The Universe 5th August 2016

u • BOOKS 16 FRIDAY 05.08.16
Miniature start,
big expectations...
Just three years ago, Jessie Burton
was a struggling actress and unpublished
writer, who could not have
imagined what it would be like to become
a bestselling novelist.
The Miniaturist changed all that.
Her story of a young woman in 17th
century Amsterdam, who is given a
miniature replica of her home by her
new husband and begins to see the dramas
of her household mirrored in
miniature, attracted a frenzied bidding
war, which ended with Burton clinching
a a six-figure sum deal for her debut.
She can remember the day “it all
went crazy” at the London Book Fair.
“I was still temping in a hedge fund
and was sitting on a fire escape as my
agent was texting me, saying, ‘Brazil
want it, Hungary, Bulgaria, America
have three conference calls for you
and want it in this publishing house’.
It was mad.
“I’m quite an anxious, cautious person,
and I was nervous because it was
uncertain territory. I was worried
about whether I could match up to
this adulation and attention. I was quietly
proud of myself but also scared.”
Since then, The Miniaturist, published
in 2014, has been translated
into more than 30 languages and sold
more than a million copies worldwide.
Today, the 33-year-old still can’t
quite believe how it happened, or the
media attention that followed.
“When I was Christmas Number
One and was made Waterstones Book
of the Year, that was incredible. I got
letters from people saying, ‘I only
read one book a year and I’ve read
yours twice in six months’.
“On a more glamorous level, I
heard that Martin Scorsese downloaded
it onto his Kindle. That’s kind
of mad.”
But Burton remains pretty grounded,
and still lives in the same one-bedroom
flat in South-East London. Her second
novel, The Muse, explores London’s
Trinidadian community in the Sixties
through the life of its Caribbean protagonist,
would-be writer Odelle Bastien,
who gets a typing job in an art gallery
and embarks on a relationship with a
young man who has inherited a mysterious
painting, which her boss believes
is a masterpiece by a Spanish artist.
The mystery of the painting’s provenance
is slowly unveiled in the novel’s
other time frame, Southern Spain in
1936, at the start of the civil war, and
Burton’s dual narrative reflects hidden
creativity in both literature and art. Her
interest in the Spanish Civil War – she
studied Spanish at Oxford University
and lived in Spain before going to the
u
Books
By Hannah Stephenson
Central School of Speech and Drama –
and colonial legacy sparked the idea, although
Burton had no idea when
she started writing it that
she’d have such a tough
act to follow.
“It was quite a
pressure. Not so
much in that I had
to replicate the
success of The
Miniaturist, I never
worried about that
because every book is
different. My job is to
write a story that I think
readers will love. But my identity
and my sense of self was fractured
slightly by the unexpected success of
The Miniaturist, so that made it
harder to be sure of myself, in a paradoxical
way. Now, I feel like school’s
out for summer because I’ve written
it, even though I’ve got six months of
promotion,” she adds, laughing.
While the success of The Miniaturist
might seem simple – bidding
war, sale, overnight success – in reality,
it was a bit more complicated.
“I was working to promote The
Miniaturist and touring and writing
The Muse, and I didn’t really have
time to stop and notice how much my
life had changed and how I’d got this
new career and these new adventures
and duties, but not necessarily the
experience, understanding, time or
energy to handle it all.
“I don’t know that I coped that well
in the first half of last year. I was anxious
and discombobulated by it all,”
she continues. “The only thing that
saved me, was writing and working,
and having my friends and family who
knew me from before, so it wasn’t just
‘Jessie Burton the writer’.
“It manifested itself in terms of
anxiety and worry, which is really
sad, but I’ve since spoken to other
people, and I read a piece by Hilary
Mantel who said that winning the
Booker is a crisis.”
She says she was quite shocked
by the attention she received after
her debut.
“It’s an utter privilege talking to
readers, but it takes a lot of mental
absorption and energy. I did 18
months of events and press non-stop.
I can’t really remember 2015. It didn’t
make me doubt my creative abilities,
but it took a lot of physical and mental
energy. It takes a lot of brain calories
to write a novel.”
She’s cautious when she reflects on
how the new-found success has
changed her life.
“It’s still early days, but it’s expanded
my horizons of the possibilities of work,
and what I can make a reality.
I’ve always been a dreamer
and schemer of plots and
plans, and I have more
opportunities than I
had three or four
years ago. Money always
helps, but I
live in the same onebedroom
flat that I
lived in before The
Miniaturist was published.
I come from a family
who’ve worked all their
lives. I’m not used to having unending
funds. I’m a worker. I’m more comfortable
than I ever was, but I need to
write more books.”
Burton – whose father Edward is a
retired architect-turned-ceramic restorer
and mother Linda is a retired
teacher – grew up in Wimbledon. She
pursued acting after university, with
limited success.
“I was highly ambitious and demanding
on myself, and I wanted to
play bigger parts on bigger stages and
it wasn’t happening. By the age of 27,
I’d waited 12 months for a job and I
was struggling to find joy in it.”
Her main source of income while
‘resting’ was as a PA in the City. She
temped for eight years after leaving
drama school, which kept the wolf
from the door. She also attended a creative
writing course run by literary
agent Curtis Brown. The TV rights of
The Miniaturist have been sold to the
production company which made the
award-winning Wolf Hall, and Burton
is executive producer, although she
sees her involvement as limited.
“I’ll be meaningfully consulted, but
if I throw my toys out of the pram,
they’ll leave me in the pram. I’d love to
be in it, but not as one of the main
parts, maybe just a sugar seller in the
corner, or a crone in the market place.”
Now that she’s a literary success,
however, she suspects her acting career
may be over.
“The world of writing seems to be
a lot more welcoming to me than the
world of acting.”
The Muse by Jessie Burton is
published by Picador, priced £12.99.
Book Charts
HARDBACKS
1. On The Other Side
by Carrie Hope Fletcher
2. The World’s Worst Children
by David Walliams
3. The Muse
by Jessie Burton
4. Super Food Family Classics
by Jamie Oliver
5. The Girls
by Emma Cline
6. The Essex Serpent
by Sarah Perry
7. Tom Gates: Super Good
Skills (Almost...)
by Liz Pichon
8. The Tales Of Beedle The Bard
by J.K. Rowling
9. When The Music’s Over
by Peter Robinson
10. United As One
by Pittacus Lore
PAPERBACKS
1. After You
by Jojo Moyes
2. The Past
by Tessa Hadley
3. Luckiest Girl Alive
by Jessia Knoll
4. Skyfaring: A Journey With
A Pilot
by Mark Vanhoenacker
5. The Girl On The Train
by Paula Hawkins
6. Coffin Road
by Peter May
7. Lean In 15: The Shape Plan
by Joe Wicks
8. Where My Heart Used
To Beat
by Sebastian Faulks
9. The Voyage To Magical North:
The Accidental Pirates
by Claire Fayers
10. Me Before You
by Jojo Moyes
EBOOKS
1. The Girl Who Lied
by Sue Fortin
2. The Racketeer
by John Grisham
3. The Sister
by Louise Jensen
4. After You
by Jojo Moyes
5. Behind Closed Doors
by B A Paris
6. The Secret Of Orchard Cottage
by Alex Brown
7. The Girl On The Train
by Paula Hawkins
8. Gray Justice
by Alan McDermott
9. Summer At The Comfort
Food Cafe
by Debbie Johnson
10. Me Before You
by Jojo Moyes