1–What is the title of your latest release?
2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?
A woman’s screenwriter partner’s new show depicts a man cheating, relentlessly. She always thought he was faithful but when she recognizes a real secret from her past on the television show…could the infidelity be taken from his?
3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place?
I have a huge crush on Manchester in England – it was my university city – and I love it as setting for romantic comedies. It’s big, exciting, atmospheric but distinctly northern and less cliched than London. Give me imposing Victorian buildings, rain, and bars that serve good Negronis, and I am happy.
4–Would you hang out with your heroine in real life?
Oh definitely. I love Roisin. She’s sparky but not intimidatingly so, and as they say in the book, got a lot of presence about her in a non ego ridden way.
5–What are three words that describe your hero?
Ooooh…. Lighthearted. Secretive. Warm.
6–What’s something you learned while writing this book?
That if you’re writing a Did He Didn’t He (or indeed any story with a tease revelation / mystery) you have to think very carefully about how you breadcrumb the reader through the narrative. Give too much away, you’ve blown it, too little, and the conclusion is unsatisfying. It’s a funny trick of giving enough clues the reader COULD solve it, they just don’t know it until the end.
7–Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?
I edit obsessively as I go, which makes me painstakingly slow and annoying but hopefully means I turn in a reasonably clean first draft! It’s the only way I know. I was a journalist before I was a novelist and I need everything to be polished and convincing, or I lose all faith. And “losing faith” is a far bigger issue than you realize when you embark on this job. It’s like a confidence trick you have to keep playing on yourself.
8–What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?
Hmmm probably an Indian meal. You may know this but we’re fairly obsessed with curry in Britain, it goes so well with wet weather. It is a ‘crave’ food for me, which are your God Tier foods. I enjoy pizza, I do not crave it. This fact horrifies some of my friends.
9–Describe your writing space/office!
It’s just my front room or a coffee shop! I am very “have my pink MacBook, can write anywhere” about it, rather than having a tricked out garden shed. My front room is very me: fairy lights round the mirror and vase of flowers. And loud fluffy cat. Womens fiction 101. Like Joan Wilder in Romancing The Stone.
10–Who is an author you admire?
Too many to name check but I recall starting Gone Girl when it came out, and thinking Gillian Flynn had everything working triumphantly at once. The prose, the characters, the dialogue, the hook…
11–Is there a book that changed your life?
Pride & Prejudice and Persuasion by Jane Austen probably blue printed all my novels…
12–Tell us about when you got “the call.” (when you found out your book was going to be published)
Oh, that’s a great question, and do you know…maybe this is memory playing tricks, but I think it was an email? And it said, “you have a two-book deal with HarperCollins.” I don’t want to take away ANY excitement from what is just one long series of “wow” moments, but after HarperCollins read my debut manuscript, they asked me in to meet two editors for coffee. And it was fairly obvious they’d not do that for a “no.” I had a sense if I didn’t completely mess that up, I had a deal. So the formal offer wasn’t as massive a surprise as it might’ve been. This is the most anticlimactic answer you’ve had, isn’t it?! Please note: there were five years of unpublished despair prior to this, too.
13–What’s your favorite genre to read?
I love a spy / detective novel. Mick Herron’s Slough House series (now on television as Slow Horses) is amazing.
14–What’s your favorite movie?
Oh my God, just one?! I love the melancholy dark comedy Withnail & I.
15–What is your favorite season?
Easy: spring. I’m not one of these deep people who chooses autumn, or shudder, even worse, winter. You can keep your frosty air and stews, give me hyacinths, chocolate, optimism and lighter nights. In Britain, spring feels like finally crawling out of a dark tunnel.
16–How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
Always a meal out with friends and family! Maybe some champagne on the day. It’s February, so a totally rank time of year that needs cheering up.
17–What’s a recent tv show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?
It’s hardly a hot tip by now but as I write I am REELING from the awe inspiring writing of the ‘Connor’s Wedding’ episode of Succession’s last series. Apple TV’s Slow Horses is a grubby, droll joy featuring incredible performances by, among others, Gary Oldman and Jack Lowden (one to watch.) Podcasts: if you love romance novels and “chick lit”, try Sentimental Garbage. Superb analysis of maligned and sidelined cultural artefacts by intelligent women, hosted by the writer Caroline O’Donoghue. My book Who’s That Girl? got an episode and listening to it was one of the most thrilling hours of my life.
18–What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
Indian and Italian, but you also struggle to keep me away from Korean noodle.
19–What do you do when you have free time?
I love walking and listening to my music, which is when I either have most of my ideas or solve most of my plot problems. FREE-free time? I’d be off to New York to make a nuisance of myself.
20–What can readers expect from you next?
I am overjoyed for once to be able to say: I don’t know! I am on a rare break, which means my next book will appear in 2025. However, it will be a very Mhairi book I am sure, which hopefully at this point means heartache, quandaries and one-liners.
BETWEEN US by Mhairi McFarlane
A Novel
International bestseller Mhairi McFarlane delivers a witty, clever, emotional new novel about a woman whose life unravels spectacularly after her screenwriter boyfriend uses their relationship as inspiration for his new television show.
When Roisin and Joe join their friends for a weekend at a country house, it’s a triple celebration—a birthday, an engagement, and the launch of Joe’s shiny new TV show. But as the weekend unfolds, tensions come to light in the group and Roisin begins to question her own relationship. And as they watch the first episode of Joe’s drama, she realizes that the private things she told him—which should have stayed between them—are right there on the screen.
With her friend group in chaos and her messy love life on display for the whole world to see, Roisin returns home to avoid the unwanted attention and help run her family’s pub. But drama still follows, in the form of her dysfunctional family and the looming question: what other parts of her now-ex’s show are inspired by real events? Lies? Infidelity? Every week, as a new episode airs, she wonders what other secrets will be revealed.
Yet the most unexpected twist of all is an old friend, who is suddenly there for Roisin in ways she never knew she needed…
Romance Comedy [HarperCollins Publishers, On Sale: August 8, 2023, Paperback / e-Book, ISBN: 9780063117990 / eISBN: 9780063118003]
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About Mhairi McFarlane
Mhairi was born in Scotland in 1976 and has been explaining how to pronounce her name ever since. She is based in Nottingham where she’s a freelance writer and sometime-blogger. She likes drinking wine, eating food and obtaining clothes; all the impressive hobbies. She lives with a man and a cat.
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