From her 375-year-old farmhouse in Dorset, England, author Clare Leslie Hall (a.k.a Clare Empson and Clare Hall) and I are about to discover we have a whole lot in common: romantic reading material, juicy love triangles, defiant lane straying, lacklustre farming skills and a deep loathing of difficult edits. Broken Country, her third novel as Clare Leslie Hall (more on this later), had a nightmarish amount of edits, but the payoff was well worth it for both writer and reader. It’s an impressive feat, given two love stories unfold across three timelines, with a murder case to boot. 

A quick synopsis: In rural England, where the sixties are not-so-swinging at all, Beth and Frank are happily married and running their farm until one fateful day when a strange dog comes for their lambs. The dog’s owner, it turns out, is Beth’s first love returned: Gabriel, a handsome and successful writer with an adorable son around the same age Beth’s boy was when he was tragically killed in a farm accident. Unable to resist either the boy or his dad, Beth begins an affair with Gabriel that becomes an epic love triangle and snowballs to murder. But who’s dead? And who killed them? 

No spoilers from this writer, but expect one: a juicy rumour that, as it turns out, is very true and fabulous news for the writer on the eve of her North American debut.

 

Rosemary Counter: Nice to meet you, Clare…? I notice you have a few last names!

Clare Leslie Hall: I do, yes. Clare Empson is my married name, and I published two novels – both thrillers – under that name. Even though Broken Country has a similar style in a lot of ways, I wanted to make a departure from my position as “thriller writer,” which never really sat with me anyway. My maiden name is Hall, and my mother’s maiden name is Leslie, so my new name is kinda their names as well. In real life, I use Clare Empson. But it doesn’t matter! I’ll answer to anything. 

RC: Do you like that you get to start over, or does it suck that you have to do it? 

CLH: I actually really quite like it. It’s not that much of a departure and I don’t think it changes my writing much, but it’s a nice fresh start. I don’t think my books were quite thrillers to begin with, honestly. I think my books cross genres and always did, because I tend to write love stories crossed with suspense. Eight years ago you were meant to stay in your lane, but now there seems to be a lot more genre mixing-up. This time around, it seems to be okay. But it’s not new, really; I notice all my all-time favourite books – The Great Gatsby, Atonement, Rebecca – mix crime with love stories. 

RC: Rebecca is my very favourite! I just love a love triangle. 

CLH: Me too! Just like Beth, I was so torn between the two men. They represent two lifestyles and two parts of Beth’s personality. Gabriel’s the intellectual life that she’s always craved and probably should have had. He’s also good-looking, rich and successful. Frank is a farmer, her best friend, the father of her child. Frank’s always loved her and always been there for her. But her and Gabriel have this wild sexual attraction. Gabriel represents a time in life that’s long gone. Beth’s sort of pining for something that’s gone forever, which is what’s sad to me about nostalgia.  

RC: I read Broken Country was inspired by your puppy, Magnus, who is alive and well, I hope? 

CLH: He is, thankfully. We live in a very old farmhouse surrounded by fields, where Magnus was running one day during lambing season. He ran into a field of lambs and suddenly a farmer was there with a gun threatening to shoot him. I saw this scene and in one moment, the whole book came to me: a boy, his dog, his father, the farmer. It came in almost a flash. 

RC: That’s such a writer’s dream moment. Just a flood of inspiration! 

CLH: It was, yes, though once I started writing, of course it wasn’t that easy. It took four years, countless drafts, a ton of editing. I changed and reworked things so many times: At first, Frank and Gabriel both had perspectives as well, but then I had a revelation that this is a woman’s story so I went back and put it all in her voice. 

RC: You have not one, not two, but three timelines to manage. That’s a lot. 

CLH: It was complicated, yes, especially having two love stories unfolding at once. In the past, Beth is young and in love for the first time, but in the present, she’s with her long-time husband, who’s also lovely, but in a very different way. I was about three years in when I had a revelation, when suddenly everything made sense, but for that I had to change the timing. The story was originally set in the present day, but I had to move it backwards to the 1960s. Copy edits were a nightmare. I don’t recommend any of this. 

RC: Sounds like this book, despite the initial inspiration, really made you work for it. Literally, on a farm. 

CLH: I live in a 1650 farmhouse with a thatch cottage surrounded by farmland. The 82-year-old farmer, Keith, was born in our bedroom. He sold us the farmhouse and kept the land to work, which is perfect for me. For this book, however, I did try a bit of farming. I went and stayed with a couple on a small farm in Kent. Their farm is so charming and they’re so passionate about the land, but it’s a hard, hard life, though kinda magical as well. I went lambing, I went harvesting, I went milking. I wasn’t good at any of it, but it was so amazing to try. I’m really quite dyspraxic, more so as I get older, so milking was just impossible. Have you ever milked a cow before? 

RC: I walked a calf once as a child in a county fair. Cows are big and scary and dangerous! 

CLH: They are! Six of them come in on one side and six on the other and these machines drop down. You have moments to fix these heavy claws onto their teats. I couldn’t do it! Lambing was real baptism by fire, too. We were crossing a muddy field at about seven in the morning when the farmer, Al, said, “Can you just hold onto this ewe’s head as she gives birth?” But she didn’t look good, and then she snuffed it. Died right there in my arms. Al said it wasn’t my fault. 

RC: I guess that’s life on a farm. Anything can happen, and this comes up in your book a lot. 

CLH: I did a lot of researching about the terrible accidents that happen on farms. My god. Plus it’s the sixties, and recklessness is part of their story. They drive too fast, drink too much, they’re reckless and not careful and eventually something awful is bound to happen. I think farmers, particularly, work so hard all the time, all day every day, all alone lots of the time. They take risks thinking they’re invincible, but of course they’re not. 

RC: I heard a rumour about this book and Reese Witherspoon. Do you know what I mean?

CLH: I do, and it’s so exciting, and it happened about a year ago so I’ve had to be quiet about it, which isn’t easy. A CAA agent was in touch with my agent to say they were interested in the film rights, then I had this incredible phone call, and then very quickly after that had tea with Reese Witherspoon and her Sunshine people in London. They attached a few script writers, so that’s promising, but you never know with these things. 

RC: I have one more question about an article you wrote in the Daily Mail…

CLH: Oh no, my poor son, hah! Years ago, I was doing anything for a bit of publicity for my first novel. I would never sell my soul like that now. Live and learn. Anyhow, my then-16-year-old son threw a massive party while we were away and absolutely trashed the whole house. Jake is 25 now and says he’ll never live it down. He’s out there looking for jobs now and this isn’t helping. I told him it serves him right. It looked like a burglary.