one more story, and I kept going because I had to. Writing is part of who I am.
So, your latest novel is The Paris Muse.
Could you tell my audience a little more about it?
The Paris Muse tells the story of Dora Maar, best known as Picasso’s ‘Weeping Woman’, his muse and his lover, as though tears were her only defining feature. But she was far more – a pioneering photographer, painter, poet and committed left-wing activist.
The novel explores their love affair that broke her, and her journey towards self-discovery and self-expression. It is a story of heartbreak, resilience, and ultimately, artistic survival and redemption.
One of the commonalities between your novels is the spotlighting of women erased from history.
What’s your research process like before you begin writing about people like Dora Maar and Virginia Courtauld? How challenging is it to find that right ‘voice’ of theirs?
I love research – it’s like being a detective. Some avenues lead to dead ends, others turn up gold, and you never know which it’s going to be.
My approach is anything but systematic. I start with whatever leads I have and see where the journey takes me; there’s a kind of serendipity in the way one thing leads to another, and I’ve learned to trust the process.
I prefer primary material – letters, diaries if they exist, etc. I also like to visit the settings of my novels, where possible, as this breathes life into the writing.
By reading as widely as I can – everything the character wrote, everything written about her, and as much as possible about the period she lived in, her voice gradually starts to take shape in my mind. And then I take an imaginative leap, almost a leap of faith, into the story.
Which writers are you enjoying the most right now? And who are the biggest influences behind your own writing?
I am currently binge reading Elizabeth Strout. I love the empathy of her writing and the way in which she uses simple language to say so much.
A book that made a huge impression on me as a teenager was Villette by Charlotte Brontë. I prefer it to Jane Eyre. On the face of it, Villette is the story of a lonely woman’s love for an unattainable man. But it’s so much more – a passionate love story, an attack on the conventions binding 19th-century women, and a beautiful and strange work of poetic fiction.
Other favourite authors include Jane Austen, George Eliot, Charles Dickens, Doris Lessing, Margaret Atwood, Alice Munro, Rachel Kushner – I could go on.
Do you have any writing rituals or habits that help you stay creative?
I write in the dining room of my home in London, where a big bay window lets in plenty of natural light. Strong coffee is a must — in my favourite mug, a gift from my daughters. It features a photo of our late, adored golden cockapoo, Monty.
I love walking, and many of my best ideas seem to arrive when my legs are moving.
What’s next? Are you working on any new projects right now?
I am working on a new novel. It’s still in the early stages, so I won’t say much just yet – only that it’s a venture into true crime.
And finally, we love a good book rec here — so what’s the best book you’ve read this year?
Gabriële by Anne Berest and Claire Berest is based on the life of their great-grandmother, Gabriële Berest – wife, muse and intellectual catalyst of the artist, Francis Picabia, despite his manic-depressive temperament, compulsive infidelity, and flamboyant excesses.
Blending novel, biography and personal reflection, their account unfolds alongside the birth of Cubism, Dadaism, Abstraction, and other radical artistic movements.
It’s a unique and powerful portrait of a complex woman whose mark on modern art was both profound, and until now, overlooked.
The Paris Muse, published by Bloomsbury, is available in hardback, paperback, and ebook.
You can order your copy from all good bookstores, or order directly from the publisher.
