One of the other central characters in A Slow Fire Burning is a novelist – Theo, a somewhat pompous writer who enjoyed bestselling success early in his career before a family accident brought on years-long writers’ block, solved by posing as a female crime author. It’s tempting to trace Hawkins’ own experiences in his - “He tired quickly of touring life, of the punishing enthusiasm of bright young things. All he really wanted to do was stay at home, with her, and to write” – but she’s adamant that the character “is very much not me”. Rather, Theo was “quite fun to write”, and a helpful means of exploring “the ways we talk about crime writing,” she says.
“I have spent the last 10 years of my life thinking about writing and being published and being read and being reviewed, so it’s very much in my head. But we talk about how to write about acts of violence all the time, and whether there’s too much violence against women in books,” Hawkins continues. “I think there are huge double standards about the way that people who write about violence against women are criticised compared to what you see in film and television, where it’s fine to have bodies all over the place. So I am fascinated by it, although I don’t have answers.”
Hawkins has been re-reading certain dark novels while writing A Slow Fire Burning, a book that also acts as something of a reading recommendation tool given its sometime setting in a bookshop. Ian McEwan’s The Cement Garden, the work of Shirley Jackson, Pat Barker’s Blow Your House Down alongside Cormac McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men, as well as the not-insubstantial to-read pile that comes with being a Women’s Prize judge. “I’m not one of those people who stops reading while I’m writing,” she says. “I find it really inspiring, I want to read, good - really good - writing when I'm writing, because that sort of keeps you motivated, reminds you why you want to do this.”
Being such an avid reader has inevitably found its way onto Instagram – many of her posts are piles of books. The latest bundle included Patricia Lockwood, Yaa Gyasi and Deborah Levy. “Every one a winner,” read the caption. For now, though, with A Slow Fire Burning hitting shelves, she may have to take a break from championing others to step back into the spotlight once again. It’s something she’s more comfortable with now. “I’m happier with this book, I feel in a better place,” she says. “I’m more relaxed about things now.” Our time nears its end, she’s got a lunch meeting to go to. The cogs of the publicity campaign are shunting, once more, into life. For Hawkins’ fans, it can only be a good thing.