The Bookseller to the Stars Vs. Rachel Johnson

Synopsis:
Mimi and Ralph have left social climbing, pushy parenting and their marital problems behind them in London, and moved west to the bucolic green depths of the country. Or so they thought. Yes, there's mud and masses of fresh air, plenty of handsome hayseeds and there's Rose, Mimi's new best friend and Dorset's answer to Martha Stewart. But what should be Shire Heaven is, it turns out, just as tricky to navigate as Notting Hell. There's low-level conflict between the racehorses in vintage/Diesel/Ralph Lauren and the brood mares in Barbour/Boden, there's guerrilla warfare between the landowners and eco-warriers and naked hostility between Old Money, New Money and No Money.
Yes, in Honeybourne, if you don't have:
a landscaped garden within 1000 acres (minimum) of prime land
a helipad for your trophy guests;
an organic farm shop selling 16 sorts of home-made sausages;
four pony-mad polo-playing children; a literary festival in your mini-stately;
and, a bottom that looks smackable in jodhpurs, then, well...you're Mimi basically.
And that's just the start of her problems. Mimi also has a secret. But can she keep it?
BTTS: Rachel, tell us about your writing influences and what new books have floated your boat recently?RJ: Enid Blyton, Richard Crompton, PG Wodehouse, Agatha Christie, Nancy Mitford and Molesworth II. What's floated my boat? The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, Kate Summerscale's analysis of the ur-detective story that inspired Conan Doyle... Frances Osborne's The Bolter....and Right Ho, Jeeves.
BTTS: In many ways, the attitudes and amusements of people are similar in Town and Country, are they not?
RJ: In a way...it's just a different set of activities against which people judge each other and are judged: instead of your Provencal kitchen or minimalist garden, it's your ha ha or your stables or whether your child's in the polo team...there's less shopping in the country, given the often limited range of shops (pet shops to Spars to Horse supplies) and probably more Chopin...
BTTS: Does the act of handing down properties to male heirs and the consequent concern about producing such (a la some unfortunate predicament in a Jane Austen novel) still really cause a problem for some families and occasions of inheritance? Is this a factor/concern in your home?
RJ: Are you kidding? Have you seen my humble home? Primogeniture is not remotely a concern of mine. However as my father had six children and a farm, splitting anything six ways doesn't work, so I can see the logic of it (even though I am a second-born daughter).
When a family's existence is defined by their ability to keep a large house intact, and in the hands of the scions of the blood, then of course the whole business of handing down property, of IHT, and so on becomes of paramount importance. You can only feel sorry for people who have the burden of inheriting and maintaining a large, expensive house with acres of roof to mend, as their main purpose in life.
BTTS: I have seen your home and wonderful it is. It baffles me why having a certain number of children is such a badge of authority, a desperate goal to make or a sign of achievement, especially when a lot of people aren't so fortunate to be able to have them. Do you come across this attitude in mothers a lot?
RJ: A bit...it's a badge of honour and super to have loads of children and excuses some mothers from doing paid work of course too...also having four or more is a very quick way of telling people that you have a lot of house and a lot of help...
BTTS: There's a lot of shagging in this book and in turn, illicit behaviour. Sex outside of marriage is quite a big topic and one focus is a certain sense of acceptance within the upper classes (or old money families) that is just the done thing sometimes. Is it a fear of divorce and the rejection from society that would occur? Working class families tend to not tolerate this at all and actually have a real fear and paranoia of partners committing adultery.
RJ: Do they? I think what you're getting at is the whole "heir and a spare" business. Once duty is done, and the succession secured, it was the Edwardian way simply to take one's pleasures as they came, and anyway, public censure was not reserved for adultery, but divorce. Actually, Mark, there's not that much shagging in the book, though I am happy for readers to hand over their £6.99 in the hope that there might be. There's just as much cheese making.
BTTS: You deal with a lot of the political subjects of the day within this book and have used the power of dialogue to argue both sides. Where do you stand on the rights of the countryside? You bring up both points really well but it begs us to wonder what the solution to them is sometimes. Your thoughts.
RJ: I believe in the rights of the country - ancient, numinous, bred-in-the-bone rights of old England that must remain unencumbered by ignorant, sad, townie prejudices about husbandry, hunting, and hounds. Farmers and hunts preserve our landscapes, thicken ties, and keep the shires alive on almost no funds at all. We should sink to our knees and thank them, not try to stop them from doing what they know best.
BTTS: What's next for Mimi and Clare? Will there be more Hell instalments?
RJ: Not unless I dash off Hell's Belles (about a pre-Big Bang Notting Hell where houses were subdivided into flats, Joe Strummer stalked the Grove, and pubs were full of drunken Irishmen hitting each other)
Thanks Rachel!
Shire Hell is published by Penguin and is in all good bookshops now.

















































