‘I had a bit of a Younger moment’: Australian author Jane Cockram on her debut novel, The House of Brides
After a career in publishing, Australian writer Jane Cockram is releasing her debut novel, and it has already caught the attention of Hollywood.
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It’s fair to say Australian author Jane Cockram has lived the real-life Younger: the New York-set TV series about the glamorous and cutthroat publishing industry.
Previously a fiction buyer who also worked in publishing sales, the mother-of-two has now penned her debut novel, The House of Brides.
The House of Brides follows Miranda, a failed social media influencer, who flees to England and poses as a nanny to uncover the secrets – and lies – about her late mother’s elusive family, the Summers.
The darkly gothic tale already has serious Hollywood potential, as Cockram, 39, explores ideas like whether “people inherit the same flaws and secrets as their families” and how they “make mistakes and the way they bounce back”.
“It’s interesting to see what the modern woman does when she comes across obstacles,” Brighton-based Cockram said, speaking from New York where she went for a series of meetings with her US-based editor this month.
Cockram always wanted to write but instead ended up working on the business side of publishing, in a sales role at Pan Macmillan, and then as a fiction buyer at Borders Australia.
It was an existence recognisable in Younger, the TV series based on the publishing industry (it airs in Australia on Stan and stars Hilary Duff).
“I’m such a reader, I’m such a book person,” Cockram said.
“I had a bit of a Younger moment today, when I was at (my publisher) in New York, and it felt a bit like Younger.
“The look of it, being in New York, it was in one of those typical New York buildings, very dynamic.”
HOLLYWOOD APPEAL
In a post-Big Little Lies era, where novels are seriously hot property for Hollywood studios, Cockram already has some casting ideas if The House of Brides is adapted for the big or small screen.
Big Little Lies — the HBO/Foxtel TV series based on Australian author Liane Moriarity’s novel, produced by and starring Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon — has sparked a revolution in adaptations.
“That would be amazing if it happened — but for me, I’ve kind of achieved my big dream of writing a book,” Cockram said.
“I wouldn’t even dare to tempt fate on that one.”
That said, at the top of her casting wish list are Little Women star Saoirse Ronan and After the Wedding’s Michelle Williams.
“They’re the kinds of people I think I would have in mind,” Cockram said.
“Saoirse Ronan for Miranda, I’m sure she could do an Australian accent. And Michelle Williams, you know she has that elfin (look), that’s the kind of person I had in mind for Daphne,” she said.
The road to seeing The House of Brides finally published has been a long one for Cockram, as she juggled writing with raising children Alice, 10, and Ed, eight, alongside husband Wally.
“It took between two and three years to write House of Brides. I was constantly rewriting, drafting, it was a long process,” Cockram said.
While raising her young family, she said writing “was a hobby and then, as they went to school, I had more time to spend on it, and pull it all together”.
“I have actually written the first draft of my next book already,” she adds, noting her two-book deal with HarperCollins Australia (reports suggest it could be worth as much as six figures).
“I’ll keep working on that for the next little bit.”
So will The House of Brides eventually become a series? “A sequel to The House of Brides might be something I’ll look at down the line,” Cockram said.
“I wrote another book before this, which went out to submission stage, but didn’t get taken up.
“That was different, a contemporary Australian story, and when that didn’t go anywhere, I just thought, ‘I’m going to write the type of book that I love to read.’”
Her inspiration was “classic, gothic novels like Jane Eyre”.
“I love all the Kate Morton books (of The Lake House and The Secret Keeper), I love ones with family secrets and generations of families.
“So that’s where that came from. It was just for me, a way to get back into writing, after the rejections of the first manuscript.
“I took the pressure off too. I said to myself, n- one else is going to read it … just write what you want to write.”
Clearly, that approach worked.
The House of Brides, written by Jane Cockram and published by HarperCollins Australia, is out now, RRP $29.99.
Our book of the month also examines family dynamics, but from a rather different angle. You can get Just One Wish by Rachael Johns for 30 per cent off by going to Booktopia and using the code NCBT19.
Next week we’ve got a very different style of book for you. Tell us what you’re loving — or not — at the new-look Sunday Book Club group on Facebook.