Tea Cooper’s new book, The Girl in the Painting
A new Australian mystery novel inspired by a trip to the pub, is an evocative story of love, sacrifice and the strength of women.
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A chat with Tea Cooper at the pub could easily become the premise for her latest book – for it is down at the local and on the high streets where she finds inspiration.
Cooper has a knack for storing overheard passing conversations and morsels of local lore, then
spinning them into captivating, intricate historical novels.
Her first novel, The Horse Thief, was inspired by an argument between punters who were
scrapping over whether Archer was the first winner of the Melbourne Cup in 1861.
And she says of a key character in new release, The Girl in the Painting, “I’m sure I’ve followed her down Maitland high street a few times!”
Maitland is in NSW’s Hunter Region, where the nine-time author has made her home. It might
surprise readers to know that, despite her books’ distinctly Australian flavour, Cooper is not a
native Aussie.
She is English by birth, but deeply in love with her adopted home where her latest novel is set.
Released on December 16 by Harper Collins, The Girl in the Painting is an evocative story of
love, sacrifice and the strength of women in colonial Australia.
The Girl in the Painting takes the reader from regional New South Wales to the goldfields, early Sydney Town and even all the way to the British countryside.
It is the story of Miss Elizabeth Quinn, an “institution” in Maitland Town, and the logical,
mathematically-inclined Jane Piper. When Elizabeth is found in a hysterical state at the Maitland Town exhibition gallery in 1913, clever Jane, who was rescued as an orphan by the Quinns, must turn her attention to working out exactly what is troubling her guardian, before the riddle is lost forever.
A lover of history from the get-go (fittingly, Cooper was born at Hampton Court, home of Henry VIII) the author takes her bits and pieces of a story and sets them free in years gone by – as she has with The Horse Thief, The Cedar Cutter, The Currency Lass, The Naturalist’s Daughter (one of Better Reading’s 2018 Top 100 Books) The Woman in the Green Dress, Lily’s Leap, Matilda’s Freedom and Forgotten Fragrance.
“When I first said I wanted to write an Australian historical, I was told ‘You’ll never sell it, go away and write a Regency’. Well, I didn’t want to write a Regency because I wasn’t interested. I’d done that when I was growing up. I was a lot more interested in what was going on around here.”
The Hunter Region, currently under siege from the devastating 2019 summer bushfires, is clearly at the heart of her work.
“A lot of the stuff in my stories is from the local community, family history stories. It’s great
because it’s on my doorstep. If I’m not quite sure what my characters are going to do, I’ll go for a drive down the road and see what it looked like.
“What I like to do when I’m working out the timeline is [incorporate] three or four factual
historical events and I like to hang the story around those. It’s quite fun. It’s like a cryptic
crossword!”
While the character of Jane Piper is a composite of a few friends, Elizabeth is more of a mystery to Cooper, but it is clear that the beautiful heritage-listed town has a big part to play in her inception.
“I’m not quite sure where Elizabeth Quinn in this one came. She just appeared in my head, I
could see her walking down Maitland high street and that was it.
“I’m sure I’ve followed Elizabeth Quinn down the street a few times!”
When she is not busily writing and inventing, Cooper – previously a teacher, farmer and
journalist – is unable to stay away from the written word.
She said as a writer it is so important to read others’ work to consider different creative styles.
“I read a lot of research books and journals and Trove, which I often just read for interest’s sake. I read historical fiction, I lean towards crime books. I always say I don’t read fantasy but when someone asks me what my favourite book is, I say Lord of the Rings!”
Currently working on her latest novel, Cooper has headed back to the pub for some assistance.
“In the book I’m writing at the moment I wanted to find out the stock routes. So I just walked into the pub and said ‘who knows the stock routes?’ and someone said to go talk to (farmer) Lindsay Pyne; he knows because his grandfather rode them.
“It’s a great way to do the research, I’m not stuck in the Mitchell Library with white gloves on.”
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You can’t get much further removed from historical, rural Australia – but our December Book of the Month, The Andromeda Evolution, is another cracking read. That’s why you get it for 30 per cent off by using the code BCBT19 at Booktopia.
And remember to come talk holiday reading, books as gifts, and more at the Sunday Book Club Facebook group.
Originally published as Tea Cooper’s new book, The Girl in the Painting