The Secret Lives of the Doyenne of Didsbrook is the title of the second novel by Jersey author Sally Edmondson, written under her pen name Tessa Barrie. The Yorkshire-born writer spoke to TOM OGG about the origins of the book, achieving her lifelong dream of becoming a full-time writer \u2013 and how her anger over being made redundant spurred her into writing her debut novel<\/p>\n
MANY are the authors who have used pen names when releasing their work to the public.
From Stephen King (Richard Bachman) and George Orwell (Eric Blair) to JK Rowling (Robert Galbraith), it is a common trend among writers both world-famous and less well-known.
Often, there will be an interesting or amusing backstory as to how and why they settled upon their chosen pseudonym, but few will have quite as memorable an origin story as that of Jersey author Sally Edmondson \u2013 or \u201cTessa Barrie\u201d as she calls herself in print.
\u201cI\u2019ve always loved writing and, after I left school in Gloucestershire, I started writing a column for a local newspaper,\u201d says the Yorkshire-born former finance worker, chatting during a visit to the JEP offices earlier this week.
\u201cThere was a problem, though, because my columns were all quite risqu\u00e9 \u2013 and I didn\u2019t want my mum to know it was me who was writing them. So I came up with the name \u2018Tessa Barrie\u2019 because I had a dog called Tessa and because I\u2019ve always been a closet Barry Manilow fan. I rather bastardised his name. And that\u2019s how it came about.\u201d
Such entertaining anecdotes are in keeping with Sally\u2019s distinctive writing style, which is lighthearted, good-humoured and warm, as evidenced by her second novel, The Secret Lives of the Doyenne of Didsbrook, which is being launched in Jersey this weekend.
Taking place at the Harbour Gallery from 2pm to 4pm on Sunday, the book launch will include a well-stocked complimentary bar (\u201cThere will be Pinot Grigio, ros\u00e9, red wine, beer, soft drinks, nibbles\u201d), and will see Sally and three other Jersey-based writers \u2013 Cate Hamilton, Chris Rive and Dreena Collins \u2013 reading extracts from the book.
\u201cI would describe The Secret Lives of the Doyenne of Didsbrook as a quirky murder mystery,\u201d says Sally. \u201cI originally wrote it as a short story about a writer\u2019s group in a very rural part of England, but I loved the characters so much that I decided to develop it and expand it into a novel.\u201d
Several years in the making, the book \u2013 which this week received an ecstatic review in Literary Titan \u2013 was initially written as a satire, before Sally decided to take a more subtly comic approach.
The fast-paced narrative unfolds in the fictional community of Didsbrook (\u201cSome authors do world building, but I prefer village building\u201d) and the result is often laugh-out-loud funny. Take his piece of prose, spoken in the book by Detective Middleton: \u201cA suspicious death is not something that happens every day in Didsbrook. In fact, from what I\u2019ve heard, nothing much ever happens here at all. The unexplained death of Jocelyn Robertshaw in a village best known for Jocelyn Robertshaw warrants a high-profile investigation.\u201d Almost every page boasts a similarly memorable line of dialogue or turn of phrase .
\u201cInitially it was going to be more of an out-and-out farce,\u201d says Sally. \u201cBut then I came up with my lead character and I found that, as her life progressed from one chapter to the next, the story became more and more complicated, and I just couldn\u2019t have all this slapstick comedy going on around it.
\u201cThere is still plenty of humour in the book, but it now reads more like a lighthearted cosy mystery.\u201d
Asked which authors have proven the biggest inspiration for her work, Sally replies: \u201cThat\u2019s a tricky question. Sue Limb and Helen Fielding were my early reading go-to\u2019s. Reading Sue Limb\u2019s novels, and listening to her Radio 4 comedy series Gloomsbury, made me think that maybe I should focus on comedic writing. And Helen Fielding, after Bridget Jones, sealed the deal.
\u201cMore recently, I have motored through books by Lisa Jewell and Kerry Fisher. And a book I read, listened to on Audible and then binge-watched the TV series, all in the same week, was Holly Ringland\u2019s The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart.
\u201cBut I get most of my ideas from the news or from watching Harlan Coben movies,\u201d she adds with a laugh.
The Secret Lives of the Doyenne of Didsbrook is notably different to Sally\u2019s debut novel, Just Say It (2021), which was a family drama about a workaholic daughter who rebels against her mollycoddled mother (\u201cThere is a lot of humour but with a bittersweet storyline underpinning it all\u201d), and which Sally initially started writing after being unexpectedly made redundant.
\u201cI was made redundant just before the Covid pandemic hit \u2013 and I was furious,\u201d she says. \u201cI was so angry that I sat down and wrote my first book. I decided to put the anger to good use.
\u201cThe idea for Just Say It was one that I\u2019d had in my head for a long time, but I\u2019d always had the excuse of \u2018ahh, I don\u2019t have time to write it\u2019. But then, suddenly, I didn\u2019t have that excuse anymore. So I just got on with it. I was really upset and angry at the time but, in hindsight, [losing my job] was a blessing in disguise. It was the best thing that ever happened to me really.\u201d
Now retired, Sally says she has belatedly become a \u201cfull-time writer\u201d, a profession she has always wanted ever since she first started writing freelance pieces while still a teenager.
\u201cI enjoyed it but they didn\u2019t pay me very much \u2013 and so I decided to up sticks and move to Jersey,\u201d she says. \u201cIt was 1981. I had great friends in the Island, and had stayed with them for several summer holidays over the years, and I had always wanted to live by the sea, so it was a no-brainer. Back then, I was pretty handy on the tennis court, played hockey and spent a considerable amount of time on the beach and in the sea.
\u201cToday, my pace of life may be a little slower, but the beach is no less of a draw.\u201d
It was shortly after first relocating to the Island that Sally began working for the Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust, as it was then known.
\u201cI loved it. I was there for eight years. They had a little monthly magazine, it might have been quarterly, and I\u2019d write pieces for that. Then I ended up in finance, as so many people over here do, but I never stopped writing, whether doing freelance work or just writing for my own pleasure.\u201d
Rather less pleasurable have been the difficulties Sally faced in getting her second novel published, the longwinded process of which she describes as \u201ca rocky road\u201d.
\u201cI was offered two book deals in 2024, which obviously I was very happy about,\u201d she says. \u201cUnfortunately, I picked the wrong one, and the publisher I signed with informed me in April that they were pushing back their entire 2025 publication list by 12 months, which meant that my own book wouldn\u2019t come out until at least September 2026. Well, I\u2019d been telling the whole world and his dog that it was \u2018coming soon\u2019.
\u201cI decided I couldn\u2019t wait any longer and so I opted to self-publish it, which obviously makes it harder to then find an audience. The irony is that, had I signed with the other publisher, the book would have been released four months ago. It was a hard lesson learned.\u201d
Describing her debut novel as \u201ca bit too long\u201d, Sally says that The Secret Lives of the Doyenne of Didsbrook is a superior second attempt, thanks in part to the assistance of two \u201cabsolutely amazing\u201d professional editors.
\u201cI\u2019m not a plotter,\u201d she says. \u201cI tried to be with this book, but I\u2019m not one for sticking post-it notes all over the wall. I\u2019m not that organised. [laughs] I think I\u2019m getting a little better. There is certainly a lot of rewriting, and then rewriting again. I always want to get everything just right.
\u201cI\u2019m already two-thirds of the way through book number three,\u201d she continues. \u201cIt is a psychological drama so I\u2019m very much out of my comfort zone, but I\u2019m too far gone now to stop. I\u2019m too invested in the characters to stop writing them.
\u201cI\u2019m just going to keep on going as long as the inspiration is there. I do feel I need to write them quicker because, well, I\u2019m not getting any younger. But it also acts as an incentive because I can\u2019t afford to put it off \u2013 it\u2019s now or never.\u201d <\/p>\n
*The Secret Lives of the Doyenne of Didsbrook by Tessa Barrie (Sally Edmondson) is available now on Amazon UK and at the Harbour Gallery in St Helier<\/p>\n
*The book will be launched at the Harbour Gallery on Sunday 27 July, from 2pm to 4pm, with drinks and nibbles and readings from Sally, Cate Hamilton, Chris Rive and Dreena Collins<\/p>\n
*For more on Tessa Barrie, visit tessabarrie.com<\/p>\n
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