BBC reporter puts health scandal under spotlight in her new book
A new book by broadcaster Theresa Talbot will be based on the NHS contaminated blood scandal.
The second work of fiction by the BBC Scotland traffic and travel correspondent sees the return of detective Oonagh O’Neill as she tries to piece together a spate of murders.
But newly engaged Theresa said she wanted to shed light on a subject that has not had the attention it deserves.
After a chance conversation with a victim of the outrage, she decided to make it a central theme in her crime novel, Keep Her Silent, out next month.
Theresa sa id : “I wa s researching the stories of murdered women and knew it would be central to the book.
“By coincidence, I was in contact with a victim of the tainted blood scandal and I thought, ‘How did I not know about this?’
“As a broadcaster, I remember reading out stories about it but the full extent was never really something that was under the spotlight.”
As part of her research for Keep Her Silent, Theresa met Bruce Norval, a haemophiliac who believes he was infected with tainted blood in 1967. In the 1960s and 70s, more than 4600 British haemophiliacs were infected with Hepatitis C, and some with HIV, in what is regarded as the biggest treatment disaster of the NHS.
The UK Government have just drawn up their terms of reference for an inquiry which wil l investigate how thousands of people were i n fe c t ed wit h tainted blood.
Theresa said: “Pharma companies were buying blood f rom sk id row donors through the prison service.
“One of the last prisons to keep up the donations was in Arkansas and was under the wat ch of then Senator Bill Clinton.”
Although she admits the story is sensational, she believes readers will be able to relate to the characters and believe “that could be me”.
Keep Her Silent follows on from the success of The Lost Children, which centred on the historic abuse at the notorious Magdalene laundries.
The novel has two themes – Detective O’Neill trying to find a killer of women who were murdered in the 70s while simultaneously investigating the tainted blood scandal and potential criminal elements.
Theresa said: “There’s three mai n f ema l e characters and they are all very different.
“I like to have s trong female characters.
“They say write about what you know. It’s OK to have characters that are flawed.
“Readers and viewers often accept f lawed characters but it’s different when it comes to female characters. So I think it’s more realistic and an issue that’s close to my heart.”
Theresa dedicated the book to Bruce, who has campaigned to improve the plight of those infected through the 70s and 80s.
She added: “I can’t thank him enough. I hope in some way anyone reading can understand what happened but I also think there is a need to have a proper inquiry into what went wrong.
“I know how badly victims were treated. I am writing a work of fiction to entertain and I was aware of that. But I got a thumbs-up from Bruce, which means so much.”
Keep Her Silent is released by Aria on August 21 in digital format first.
It comes in a whirlwind year for Theresa, who recently got engaged to friend Jeremy Fellick, who she reconnected with after 25 years.
She added: “I was due to go to Italy to visit friends and I jokingly said, ‘Come over with me.’ He was based down south but he came. There was nothing between us 25 years ago but when I saw him I thought, ‘I’m not letting this one go.’”
The pair will tie the knot later this year.