Five Things You Didn't Know About 'The Reluctant Spy'

1. How did the idea for the book come about? I walk a lot, frequently in the hills around my home and the valleys below. Often listening to music, thoughts creep into my head unbidden. I have no idea where they come from. My heads like a kaleidoscope sometimes. Anyway, one day in the summer of 2024 I’m on the Taff Trail, trundling along, happy in my world, when, out of the blue, pops up a name and an image; Marcia Trilling, sat on a long distance bus, wiping the condensation off the window with a handkerchief, looking out at a grey landscape of bleak fields and electricity pylons as her bus makes its way southwards. The name conjured up someone who came from a conservative (small c), lower middle class family, probably with a home in suburban Cheshire, most likely a red brick semi with bay windows. Her parents might have been teachers. Marcia, as I pictured her on the bus, was apprehensive about something but why apprehensive and why was she making the journey? Where was she going and what would she find when she got there? Her self esteem at rock bottom, yet somewhere, deep down, a small flame still flickers like a failing pilot light that would need to be carefully nurtured if it were ever to burst into flame. The idea for Marcia was established. All that needed was to follow her and we would surely have a story.
2. Situations Vacant. Marcia sees her big opportunity in a second hand copy of ‘The Lady’ magazine. First published in 1885 The Lady finally closed its doors in 2025. A general interest magazine it was a staple in my Mum’s house. Aimed at genteel ladies its situations vacant section attracted advertisements for nannies, tutors, companions in all sorts of places. The general inference was that applicants should be house trained, well educated and socially acceptable to the wealthy employers. ‘Living in’ was often a prerequisite. I first came across this way of finding employment when a school friend replied to one such ‘Lady’ advert and spent time in a chateau in Belgium. So, when staying with Mum, I’d sometimes pick up a copy and see what situations were vacant. I liked the randomness of it, that such an advert might take the successful applicant to somewhere amazing with an unknown cast of characters. To arrive as a stranger into the bosom of a family seemed to throw up all sorts of possibilities.
3. But why Lake Garda? Who doesn’t love the thought of Italian lakes surrounded by mountains, of ferry boats crisscrossing azure blue lakes to reach the next charming town or village? I wanted a contrast from the greyness Marcia left behind, somewhere she would never want to leave, charmed by the clarity of light, its blue skies and crimson bougainvillea. Somehow the bad things that would happen would be all the more shocking in a beautiful landscape. Having visited Garda when the children were small it seemed a perfect choice, close enough to the financial centre of Milan to make sense as a base for an ultra successful Italian banker to make his home. To my knowledge there is no Villa Monticello but if there was it would be the sort of place George Clooney might live in. Villa Monticello was also the working title for the book as I was writing it.
4. What I learned whilst writing. I had an idea for a plot but it would be over-egging it to say that everything was plotted out meticulously. Again, back to the walking, ideas for what needed to happen next in the plot would come to me out on the pathways. When that happened I would pull out my mobile and note the gist down quickly so as not to lose it. However, for each of those ideas nine tenths ended up being discarded. I found that the deeper you got into the book the more the characters developed their own voice. What you’d learned about them gave them an integrity and there comes a point where a possible development has to be discarded if it doesn’t fit the character’s motivation. No longer the puppet master, you feel you’ve lost control. They will do what they will.
5. What personal experience did I draw on? The trip to Garda for location certainly but also Chester as Marcia’s home town. I lived there for a year studying for my Solicitors exams. Chester is in fact a lovely little city well worth a visit. Without giving too much away, the plot also involves banking and some financial crimes notably money laundering and sanctions breaching. Having worked in financial services for many years we were trained on the importance of adhering to regulations and the incredibly heavy fines and possible criminal sanctions for those who breached the regulations. There’s also a specialist Securitisation conference where some of the actions take place. Securitisation is a specialist form of financing allowing a bank or financial institution to finance a company using the company’s assets as security. This is something I became involved with in my years in financial services. Gladly none of the outrageous things described in the book ever happened to me but having been to such conferences it was easy for me to describe where they played out. Whilst none of the characters in the book are anything but pure fiction as per the book’s disclaimer, the characters have values and attributes which you come across in life. That said I don’t think I’ve ever met a hit man/assassin even if a taxi driver in Baltimore did once pull out a large hand gun on me! If he wasn’t a hit man already, he was certainly itching to get started.

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