J.P. O’Connell
J.P. O’Connell is the author of Hotel Portofino, a heady historical fiction drama about a British family who open an upper-class hotel on the magical Italian Riviera during the ‘Roaring 20s.’ He has worked as an editor and writer for a variety of newspapers and magazines including Time Out, The Guardian, The Times, and the Daily Telegraph. JP has also written several books including a novel, a celebration of letter-writing, a spice encyclopedia, and, most recently, an analysis of David Bowie’s favorite books and the ways they influenced his music. JP lives in London.
Are there any particular films that have influenced your writing?
Absolutely. I’ve always loved well-done adaptations of classic novels. The benchmark for me has always been Merchant Ivory, especially their versions of EM Forster’s A Room With A View and Howards End. When I was a teenager I used to watch the same films over and over again. I think that imprints on your brain certain ideas about (for example) structure, tone and how dialogue should work. Mike Newell’s film Dance With A Stranger – about Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in Britain – was a big favourite, I remember. It was written by Shelagh Delaney, who found fame in the late 1950s for writing a gritty play called A Taste of Honey which was made into a brilliant, taboo-busting film.
Do you collect anything? If so, what, why and for how long?
I have several vintage radios – old valve sets from the 1930s and 40s. I love the romance of old technology, the way it takes them a couple of minutes to warm up and the fact that they still pick up stations after all this time. They’re incredibly dangerous, though, so you can’t keep them on for long. Not for nothing were they nicknamed ‘curtain-burners’.
What do you worry about?
My children and the state of the world we’re bequeathing them.
What brings you great joy?
Holidays in Greece with my family. The Beatles. Re-reading novels I love like Wilkie Collins’ The Woman in White and Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s Lady Audley’s Secret.
Is there a work of art that you love? Why? Have you ever visited it in person?
There’s a farmhouse in East Sussex called Charleston where the painter Vanessa Bell and sundry other Bloomsbury Group luminaries used to live and hang out. They transformed the house into a work of art, decorating every wall and piece of furniture. It’s a vibrant, inspiring place; haunted in a good way – in the sense that you absolutely feel the personalities of its former inhabitants as you’re walking round it. I’ve been lucky enough to visit it several times and to eat in the kitchen where Bell would once have chatted over tea with her sister Virginia Woolf, who lived in the nearby village of Rodmell.
