Natasha Solomons

Q&A with Natasha Solomons

Natasha, how would you sum up Mr Rosenblum's List in one sentence?

An irrepressible man and his reluctant wife arrive in 1950s Dorset with an impossible task and discover woolly-pigs, jitterbug cider and a place to call home.

What inspired you to write this story?

My grandpa, Paul Shields, arrived in England, from Berlin, in 1936 with almost nothing. Within a few years he had built up a successful textile factory in London, and after the war had enough money to buy a small thatched cottage in Dorset. At his first village fete, he was told the story of the 'Dorset woolly-pig', both a folktale and a kind of shibboleth. The following year, when he was asked whether he knew the story, and he replied that yes, indeed he did, he was granted a grudging acceptance into the village. His odyssey into the English countryside and his determination to find a place to call home suggested the story of Mr Rosenblum's List. Of course the novel is dedicated to him.

What can readers look forward to next from you?

I'm working on my second book at the moment--it's called The Novel in the Viola. After the Nazis invade Austria, nineteen-year-old Elise is forced to leave Vienna and her glittering life of opera and parties, to work as a housemaid in an English country house on the coast. But the Second World War is coming and Tyneford House, like the village itself, is in its last days. It's a story about love, the sea and a novel hidden inside a viola...

What do you enjoy reading?

I can never read just one book. So, at the moment I'm re-reading Moontiger which I adored aged 17, and it was such a formative book I was almost frightened to read again––I'm delighted to realise it’s every bit as luminous as I remember. I'm reading Up and Down Stairs: A history of the Domestic Servant as research for my next book. But, I'm also a secret fan of Charlaine Harris and Kim Harrison.

What advice would you give to aspiring authors?

If the thought of doing anything else can make you happy, do that. Writing is a difficult career. In fact it's more an affliction or an addiction than a job. If you read this, know the odds are against you and you don’t care--you've got to write anyway, then the chances are that you're a writer.

Tell us something unusual about yourself.

My first ever job was as a shepherdess, minding the flock on the top of Bulbarrow. My neighbour was a shepherd and let me help out during the school holidays.