VG LEE
 
The Collection
 
 

Q & A with V.G. Lee

Q.     Diary of a Provincial Lesbian is your third novel. What is it about?
The ‘heroine’ Margaret Charlecote lives with her partner Georgie in a small seaside town on the south coast. After almost ten years together Margaret considers herself one half of a loving couple, and in her complacency fails to spot warning signs that Georgie is drifting away from her. The novel traces the effect that eventual realisation has on Margaret and her life, over one year.
     
Q.   There was a book, published in the 30s called Diary of a Provincial Lady, by E.M. Delafield - have you read it, and, if so,  did it provide the inspiration for Diary of a Provincial Lesbian?
I'd read Diary of a Provincial Lady several years ago and then Christmas before last I dipped into it again, finding it just as humorous in its depiction of provincial life. As I'd recently moved to the small town of Hastings I started to think over any parallels that existed today. I had only to read 'Club News' in my local paper to be transported back decades with accounts of the activities of the 'Hobnob Club', the 'Shakespeare Reading Society', and the letter pages where every correspondent was 'incensed', to think that, yes, certainly the small concerns background still existed.
     
Q.   The next-door neighbour character, Deirdre, seems to have more than a little of the 'Dorian Green', (the character played by Lesley Joseph in the TV comedy Birds of a Feather) about her, and indeed similar characters have appeared in your previous novels. Have you a fondness for writing such characters?
When writing 'humour' , for me it definitely needs to be a case of writing what I know about. Many of my characters are inspired by friends or an amalgam of friends. I love larger than life, boisterous people - even appalling, larger than life boisterous people, and I do know a fair few. Deirdre is based on a very dear friend and I hope the sometimes reluctant affection Margaret feels for her comes through.
     
Q.   The book includes 11 line-drawn illustrations by Mary Vassallo, with whom you share an interesting working history. How and where did you meet?
We met in a design office of the BBC. She was a designer and I was on work study as part of my degree. After an initial hatred on both sides we found we shared the same sense of humour and spent six weeks making each other snort with laughter. In 1979 while I was still at The London College of Printing, we went into partnership together sign writing, making illustrated signs and painting murals for restaurants and hotels. We became adept at drawing dancing vegetables, dancing inn keepers, and even on one occasion dancing bumble bees!

Over our twenty years working together we also designed and produced two fascias for Gay's the Word bookshop - a job we're still very proud to have done.
     
Q.   There has been a gap of three years between the publication of each of your three novels. How long does it typically take you to write a book?
I write most of the time, but some of my work ends up as short stories. Quite apart from novels, over the past five years I've had many short stories published and eventually would like to produce a collection. An actual novel might grow out of a short story or a piece of general writing that I like but doesn't seem to have a place or proper form. A day dawns when I think, ''All these bits of paper - I've got the outline of a novel'', and so I get started and the actual writing process takes about a year.
     
Q.   How and where do you write?
All over the house. On my laptop but also in my notebook. If I don't have my notebook with me when I'm out I always find I want to write something down so it gets scrawled on the back of bus tickets and receipts.
     
Q.   Does being described as a 'lesbian writer' annoy you?
Not at all. I am a lesbian writer and in the main I write about an observed lesbian life. I'd find it very difficult to write about sizzling heterosexual encounters. If I do write something that is not intrinsically 'lesbian', it generally has themes to do with parental relationships, ageing, childhood.
     
Q.   All your books feature tragic/comic characters who are outsiders and are also somewhat less than 'upwardly mobile'. They are not well-off; they have part-time, badly paid jobs; they are usually not motivated by money; they are often on the outside, even of their own social groups. Why is this?
In writing humour, there is often a strong link between the main character and the writer. Comedians and writers of comedy often suffer from depression, low self esteem, a sense of alienation and the way they have made a path through life is by seeing the ironic side of tragedy. Nearly all the well known humorous television/literary characters; David Brent, Basil Fawlty, Billy Liar, Lucky Jim, even Bridget Jones - the list is long, are figures outside the norm. They don't get life quite right. I feel I'm following in a long tradition of comedy writing.
     
Q.   There's a lot of comedy in your writing. Did this develop naturally as part of your style?
I've always been lucky enough to make people laugh. My father and his mother were very witty people so my brother and I had to work hard to amuse them. However since I started writing I find I'm not able to be as funny as I used to be when I'm with friends as all my efforts go into the writing.
     
Q.   You're originally from Birmingham, lived in London for many years and are now based in Hastings - have you enjoyed the move to the coast and has it changed the way you write? Do you feel you 'belong' to Hastings?
I don't know if moving to Hastings has changed the way I write. I am much more aware of my surroundings and find so much that is colourful, amusing or even sad. In summer I watch the families on the beach and it could almost be the 1950s; thin kids shivering into threadbare towels and yet running about with such enthusiasm. Down here so much seems to affect me emotionally that I have no idea what it may produce in the future in my writing.

I never really belong anywhere. As a child, mum, my brother and myself moved so many times after mum left my dad. Mum wasn't a 'home-maker' so we kind of camped in rented accommodation, often reducing it to quite squalid conditions. I move home about every four or five years, but because of my background I try to make it as perfect as I can.
     
Q.   Is the inspiration for your characters mostly drawn from your friends/associates?
Definitely. And my parents and grandparents. Although I am quite reserved, I love people, love watching them, listening to them, even being bored stiff by them or irritated. Often in retrospect I feel a deep fondness. N.B. Just in case friends or family read this, I'm never bored or irritated by them!
     
Q.   Have you a next project in mind?
To put together my collection of short stories and get them published.
     
Q.   Which of your books lends itself best to being dramatised? And are there any plans for this?
I think all my books would make very jolly television series. Although they're almost totally lesbian based, the humour and predicaments are universal. Watch this space...!
     
Q.   What writers do you admire?
Jean Rhys, Lionel Shriver, Grace Paley, Alice Sebold and many others.
     
Q.   Are you taking part in any events or book readings for Diary of a Provincial Lesbian?
Yes. Please check the latest dates here.
 
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