Stephanie Bain

Down With All Kings - Historical Fiction

Now Represented by Jennifer Bernstein at The Wylie Agency

Stephanie Bain is from Wigan, Lancashire. She has a BA English from the University of Cambridge and currently works as Literary Manager at the Almeida Theatre, a brilliant job that involves reading hundreds of plays. Down With All Kings is her first novel.

What Made you enter the Cheshire Novel Prize?

I loved that the website described the prize as having a rich, diverse northern soul. I thought ‘well my novel has a northern soul’ so it seemed like it might be a good fit.

I was also very attracted to the fact that there was a large panel of judges with diverse experiences and perspectives – agents, editors, authors, mentors. As anyone who has read Down With All Kings will know, multiplicity of perspectives is something I believe is really important in culture and in the world right now, and I felt very comfortable knowing that my novel would be read carefully and sensitively by such a range of judges.

What did it feel like when you were LL and then SL?

It was a huge confidence boost. When you’ve spent so much time writing alone, you have no idea whether your novel is a work of staggering genius, or utter drivel, or somewhere in between. Getting through to the longlist and then the shortlist has helped to quieten some of the creatively inhibiting doubt that was creeping in. Essentially, it’s helped keep me writing and I’m incredibly grateful for that.

What was the reaction from those around you/family and friends?

My family and friends have always been very supportive of my writing and particularly my partner Josh, who is not only an absolutely brilliant reader and note giver, but also is happy to be abandoned every Saturday for the British Library.

And I have to thank a few people who have helped me get the manuscript to the stage it is at by reading and giving excellent notes; my parents and friends and super-readers Beth, Kat and Sarvat.

You were unrepresented when you entered the Cheshire Novel Prize, can you say what’s happened since?

I used the energy of the shortlisting to go out on submission with the novel and had a few agents reading the full manuscript, so I had my fingers crossed. . . .and now I am delighted to say that I am represented by the wonderful Jennifer Bernstein at The Wylie Agency. I am so excited to work with Jennifer and see where this exciting partnership takes me.

How did you come up with the idea for your book?

Growing up in Wigan, Lancashire, I’ve always been drawn to the rich industrial history of the county and I’ve been fascinated by the frame-breakers since I was a teenager. The novel is very loosely inspired by the real burning of Westhoughton Mill in 1812 and the subsequent trial of the frame-breakers, from which there happen to be some very handy original court documents that provided a few of the ‘What If?’ questions that fed into some of the characters and the plotting.

I was interested in the frame-breaking riots, because it was a time in which working communities and families organised together in political protest, but also betrayed and spied on each other, which felt like a dramatic backdrop for a novel, lots of secret meetings out on the moors, that kind of thing! At the same time, the frame-breakers cause was complex. I completely empathise with people who felt their livelihood was threatened by those who had more privilege and power than them, but to an extent the handloom weavers were on the wrong side of history and the local industry did change and move with technological progress. And I’m a big fan of complexity!

Because of the complexity of the history and influence of print culture and political pamphlets and caricatures at the time (another big aspect of the novel) I felt that it was an interesting lens through which to talk about the ways we struggled to listen to, understand and empathise with others back in 1812 and still do today. While authentic to the history, the novel deals with what we today might call public shaming, poverty porn, and the question of who should speak up for a minority voice. I’ve been semi-joking that I’ve written a novel about Twitter set in 1812! We’ve really not changed all that much.

What’s it about?

The novel is set in Lancashire in 1812, as traditional handloom weavers are meeting in secret out on the moors, swearing to join together, not to name names, and to march on the mills when the time comes.

Maggie Duncough is keeping Duncough & Son’s cotton mill running, while her father is slowly losing his mind. She spends nights sketching a machine that will double Duncoughs’ productivity. If she can build the prototype and get the patent passed, it might convince her father to grant her inheritance of the mill. When Jude Radcliffe, caricaturist and star of the radical press, publishes a satirical pamphlet lampooning Maggie and threatening her plans, it initiates a complex relationship between two people at opposite poles emotionally and ideologically. Their feud plays out as the frame-breaking weavers prepare to attack Duncough & Son.

It's an unconventional love story about what constitutes true intimacy, the legacy of shame, and whether we should value ideology over empathy. Ultimately, I’d say it’s a celebration of empathy.

What’s your writing routine?

My job in theatre involves full office hours and many late nights during the week, so writing is mostly first thing in the mornings before work and I’m also pretty religious about spending Saturdays in the British Library, either researching or writing. As I say, I have a very understanding partner.

What’s next for you?

I would love to potentially, down-the-line, work with my agent to find a publisher for DOWN WITH ALL KINGS. I feel like I’ve got the manuscript to the place that I can get it to by myself (after notes from the people I mentioned), so I’m really looking forward to the feedback from the Cheshire Novel Prize judges and any potential editorial thoughts from an agent that might be interested in representing my work.

I have started on the very early stages of a second novel, still set in the North West, still politically complex, but quite different in the sense of being more voice-driven, rather than plot-driven like Down With All Kings.

What are your favourite books and why?

This is an impossible question. I read loads and there are just too many favourite books to choose from. So, I thought I’d narrow it down to the books that have been particularly inspiring for Down With All Kings.

The Gallows Pole by Benjamin Myers. I love all Benjamin Myers novels, Pig Iron and Beastings are fantastic, but I’m happy to admit that The Gallows Pole with its authentic regional voice, its political engagement, stunning landscape writing, and fresh, gritty take on the historical novel, was a very strong inspiration for Down With All Kings.

The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry. The complex semi-romantic, semi-intellectual, semi-platonic relationship at the centre of this novel was really inspiring when I was navigating the psychology of Maggie and Jude’s relationship.

Reservoir 13 by Jon McGregor. A brilliant, cleverly structured novel with some of the best landscape writing. The way that McGregor charts the changes in his characters’ relationships by mapping these onto the changes in the rural landscape over the course of the year, had an influence on the way Down With All Kings is structured.

The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton. Reading this novel made me want to write a rollicking plotty, historical adventure novel. I love the way she handles the nineteenth-century-esque omniscient narrator voice in this book. I think it’s really hard to do, but Catton makes it look easy.

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee; the best exploration of empathy in a novel.

‘Atticus was right. One time he said you never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them. Just standing on the Radley porch was enough.’ I think the last couple of pages of this book give us one of the best endings ever.

Any tips for writers intending on entering the competition?

Trust yourself and your writing and don’t be too worried about following ‘writing rules’ you read on the internet.

When we had to submit the full novel for the Shortlist, I started second-guessing myself and worrying that my novel breaks some of the ‘rules’ I’d read about consistency of point-of-view. Most chapters are third person POV of one of three protagonists, Maggie, Jude, or Rebecca, but very occasionally we go into a more minor character’s POV for a section. I got paranoid and wondered whether to take these out or rewrite them, but ultimately decided to stick with them, because there was a purpose to going into Maggie’s father’s head, or the leader of the frame-breakers’ head, or the Duncough family servant’s head at these points.

I’m glad I kept these in, so yes, I think my main tip would be to trust your instincts!