Diane Chamberlain

5 MINUTES WITH…

Bestselling author Diane Chamberlain’s novel The Stolen Marriage (Macmillan) is out on October 5.

New novel in a nutshell?

In 1944, Tess DeMello ends her engagement to the love of her life and moves to a small North Carolina town to marry a man she barely knows. But it’s not until she begins to work as a nurse in a new polio hospital that she begins to understand the secrets of the townspeople.

The inspiration? When I first moved to North Carolina 12 years ago, I learnt about the polio hospital built in 54 hours by the people of Hickory, during the epidemic of 1944.

How did you research it?

I visited the library in Hickory to read newspapers from 1944. A key event, though, took place years before I conceived this story. A friend visited a medium and told me how the medium knew the names of family members who had died. I don’t believe in that sort of thing, so I visited the medium to figure out how he fooled my friend. I left still mystified… The man had some sort of gift. I knew The Stolen Marriage was the perfect book for a character like the medium I saw. Thus Reverend Sam was born.

Your typical writing day? Up at 7am… I have breakfast and spend a little time on Facebook – interacting with my readers. Then I transport my imagination to my story. In the evening, I usually watch a movie or TV series with my partner, John.

Do you have a favourite of your own books? And why? My third, Secret Lives, written about 25 years ago. It is the first book I wrote where I found my “voice” as a writer. It was my first true “Diane Chamberlain novel”.

The book you recommend? Stephen King’s 11.22.63. It’s not a horror but an intriguing, twisty story. I’ve always admired King’s ability to perfectly paint a character with very few words.