Anna Gash: ‘I am meant to be editing the first draft... but I’m writing a lot of angsty poetry’
Broadstairs author Chris Horn speaks to Ramsgate-based author and poet Anna Gash, about the lure of Thanet, everyday inspiration and angsty poetry.
Tell us about your connection to Thanet?
I first visited Margate after the Covid lockdown having been confined in a one-bedroom flat. The sky was turquoise blue, the art galleries and the energy of the place drew me to it.
But I couldn’t find a flat in Margate, so after a brief time in Broadstairs I found a place in Ramsgate where I feel at home.
I love the architecture, the quiet of the empty winter streets but also all the eccentrics, the psychotherapists, academics, geeks and weirdos who have carved a niche in the Ramsgate landscape to pursue their own obsessions.
Including quite a few writers from Kat Diamond to Maggie Gee. I run the Baker Street Writers Group at Petty Coat Lane Emporium in Ramsgate where I’m the writer in residence, carving out my own peculiar niche in the Sherlock Holmes Room at the back.
What are you currently working on?
I am meant to be editing the first draft of Let the Bodies Pile High, a crime thriller set in Manchester. But having just moved house and been in and out of hospital – I’m writing a lot of angsty poetry. I’m very pleased to have been longlisted for the Rosemary McLeish Poetry Prize.
I am currently planning the editing process, which will involve putting up posters, maps and timelines all over the walls.
In an area full of writing history, where do you find your inspiration?
I listen to the people around me; the dialogue, the speech patterns, watching how their bodies move and animate their words. Phrases and gestures often go unedited into my novels and new characters are born from an interesting turn of phrase or movement.
In terms of history, I haven’t been drawing my inspiration from Thanet but more generally from England and Manchester, where my current novel is set. I love researching modern social history looking at the impact of policies on people. I have just ordered The department by John Pring. I love systems, how they work, how they don’t work.
What are you looking forward to most about reading at the Bookie?
I’m looking forward to the Write Up workshop with Elise Valmorbida and to the Crime and Consequence event with Dorothy Koomson and David Whitehouse.
Anna Gash will read from Let The Bodies Pile High as part of the Local Writers Showcase, on Tuesday, October 1 at The Margate School. Tickets £5. Book now