An Interview with Chris Bridges

Tell us your story – when and how did you start writing fiction?

When I was seven years old, I won a short story writing competition at primary school. The prize was a red plastic machine that dispensed miniature Cadburys Dairy Milk bars. I remember having this flash of inspiration that maybe there were easy rewards to be had for making up stories, which was one of my favourite things to do.

Once I became older, I decided that when I left school I’d become a journalist and write newspaper stories, maybe churning out florid Jackie Collins type novels on the side. I even bought myself a typewriter, which remained untouched.

I didn’t actually start writing fiction until I was in my late forties. Let’s just say that life and a thirty year career as a nurse got in the way.

What’s the one line or paragraph you’re most proud of in your shortlisted book?

This is from the prologue: ‘I’m discreet, keeping my issues concealed, whenever I can. I’m not one of those people whose wheelchairs or prosthetics you try to ignore or worse still, try frantically to demonstrate that you’re not ignoring. I’m camouflaged and secreted away, caged by illness. Trapped in a life that I didn’t choose.’

Let’s say you’re going rogue: which crime fiction villain would you most enjoy being (just for research, of course)?

No spoilers here but I’d be the murderer in Agatha Christie’s ‘And Then There Were None’. I’ve always wanted to visit Burgh Island in Devon. Why not go along for a holiday with a difference with a bunch of interesting strangers? Although it would be a dampener on the holiday having to kill them off one by one.

Which writers have influenced your own writing the most?

When I was 12 I discovered Agatha Christie books in the school library and read almost all of her novels over the space of two years. This was the gateway drug that lead me on to P.D. James whose literary and detailed writing I love and Ruth Rendell whose keen grasp of psychology fascinates me. I also appreciated Patricia Highsmith for her accounts of everyday evil and the gothic brilliance of Shirley Jackson.

My biggest influence of all is the books that Ruth Rendell wrote under the pseudonym Barbara Vine. They’re such intricate and clever depictions of the tangled and deadly mess that human relationships can become.

You’re cast in a gritty crime drama. Are you the detective, suspect or the wildcard witness?

Oh, 100% the suspect. I become shifty when I’m nervous, so I’d be collared from the outset. I’d be the one being thrown in jail, only to be released later when the killer is unmasked by the maverick detective with a drink problem and a hapless sidekick.

What’s the best book you’ve read recently?

‘The Death of Us’ by Abigail Dean. It’s an extraordinary and emotive novel that’s about a brutal and violent home invasion and the effect that this has on a married couple’s relationship. The book is disturbing but also beautiful and moving. It’s like ‘One Day’ reimagined as a crime novel. It’s one of those books that you think about for months after reading it.

What inspired you to take the leap and write your first novel — was there a moment that sparked it?

I was working full-time in a busy London hospital during the COVID pandemic and had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis a few months before the first lockdown, after having a major relapse. During this surreal time I saw a shout out from BBC Radio 4 for people to write short accounts about their pandemic experiences to be archived in the British Library for posterity. I thought my experience of working as a hospital based palliative care nurse had an unusual perspective that might interest people so I fired off an account and sent it in, thinking that I wouldn’t hear back.

They contacted me later that day and I recorded the piece to be played on the radio. Up to this point, I’d only ever written short fiction, website articles and theatre reviews but had always wanted to write a novel. The Radio 4 thing felt so validating and I had this ‘it’s now or never’ feeling so I sat down and started and I found that I couldn’t stop. I wrote after work and at weekends and completed a novel.

What’s been the biggest surprise (or challenge) about publishing your debut book?

The biggest surprise to me is the crime writing community. People have been so generous with their advice, their time and with offering support. I think I’d always thought that authors were exalted and lofty and would look down on someone like me. Or that maybe they’d be eaten up with professional jealousy and too busy feuding to help anyone else. The opposite has been true. The crime writing community is warm, funny and welcoming.

If you could give one piece of advice to someone writing their first crime novel, what would it be?

Write the way that you have to write and in a way that suits you. There are lots of people who give prescriptive advice, telling you that you have to write something every day or plan and structure your work in a certain way. For me, as someone with chronic fatigue related to my multiple sclerosis, I have to write when I can and work around illness flares. The strict methods that people sometimes advocate don’t cut it for me. Find your own way that works around your life.