Cambridge is heaven, I am convinced it is the nicest place in the world to live. As you walk round, most people look incredibly bright, as if they are probably off to win a Nobel prize. – Sophie Hannah
My father, whose hobby was collecting secondhand cricket books, came back from a book fair one day with a copy of ‘The Body In The Library.’ – Sophie Hannah
I’m snobby about books that aren’t crime fiction: if I start reading a literary novel and there’s no mystery emerging in the first few pages, I’m like, ‘Gah, this obviously isn’t a proper book. Why would I want to carry on reading it?’ – Sophie Hannah
I am actually incredibly contented and jolly. But, and I have no idea why this is, I have a really strong empathy with all kinds of warped and destructive modes of thinking. I don’t know why, but those things co-exist. – Sophie Hannah
For me, a big part of writing psychological thrillers is choosing crimes committed for motives which would only apply to a particular person in a particular situation; a unique, one-off motive that is born out of someone’s particular range of psychological afflictions. – Sophie Hannah
I am a fellow commoner at Lucy Cavendish College. My husband used to be a lecturer at Leeds University, and we lived in Yorkshire for 11 years. When he gave up his job, we realised we could live wherever we liked. – Sophie Hannah
With me, even if my life depended on it, I wouldn’t be able to cry. Not with somebody there. Because even if I’m talking about bad and upsetting things, if there is somebody else in the room, I am trying to entertain them. If there is somebody there, I am in performance mode. I can only cry if I am on my own. – Sophie Hannah
My crime novels are highly structured. I never start out with a dead body. I start with an impossible scenario. Opening questions should be mysterious, weird, intriguing, and contain the seeds of the solution. The structure has to be meticulous – I’m a structure freak. – Sophie Hannah
My characters all have issues, but I don’t see that as weird or abnormal because I think in real life there are very few bland, normal people. – Sophie Hannah
Agatha Christie’s writing is incredibly skillful because her books are incredibly intellectually puzzling and challenging. – Sophie Hannah
All through childhood, I wrote verses and mysteries. There is, for me, one connection: structure. My poetry is metrical, rhyming. – Sophie Hannah
I always notice the dysfunctional dynamic of human relationships because most places where you encounter it, people are trying to pretend it isn’t happening. – Sophie Hannah
I know a lot of crime writers feel very underrated, like they’re not taken seriously, and they want to be just thought of as writers rather than ghettoised as crime writers, but I love being thought of firmly as a crime writer. – Sophie Hannah
I want my books to explore motives which make people think, ‘Wow! Imagine the psychological state you’d have to be in for that to be your motive!’ Whereas things like blackmail, jealousy – they’re rational reasons for committing murder. – Sophie Hannah
I never write about CIA conspiracies or the FBI or mafia or anything like that because I just don’t understand that world. But I think I do understand individual human harmfulness. – Sophie Hannah
I was working as a secretary in Manchester and thought I would always do that. Then I got this letter offering me a two-year fellowship where I could write; they would pay me a salary and give me a flat to live in. It was heaven. – Sophie Hannah
Nobody has ever written as many enjoyable, fun-to-read crime novels as Agatha Christie. It’s all about the storytelling and the pleasure of the reader. She doesn’t want to be deep or highbrow. – Sophie Hannah
I am trying to write novels for properly clever people, but I also want them to be proper novels that also stick in a person’s mind and have an atmosphere about them. – Sophie Hannah
Agatha Christie never wrote books that just started with a dead body, and a ‘Let’s find out who the murderer is’, which is kind of mysterious but not that mysterious. She always started with, ‘How can this thing be happening; isn’t it strange?’ – Sophie Hannah
There are very few well-adjusted people in my books. But I do think that’s normal. Because everyone does have their issues and hang-ups. – Sophie Hannah
Try as I might, Agatha Christie is unique. The actual writing style can’t be exactly the same, so instead of trying to replicate it exactly, the way I got around it was by inventing a new narrator. – Sophie Hannah
If we knew more about psychology, we would be better equipped to deal with other people’s psychological damage which they might project onto us. – Sophie Hannah
Most crime fiction plots are not ambitious enough for me. I want something really labyrinthine with clues and puzzles that will reward careful attention. – Sophie Hannah
