Q&A with Jo Thomas
What inspired you to start writing?
I’ve always loved telling stories, at dinner parties, recounting funny things that have happened to me, that sort of thing. But I never thought I could write. Until one day, I was working for Radio 2 and was making a series about people who had changed their lives. A man I was interviewing had given up his daily commute into London to retrain as a physiotherapist. He changed his life. He had a picture on his wall that asked what you would do if you could do anything and knew you wouldn’t fail. He saw me looking at it and asked me what I’d do. Having interviewed the wonderful Jilly Cooper a few days earlier I said, ‘Oh I’d be a writer,’ and had no idea where that came from. Then when I finally had our three children and wanted a job I could do from the kitchen table I remembered his words and finally gave it a try. Because every journey starts with the first step. What would you do if you could do anything and knew you wouldn’t fail?
Where do your stories come from?
It’s like walking into the pantry at home and wondering what I’m going to have for tea. I start with a food and a country I’d like to explore, that I’d like to taste if you like. I think once you discover the food of a place, it takes you by the hand and introduces you to the history, culture and people. It guides you round its city walls and is the very fabric of the community. So I start at the kitchen table. What are we eating and where did it come from? Because to me, the kitchen table is the heart of the home and where all of family life is played out.
Do you think visiting the places you write about is important?
Yes, I do. If you want to transport other people there, it’s essential to be able to describe it. For me, it’s often about the smell of a place. Smells are so important. But standing and taking in what you can see is important too. Like the colour of the soil, that’s always a key detail to me. And how the place makes you feel.
What’s the most extreme thing you’ve done in the aid of research?
Possibly reindeer racing, in a helmet, sitting on a sled, careering off down a track behind a bolting reindeer. I went on a research trip to Swedish Lapland with my friend, author Katie Fforde. We go on a lot of road trips together. But this was our best research trip yet. Thrilling and utterly invigorating. Or maybe it was the husky ride where we had a collision with another musher. Or maybe, riding over the ice road on a sled behind a snow mobile, listening for the cracks in the ice as it melted in places. It was amazing. The snow, the reindeer, the dogs, the feeling of being out in the wild. And that’s where I set A Winter Beneath the Stars.
What’s your most memorable holiday meal?
My 20th birthday. On the beach in the South of France. The sand between our toes, under an awning, beside a small kitchen and a storm picked up. The owners put down the sides of the awning and tied them together and told us to stay and carry on our meal. The storm did its worst, lashing the sides of the awing with wind and rain and thunder and lightning overhead as we ate, drank and laughed with the restaurant owners. It was a glorious birthday, and all the more special as it was the last one I spent with dear Dad.
Where are you going to next?
I’m just back from Sicily where I’ve been out visiting the citrus farms that grow all around Mount Etna. Did you know, you only get blood oranges from Sicily and it’s the ash in the soil from Etna that makes them like that? The oranges there were just the best I have ever tasted, and I still find myself craving them now. The day we left the sun rose like a huge orange in the sky, as if leaving me with a permanent reminder of the fabulous citrus farms I’d found there.