Warwickshire inspires writer Erin

A STORY of secrets and guilt that takes inspiration from Stoneleigh and Kenilworth Castle has hit the nation’s book shelves.

And people can gain a wider insight into the creative process behind writer Erin Kelly’s latest novel, The Sick Rose, when she visits Warwick next week.

The Warwick University English graduate, who lived in Leamington during the three years she was a student, has since been working as a journalist, writing for publications including The Sunday Times, The Sunday Telegraph, the Daily Mail, Red, Marie Claire and Elle.

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On top of that, the 35-year-old mother-of-one has written three novels and is starting her fourth.

Speaking to the Courier and Weekly News, Erin said: “I used to pass Stoneleigh when taking the bus to university and always thought it was a lovely village.

“During my research for the book, I visited the castle a few times and spent a lot of time driving around the countryside. A lot of the action in the novel depends on people being so isolated that no one would hear them scream, so I deliberately ventured to places I did not know.”

Despite being inspired by the area and setting a lot of the action in a flat that is almost identical to the one she lived in as a student, Erin is keen to point out that the village is fictional and the story and characters are entirely from her imagination. So where do her ideas come from? She said: “Ideas float around for ages until they become solid.

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“It’s like watching a film in my head that becomes clearer and clearer until i can write it down. Once I have got the location sorted, it really moves up a gear. Location is very important to me.”

The Sick Rose focuses on Paul, who has been led into a life of crime, and Louisa, who is renovating a crumbling Elizabethan garden, having fled her own dark secrets.

When the two get together, the reader is taken on a journey to the extremes of obsessive love and loyalty, devotion and desperation.

The novel is Erin’s second and is published in hardback and paperback, as an ebook by Hodder & Stoughton and as an audiobook, while the dramatic rights to the book have been sold to ITV.

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Erin will be at a ‘meet the author’ event hosted by Warwick Books and Kenilworth Books at Shire Hall in Market Square, Warwick, on Wednesday April 18 at 7pm. Tickets are free but must be booked through the book shop, from Warwick and Kenilworth libraries or by calling 499939. Erin will be signing books, which will be available to buy.

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