Method Writing

Well now, isn't this interesting?

I've been a little unwell the past few days. I'm feeling much better now, but whilst I was tucked up in bed I turned to iPlayer movies. Generally the free movies on offer via the BBC website are pretty poor, but there were a couple that caught my eye.

I watched the great Alan Bennett's 2006 adaptation of The History Boys, which was very well done indeed. Excellent casting.

Then I turned to something called Heavenly Creatures, a 1994 film about two real life teenage girls, Pauline Yvonne Parker and Juliet Marion Hulme, who conspire to murder Pauline's mother. A debut role for both Melanie Lynskey and Kate Winslet.

The film was based on the diaries of Pauline Parker, which led to the grils' arrest after the crime was committed in 1954.

The film itself was, despite its IMDB rating, fairly average, or perhaps a little less polished by today's standards. What I found intriguing about it came whilst Googling the case afterwards.

Above is an interview conducted by Ian Rankin (he of the word mondegreen) with Juliet Hulme, better known today by her nom de plume Anne Perry, now a hugely popular international crime writer.

I've heard of method acting, but method writing?

I currently have five books on the go, and I'm making slow progress reading all of them due to writing one of my own. However, there were a couple on her bibliography which I found tempting:

• Heroes, a short story published in Murder and Obsession in 1999, which garnered her the 2001 Edgar Award for Best Short Story. Intriguing as the girls' relationship was often described as 'obsessive'. Incidentally, she later published a novel called Slaves of Obsession.
• Her first ever novel, The Cater Street Hangman.

I've just ordered the first. I shall wait for the second to become available on Kindle.

It's a little too fascinating not to.