Adele Parks - 'I don't want my readers to say, 'I've already read that one...''

Virgin Radio

11 Jul 2022, 06:34

How do you write a bestselling novel?

Adele Parks has written 21 novels in her 21-year career as an author and is one of the bestselling authors of women's fiction in the United Kingdom. She appeared on The Graham Norton Show With Waitrose this weekend to tell us about her 22nd book, One Last Secret.

"It's another dark, twisty psychological thriller," explains Adele. "I read a lot of psychological thrillers, and I noticed that the sex workers in them, the escorts, were often in the background - either a dead body or just a sort of nameless, faceless accessory. And so this book is written from the point of view of a high end escort. That's Dora. She works with incredibly ruthless, powerful people across the country, and so is therefore steeped in secrets because they think she's relatively worthless. People tell her secrets, or she overhears secrets.

Adele continues; "She realises her world is incredibly dangerous. It's not a great life choice, so she's just trying to get out of it. And she's met someone who genuinely cares for her, knows about her past, but is prepared to say let's start again. But he does ask her to immediately give up her work. However, she doesn't, she takes one last job in the south of France at a beautiful chateau. She walks into a trap and her secrets catch up with her."

Unsurprisingly, Adele is passionate about the good she believes that reading - and writing - can do for a person, going on to say that writing books has helped make her a "better person".

"Writing a book means you live many lives, and that increases empathy," she says. "And it makes us better people. We're more connected. We look for connections, rather than differences. When I was researching this book, I approached it exactly like I approach all my other books, and I found sex workers to talk to because I wanted it to be realistic. I wanted to give them a voice. I didn't want to be patronising. They told me how they keep themselves safe and sane and have a sense of humour."

Adele has sold over 4 million copies of her novel in the UK and her books have been translated into 30 languages. She was awarded an MBE in the New Year Honours List and each of her 21 novels are bestsellers in the UK. Despite her phenomenal success, Adele says she never thinks about her successful her stories might be, concentrating solely on writing the best book she possibly can.

"When you're writing you don't think about the chart position at all," she says. "You just think about the words on the page. I've written lots of different types of books, in different genres, and certainly many different themes over the years. I think I've personally challenged myself every single time to come up with something different, because I don't want my readers to say, 'Oh yeah, I've read that one'. I don't think I thought about the chart position of one of my books until I was 19 books in, just whether people enjoyed them or not..."

It's safe to say that many, many people enjoy the books that Adele Parks has written, and will so for years to come.

One Last Secret is available to buy now.

Listen to The Graham Norton Radio Show every Saturday AND Sunday from 9:30 am on Virgin Radio or catch up on-demand here.