Featured Author:
M. C. Beaton
Marion Chesney used her initials when creating her most popular pen name, M. C. Beaton. Under other pen names she wrote nearly one hundred romance novels, but as Beaton she achieved lasting fame and success as the author of the Hamish Macbeth and Agatha Raisin series.
Chesney was born in 1936, and worked as a book buyer, reporter, and editor. She married Harry Gibbons and they lived in the U.S. for a number of years before returning to her native Scotland. It was there she created the Scottish detective Hamish Macbeth, who became famous through a television series Chesney strongly disliked.
Later they moved to the Cotswolds, where she created her second crime series, Agatha Raisin. This character, named after Agatha Christie, was referred to by Chesney as a more outspoken version of herself.
Marion Chesney died in 2019 at the age of 83.
Her friend and fellow writer, Rod Green, was tapped by Chesney to continue her two mystery series. His wife was her publisher, which enabled them to meet.
“She wanted somebody she could trust and we thought I could be of some help. I thought that would essentially mean taking some dictation but it turned out that she wanted me to be more involved than that,” he said.
“Marion always said if you are not having fun writing it will show and people won’t have fun reading it.”
This is an imagined interview between CozyMystery.com (CM) and M. C. Beaton (MCB). It has been synthesized from various interviews with M. C. Beaton over the years. All quotes from M. C. Beaton are her own words. Items in square brackets are where we have altered her words for clarity or to avoid spoilers. Please see the end of the article for source credits.
Early Writing
CM: How did you first get into books?
MCB: I loved reading and writing as far back as I can remember. I was not a happy child and books were a great escape.
CM: What was life like in your family?
MCB: My parents were both avid readers. One of my earliest memories [] was of my mother trotting along the garden path with two string bags bulging with books. [Everybody] sat round the fire with stacks of books.
CM: So you read a lot?
MCB: I always wanted to be a writer. I would haunt libraries, dreaming that perhaps one day …
CM: You loved libraries too?
MCB: They were palaces of dreams. We lived in the north of Glasgow but the best library then was Gorbals Library. So we’d take the tram down and load up our string bags.
CM: And now you read on a Kindle?
MCB: [T]he thought of having 1,000 books in your handbag when you travel is marvellous. I travel a lot and it’s so nice not to have to search for bookshops. It’s so quick, and you read twice as much as you did before.
CM: How did you get into mysteries?
MCB: I got a copy of Lord Peter Views the Body [by Dorothy L. Sayers] for my 11th birthday and I was off and running.
CM: And writing?
MCB: You need to love books to write them, and how I loved all the storytellers from Muriel Spark to J.R.R. Tolkien.
Crime Reporter
CM: You worked as a bookseller, and then a crime reporter in Glasgow. What was that like?
MCB: Murder in real life is often brutal and short and nasty.
CM: Is that why you don’t write more realistic novels?
MCB: Well the further away you are from it, the more you want to write about it. If you’ve seen it, you don’t.
CM: So now you write the cozy side of murder.
MCB: I don’t like the word cosy because it’s patronising. They don’t say Agatha Christie is cosy, do they? My books are very easy to read, which means people assume they’re easy to write, which isn’t the case.
CM: We definitely agree. So what is your preferred way of describing your writing?
MCB: I suppose I like the sort of middle class mystery which a lot of writers despise.
CM: But you write it and read it?
MCB: I enjoy reading crime fiction. I could not change to any other genre. Simply because I do not read any other type of book. You cannot write what you don’t read. And it keeps the mind healthy. If I have a resentment to someone, I just kill them off in print.
United States and Romance
CM: You married and moved to the United States, where you began writing romance novels.
MCB: [A]lthough I [] became a journalist, writing a whole book seemed beyond me. All that changed after Georgette Heyer died. I enjoyed her books. But when the imitators came along, I complained to my husband and he said, “Well, why not write one?”
CM: Your romances were set in Regency times.
MCB: Because my mother had been a great Regency fan, I already knew a great deal about the period. So I decided to try. Husband Harry even found me an agent.
CM: You have written close to 100 romances, and another 60 or so crime stories.
MCB: I don’t know how I have managed to write 160 novels. I didn’t get that much money for a long time, so I just accepted any contract that came along.
Turning to Crime
CM: What caused you to stop writing romance?
MCB: [I was] desperate to get out of 1820.
CM: And you chose to begin writing crime stories?
MCB: Crime was intimidating and belonged to the greats like Dorothy Sayers and Agatha Christie, but then I noticed people were beginning to read old detective stories because at that time, the 1980s, there was nothing really between the Booker Prize type and Mills & Boone.
Hamish Macbeth
CM: Your first big success was Hamish Macbeth. How did you come up with him?
MCB: I was inspired to write the first detective story in Sutherland because I [was] learning to fly cast for salmon at a fishing school in Lochinver. As I read nothing but detective stories – the brain is like a computer, it can’t put out what you don’t put in – and here were eleven people in the fishing school in the weird and magnificent scenery of Sutherland, that it all seemed a classic setting for a detective story.
CM: Sutherland is one of the most remote parts of northern Scotland, but you and your family decided to move there.
MCB: The area had a tremendous impact on me because of the scenery. It was so hard to believe there was somewhere in Britain that is miles and miles of nothing. We had an old croft house, which was built next to Neolithic ruins.
Agatha Raisin
CM: The same happened a few years later, when you moved to the Cotswolds area of England, and created another character there.
MCB: The inspiration comes from the very beautiful surroundings of the Cotswolds and Sutherland, stories in newspapers, and listening to people. There is no such thing as an ordinary person. Everyone has a story.
CM: And what was it about the Cotswolds?
MCB: The place where I set my books dictates my story. In the first book, Agatha had the same feeling as me: a city person coming to the Cotswolds. You look up at the hills in winter when it’s foggy and you feel there’s a splendid party to which you haven’t been invited. And then you go up to London and you don’t fit in there any more. Suddenly, you can’t wait to get back on the train again. And going down into Blockley, there is this tunnel of trees arching over the road, and it’s like plunging into a burrow; a feeling of protection. I’ve never felt anything like it before.
CM: And Agatha Raisin herself?
MCB: She’s middle-aged and rather pushy. Someone you may not necessarily like, but want to win out in the end.
CM: How did you come up with her?
MCB: Agatha says things I wouldn’t say. She’s an extension of the worst of me.
CM: So she’s your alter-ego?
MCB: I am a lot older than Agatha now but I found the fifties that very vulnerable age when everything in the body wants to droop south, when you feel one slice of chocolate cake is cutting off your circulation, when you grow an incipient moustache and everyone says, ‘You should just accept it.’ Damned if I or Agatha will!
CM: Named after Agatha Christie, I presume?
MCB: Agatha came from Christie, and from Bertie Wooster’s Aunt Agatha in P. G. Wodehouse. And because it’s a bit of a bullying name.
Television Adaptations
CM: Your current level of fame came from the adaptation of Hamish Macbeth to television. How involved were you?
MCB: The production company sneered at me.
CM: Did you like the show?
MCB: The portrayal of Hamish Macbeth on television was not the same as my Hamish.
CM: Seems like a bit of a sore spot. How about when Agatha Raisin came to television?
MCB: I consider myself very lucky to have Ashley Jensen as Agatha Raisin. She may not look like the Agatha [I wrote] but she acts the character beautifully. The nastier side of her character is based on me. I am not politically correct.
CM: But still not the right actor?
MCB: In the books she’s 53 with brown hair and comes from Birmingham, whereas Ashley’s younger, slimmer, blonde and Scottish. But she’s wonderful. She’s funny and she brings a warmth and vulnerability to the part.
Writing Process
CM: Let’s talk a little about your writing process.
MCB: As an ex-reporter I write very quickly, and there are always ideas all about, like what people say, stories in the newspapers, or, in the case of Agatha, an ongoing irritation with political correctness.
CM: When do you write?
MCB: I crawl out of bed at nine o’clock – well, maybe ten – and write for two hours fortified with a cup of black coffee.
CM: And where?
MCB: My office is a mess. I write at a small computer desk next to the window but I can’t get much of a view because I broke the Venetian blind and can’t get around to fixing it. There are books everywhere. My keyboard is covered in ash. In fact the whole room looks as if it’s been recently burgled.
CM: You write two books a year, one in each series. Which do you prefer?
MCB: In my two main characters, I do not have a favourite.
CM: Really?
MCB: While I am writing Agatha, I see the world through her beady little eyes and when writing Hamish Macbeth I am inside a totally different character. For example, I couldn’t break off in the middle of one book to write the other.
CM: How hard is it to keep a series going?
MCB: It’s a lot of hard work, especially to keep things light. Again, I have a burning interest in other peoples’ lives and that sparks me. I find the benefit is that I am already familiar with all the quirks of personality and the setting.
And finally…
CM: What do you think it is that drives you?
MCB: The curse of the Scottish work ethic is that I always feel I have to be working.
CM: And how do you want to be remembered?
MCB: All I ever wanted to do was be an entertainer. And write something for a wet day, or to give to a friend who was having a hard time.
CM: Finally, one parting thought?
MCB: I will be working until I die, because I am old and I have contracts to honor.
Do you have anything to say about this article? Agree or disagree with what we have to say? Let us know in the comments below.
Credits
Scott Butki, “Interview With M. C. Beaton, Author of Death Of A Maid,” BlogCritics, January 10, 2007, https://blogcritics.org/interview-with-mc-beaton-author-of/
Polly Dunbar, “The woman who’s turned the Cotswolds into a hotbed of murder,” The Daily Mail, April 6, 2019, https://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/event/article-6885595/MC-Beaton-speaks-Event-army-loyal-fans-called-cosy.html
Lisa Respers France, “M. C. Beaton,” Bookloons, September 2006, http://www.bookloons.com/cgi-bin/Columns.asp?name=M.%20C.%20Beaton&type=Interview
Neil Genzlinger, “Marion Chesney, a.k.a. Mystery Writer M.C. Beaton, Dies at 83,” New York Times, January 16, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/16/books/marion-chesney-mc-beaton-dead.html
Katie Jarvis, “Author Marion Chesney aka MC Beaton,” Great British Life, January 28, 2010, https://www.greatbritishlife.co.uk/people/celebrity-interviews/author-marion-chesney-aka-mc-beaton-7087122
Sue Lord, “M. C. Beaton on Raisin, Macbeth & Others,” Shots, http://www.shotsmag.co.uk/interview_view.aspx?interview_id=12
Sally McDonald, “Hamish, Agatha and me,” The Sunday Post, October 20, 2020, https://www.sundaypost.com/fp/hamish-agatha-and-me-writeron-taking-up-the-best-selling-pen-of-mc-beaton-the-undisputed-queen-of-cosy-crimemarion-wanted-someone-she-could-trust-my-job-wasto-fleshout-the-plots/
Lenny Picker, “An Interview With M. C. Beaton,” Publisher’s Weekly, November 14, 2014, https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/new-titles/adult-announcements/article/64753-on-the-beaton-path-mysteries-thrillers-2014.html
Mike Ripley, “MC Beaton obituary,” The Guardian, January 6, 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jan/06/mc-beaton-obituary
Caroline Sanderson, “M C Beaton,” The Bookseller, august 9, 2012, https://www.thebookseller.com/author-interviews/profile-m-c-beaton
Maggie Swinburne & Karen Byron, “M. C. Beaton Talks About Her Latest Book,” My Weekly, https://www.myweekly.co.uk/2019/02/26/m-c-beaton-talks-about-her-latest-book/
Roger Tagholm, “Tea With MC Beaton, Doyenne of the Middle-Class Mystery,” Publishing Perspectives, November 21, 2012, https://publishingperspectives.com/2012/11/tea-with-mc-beaton-doyenne-of-the-middle-class-mystery/
“M. C. Beaton,” https://web.archive.org/web/20081221100850/http://www.agatharaisin.com/?section=author
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