By Alix Norman
It takes several attempts to get in contact with Catherine Broughton. Not, I hasten to add, because she’s particularly elusive or reclusive, but more due to the internet connection between Cyprus and Belize. Yes, Belize. As that’s where this well-travelled author is currently to be found. And when we do finally achieve our 7,000-mile connection, it’s a delight to be able to hear, not just Catherine, but also the waves on the beach just metres from her computer.
“It’s ever so hot here, very tropical,” says the sixty-something writer, wiping her brow and flapping her light top. “Somewhere in the high thirties I should imagine. Can you hear the parrot in the background? It’s making a terrible racket!” On a visit to her eldest son in Central America, Catherine is more normally to be found in France, her home for the past twenty-odd years. But it’s her time in Cyprus that is the reason for our phone call, because it’s this period of her life that is the inspiration behind her novel The Man With Green Fingers.
Peripatetic in the extreme, Catherine has visited Cyprus on numerous occasions, and professes a great love for the island and its people: “I’ve been to Cyprus several times, each time we’ve stayed six to seven weeks; we were thinking of buying a house there for a while. It’s such a colourful island, and the people seem to me to be extremely open and friendly; I loved the whole feel of the place, especially the Troodos.” And it was on one of her many visits to Paphos that the story of The Man With Green Fingers came about.
An amalgamation of the romance, mystery-murder and adventure genres, this is a novel aimed mostly at female readers, though “I’ve known men who enjoyed reading it too,” Catherine adds. “First and foremost I think it’s a really good yarn, and people who know Cyprus – whether they live there or have merely visited the island – would be interested in reading it. Once I started writing the book, I came back to the island to get some of the descriptions. There’s a bit if Cypriot history thrown in for interest, and I hope I’ve got it all right.”
With a plot which twists and turns with incisive intricacy, Catherine’s latest novel tells the story of three characters, Stella, John and Ashley, none of whom are quite what they seem: ‘When we meet somebody for the first time, we assume they are the person they say they are, but could we – and should we – look more closely?’ runs the blurb. ‘Behind the normal facades of some people there lurk secrets they would kill you over…
‘Set on the colourful island of Cyprus, amid the British expatriate community, The Man With Green Fingers tells the startling story of three people. Painstakingly researched and crisply told, the author brings to light a bizarre situation and creates a story that will stay in your mind long after you have finished reading.’
Surprisingly, it didn’t take Catherine long to pen the novel – less than a year – and she attributes this fact to her boundless energy and love of writing. “I’m hyperactive in life, not just when it comes to my writing. I’ve been writing since I was seven years old,” she recalls. “Our family were living in Central Africa” – her father was a doctor of tropical medicine, part of the team largely responsible for wiping out malaria and leprosy in the region – “and schooling was virtually non-existent. That was probably where it all began: a little girl in Africa longing for something different.
“Growing up in such a variety of countries seems to make people very open-minded, very willing to try things that other people might shy away from,” she adds. And perhaps it’s this that has made this ex-teacher forge ahead into the publishing world, where so many would be scared to tread. “Writing is almost like an illness to me, it’s terribly addictive. I’m constantly having to put pen to paper, and I never travel without a biro and a notepad and a sketchbook.”
As well as her writing – both prose and poetry – Catherine is also an accomplished illustrator, her ink and wash sketches frequently the product of her travels. And she admits to “always jotting down notes and describing people I’ve come across. I’ll probably describe you in a minute.” I’m slightly taken aback.
In response to my queries on the writing process, Catherine mentions that she always puts a great deal of effort into her protagonists’ back stories: “I write – and sketch – the characters as a reference for myself, rather than part of the novel,” she explains. “For me it’s very important – I need to get to know them first, otherwise I wouldn’t know how to fit them in to the novel. As the story is evolving I get terribly excited at times – periodically terribly pleased or horribly angry with my characters. And sometimes I retreat into a bubble – I can’t leave it alone, I keep going back and chewing away at it.”
As a writer of sorts, I know this feeling well – I’ve often agonised over the perfect phrasing, a captivating lead or rounded conclusion. But it must be ever so much more challenging when you’re penning a full-length novel. Luckily, Catherine seems to have a brusque, no-nonsense tenacity that suggest she’ll always find a way to make things work, be it lighting upon inspiration for her books (“Often it’s something I’ve heard, a true story that just gives me an idea”) or convincing the ether to connect her to a journalist half way round the globe. And as I close my portrayal of Catherine, I’m left wondering… how will she be describing me?
The Man With Green Fingers by Catherine Broughton is available from Amazon at a cost of approximately £7.45, and through the author’s website: www.turquoisemoon.co.uk
