Author Louisa Treger is best known for her biographical fiction. In each of her four (and counting) highly acclaimed novels she takes inspiration from the past and through the power of her narrative brings her subjects alive. Her first novel, The Lodger, explores the Modernist writer Dorothy Richardson; the second, Dragon Lady, blends romance and history with crime and focuses on the dramatic shooting of art-lover and philanthropist, Lady Virginia Courtauld. Her third, Madwoman, is an evocative portrait of ground-breaking journalist Nelly Bly and her fourth, The Paris Muse (due out in paperback on 27 March) introduces readers to the brilliant surrealism of photographer Dora Maar, now better known as Picasso’s Weeping Woman.
Louisa, I understand that this year you’ve become an Ambassador of the Oxford Literary Festival. How did that come about and what does it entail?
It’s the honour of my life, really. I've been a supporter of the Festival for many years; for its commitment to free speech, and also its dedication to excellence in programming. In my view, both of those things really make it stand out from the herd. It’s about championing the festival and promoting it, spreading the word, and introducing it to people who might not otherwise have heard about it.
You're also speaking this year on your latest book, The Paris Muse. What can we expect from the event?
I'm very lucky that I'm going to be in conversation with wonderful journalist, Suzi Feay, and I have a rapport with her. Things gel very well, and I know we've got the freedom to go off piste if we want to. For me, doing festivals is my second favorite part of being an author: the best part is the writing, but because I spend so much time by myself – communing with these characters in my head – it's absolutely wonderful to emerge and to connect with readers.
I’ve just finished reading the Paris Muse but when I say I read, what I really mean was I had to have a device with me at all times so that I could look up images of Dora Maar’s photography, or certain Picasso paintings which you reference throughout. I thoroughly enjoyed it but it wasn’t a passive experience…
Yes, I didn't intend it to be a comfortable read, but to be a read that made people sit up and think. I hoped it would speak to art lovers, but also to anyone who's interested in history and in relationships, particularly those sort of abusive relationships, and the way in which [women can get lost within them]. Dora was so incredibly talented, and I wanted to give her a voice, and bring her out from Picasso's shadow. When they met all her brilliance and her strangeness sort of faded away, she became subjugated to him.
She was a cutting-edge photographer. She pioneered experimental techniques. She was one of the first female commercial photographers, one of the first people who earned a living by photography.
By the time she met Picasso, she'd already exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. So, she was a household name. Her photographs were very idiosyncratic, imaginative, strange, and beautiful. They really grabbed me and wouldn't let go. In fact, the cover image is a self-portrait, and my cover designer added color to the original which, I think, makes it perfect for a book.
And what makes a subject ‘perfect for a book’?
My theme has been writing trailblazing women, you know, women who are outliers and pioneers, who struggle to conform, and who often suffered for being different, but who achieved great things. And also, I'm also very interested in how the past shows up in the present, because in some ways, things have moved on for women, and in others, they haven't at all.
In Madwoman, my third novel, the subject has Nelly Bly, America's first female investigative journalist. To get her first big scoop, she went undercover into an asylum. What she found was women who wouldn't conform to society, and the asylum was a sort of socially acceptable way of dealing with these inconvenient women. For example, they might have postnatal depression or have witnessed a terrible accident or the death of a loved one, or maybe their husband simply got tired of them. That made me think that society still doesn't have much place for inconvenient women. For example, Britney Spears who had that conservatorship slapped on her, where, effectively, her personhood was taken away.
What compels you to explore further when choosing your subjects?
They're all very unusual and very ahead of their time and not afraid to refuse the limited roles available to women of their day. They're all very bright. They've often had struggle which has driven them to succeed in a man's world.
Have you ever been in touch with anyone who was related to or knew any of your ‘inconvenient women’?
The first thing to say is none of the subjects I've written about thus far have had children, but [other] family members have been incredibly helpful. For example, George Courtauld, who was a cousin of Stephen and Virginia Courtauld, sent me a treasure trove of family letters including letters between husband and wife. And something funny happened with The Lodger, my debut novel. The protagonist falls in love with another woman who was incredibly free-spirited – she wouldn’t perform, she was a suffragette. Her grandson got in touch with me and said, ‘Thank you so much. You know she was the black sheep of the family. Nobody would talk about her, and you've explained why’.
That must be so rewarding. Let me ask, which authors do you enjoy reading?
At the moment, I'm reading the latest Elizabeth Strout, which is called Tell Me Everything – she's one of my go-to writers, because she has such empathy and she says so much in such simple vocabulary.. I've always been a fan of Margaret Atwood,. I love Doris Lessing. I love Charlotte Bronte. Many, many writers, and I love discovering new ones.
Which leads to my final question; will you be attending many of the other events at the Festival this year?
The programming at the Oxford Literary Festival is so broad and so deep that there's going to be so much of interest for me to go and listen to. And I just love the atmosphere, the way the whole of Oxford, you know, that most beautiful city, is just taken over by book people. There's this wonderful energy, so I am a total fan and admirer of the Festival.
To book tickets to see Dr Louisa Treger in conversation with Suzie Feay or to discover more about the Oxford Literary Festival, click here.
