Q&A: Lauren Willig

In her swashbuckling debut, The Secret History of the Pink Carnation (see review, p. 53), Willig reimagines France under Napoleon besieged by a whole bouquet of spying floral foes—not just the Scarlet Pimpernel but the Purple Gentian and the Pink Carnation to boot. Bad news for the Bonapartes but barrels of good-natured fun for the rest of us.

Where did you get the idea for this novel?

I love novels and old movies about adventurers and swashbucklers, but probably the most direct inspiration was the Anthony Andrews television version of The Scarlet Pimpernel, which I have watched 500 bazillion times. It occurred to me that the Pimpernel really had it too easy; these old spies constantly swing in and out of windows, always landing on their feet and never hitting a wall. I asked myself: how could I cause a spy the most trouble possible? What if my hero has someone who wants to help him, perhaps a girl who's determined to do exactly what he's doing and thinks she can do it better.

Have you always been fascinated by the French Revolution and Napoleon?

The funny thing is that I am a complete and utter Anglophile. But when I was ten, I was captivated by a TV miniseries about Josephine and Napoleon. I'm lucky enough to have a father who is a former historian, so I pestered Dad with questions. He handed me this great, big thick history of the Bonapartes, and I was hooked.

Is it true that you decided to get a Ph.D. in history to write more accurate historical fiction?

Absolutely! Whenever I told anyone that, they laughed and patted me on the head and thought I was joking. I always knew I wanted to be a novelist, I just wasn't brave enough to say it.

Who are your literary influences?

In terms of this historical period and type of novel, Judith McNaught. I stumbled upon one of her novels when I was 13, and she got me excited about Regency England. I also read a ton of mysteries by Elizabeth Peters, because she has these wonderfully pithy, wisecracking heroines.

Did you write much of yourself into the characters—particularly Eloise, who also goes to Harvard?

I purloined places and situations from my own life, but the characters are actually very little like me. Especially Eloise; so many people have asked me that because she is also a Harvard grad student, but from the minute I wrote the first line, I had a very clear vision of her as very different from me. But I found it easier to describe places I already know. I always hated the instruction "Write what you know," but it really helped to have a concrete image in my head.

Did you find it challenging to switch voices throughout?

It was a lot of fun; I got to play with all those different styles. I especially enjoyed playing up the similarities between what was going on historically and what was going on in the present. Historical events aren't completely removed situations; theyinvolve people who felt and loved and worried the way that we do, and a historical novel is such a great place to show that.

Can we expect another installment of The Pink Carnation?

Definitely; I have so many characters I still have to get married off! And the Pink Carnation will have a new flowery adversary—the Black Tulip, which came to me from a half-remembered Dumas novel of the same name.