Miss Penny Saves the Heir follows a schoolmistress and medium whose life is turned upside down by a duel and a suspicious death. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?

I am an avid reader of Regency novels. I read the complete Regency novels by Georgette Heyer and many of the works by M. C. Beaton and Ann Barker. Jane Austen is one of my favourite writers, and every year I make a point of re-reading her six complete novels. Each time I do I learn a little more from Jane Austen’s fascinating world of Regency England.

Before I started the Miss Penny series I wrote two Regency romance novellas, and I just thought it was fun to depict this era because it was much more carefree and cheerful when compared to the restrained and prudish mood that permeated the Victorian era. But what really gave me the idea to start writing about a lady investigator of murders was a series of four Regency books written by Anna Dean. The first book in the series is called A Moment of Silence, and it depicts a spinster who is a poor relative and therefore shipped from one member of the family to another in order to make herself useful. During one of her sojourns to her brother’s house, a murder is committed, and Miss Dido Kent decides to investigate it. At the time I read the book I was entranced by the idea, and I remember thinking, “This is Agatha Christie meeting Jane Austen; what a wonderful concept.”

It was then that Miss Penny started to grow in my mind until she materialised as a schoolmistress, a choir singer, a pianist and a professional medium who can also communicate telepathically with her cat. I slowly built up the small town of Asterton with its church, its rectory, its high street, the post office, the haberdasher, gentle Aunt Agatha and idyllic Foxglove Cottage. Now I’m writing the sixth novel in the series, and I feel that each time I embark on a new one I’m transported to the Regency world of Asterton. On each occasion I also get to know my characters better and encounter new aspects of them that I hadn’t noticed before. Each novel in the series to me is a journey of discovery. 

Miss Penny’s séances and musical gifts give the novel a unique atmosphere. Were those qualities inspired by historical spiritualism traditions?

In some respects, yes. I enjoy how spiritualism, mesmerism and especially a séance were treated in the literary world during the 19th century. Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins wrote about séances and took part in them because they truly believed that a scientific approach to the world of non-manifestation was possible to reach. Charles Dickens even went so far as to attempt to practise mesmerism himself with his friends.

I do believe that there are two worlds that sometimes can intersect: the world of manifestation, this tangible world where we live, and the world of the afterlife, of spirits and of non-manifestation. I’m fascinated by the works of the famous French traditionalist philosopher Rene Guenon, and Symbols of Sacred Science is a book I always go back to. In my opinion, music is the most abstract of the arts, and therefore a musical séance would be the best way to bring together the world of the living and the spiritual world. This is why Miss Penny always obtains results when she conjures up a spectre using her musical talents. Music is a universal language that can cross worlds and parallel universes.  I do believe that it is only through the power of music that two completely different worlds like the world of matter and the world of spirit can connect for a short time only to split apart again. The French philosopher Henri Bergson said in one of his books, “Matter is concentrated spirit.” I do believe it is, and the same logic follows: spirit is diluted matter. In the end they complement each other because matter and spirit are part of the same universe.

How did you decide the “rules” for communicating with spirits in Asterton?

Some people, like Miss Penny, are more sensitive and more open to the non-manifested world. They don’t have to make an effort; the world of spirits comes naturally to them like Lady Caroline came naturally to Miss Penny when she was roaming the Lanercoste Cathedral ruins. They live in the manifested world, but they also have a foot in the world of non-manifestation. They simply tread softly and effortlessly between two worlds because this is the way they were born and this is their essence. They are artistic, like Miss Penny, and intuitive. So it makes perfect sense that Miss Penny will be able to communicate with the world of spirits and try to make sense of what they want to convey to her during her piano-séance sessions. However, very few people can tread both worlds like Miss Penny can. We are sceptics and we are tied to this manifested world because we are made of matter and our lives revolve around a material, tangible world. Cats, however, can do so easily because they are natural channels between the spiritual and tangible worlds. Without Onyx, a piano séance wouldn’t be complete. Cats are sensitive animals who have been associated with the world of non-manifestation since classical antiquity and ancient Egyptian times. When Miss Penny needs to conduct a piano séance, she knows that the spectre will prefer to come to her if there is a feline present.

Can you give us a peek inside the second installment in the Miss Penny and the Ghost series? Where will it take readers?

The second book in the series was written as a Christmas special edition. It is called Miss Penny Celebrates Christmas. Miss Penny and Aunt Agatha are invited by Aunt Emmeline, Miss Penny’s rich aunt, to spend Christmas at her estate, Oakfield Manor, located in the fictitious town of Briarfield-upon-Califax. Miss Penny puts Onyx in a basket, and off they go to celebrate Christmas with Aunt Emmeline’s family. However, after the Christmas dinner, Aunt Emmeline’s husband, Lord Joshua Muskerry, falls dead after having drunk a glass of eggnog mixed with port wine that is laced with enough arsenic to kill a horse. The family and guests are so shocked by the unexpected death of Lord Muskerry that Miss Penny decides she must investigate the case.

There are a variety of new and different characters in the second book. For instance, there is Toby, Aunt Emmeline’s Scottish terrier, a good-natured canine who takes part in the investigation and is bullied by Miss Penny’s ruthless feline friend, Onyx. Miss Penny Celebrate Christmas is a Christmas romp with Christmas dinners, shortbread biscuits, shameful family secrets, mince pies and poisoned eggnogs to add a touch of horror to the Christmas spirit according to the old Christmas-murder tradition.

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