Karen Haden

Last year, I was invited to speak at a Cheltenham Literature Festival Local Voices event, during which I mentioned a way cancer had affected my writing. Afterwards, people wanted to know more about the subject, without realising the full significance at the time. In the talk, I had mentioned my original cancer diagnosis and treatment in 2021, but not the secondary tumours discovered the week before. The most immediate effect was the pain in my spine!

I started writing whilst working as a consultant, during contract breaks and in hotels whilst working away from home. Spotting parallels between the political and societal upheaval caused by the introduction of the printing press and the internet now, I set my first crime/thriller in early 1600s England, covering the difficult succession from Queen Elizabeth to King James.

The mystery-solving, ambitious young Baxby had begun to take shape, along with the main plot and twists. Interestingly in the light of my future ill-health, Baxby attempted battlefield surgery to save his friend Crackleton’s life in the opening chapters, then trained as a physician.

Unsurprisingly, my initial breast cancer diagnosis was a seismic shock, as was being told I would need chemotherapy, especially as I was dealing with a lot at the time - my Father’s terminal cancer and family issues in addition to Covid lockdowns. I had always been resilient, but this combination stretched me more than before. For the first time in my life, I turned to counselling, for which I remain grateful.

Unable to keep working at the same level as before, I found more time to type, and my writing gained a more powerful emotional layer that was not there before. Although I had always tried to include all the senses, now characters, relationships and events gained more depth.

This was confirmed when a former Head of English at a Sussex school asked me if I had actually been in a storm, after reading that scene in Paying in Blood. Fortunately, I had not, but during 2021, I experienced intense waves of hope and despair, relief and fear, including facing my own death, and been alongside others who had too.

Before cancer, I identified strongly with Baxby’s defiance in the face of set-backs, and his loyalty to his friend Crackleton after vowing to help him discover why his wife died in suspicious circumstances. As a result of what I had been through, I understood my other characters better too. Even the most persistent villains developed redeeming qualities.

Most strikingly, I came to know Crackleton at a deeper level after suffering an anaphylactic allergic reaction to my last chemo infusion, whereby four amazing nurses swooped in to save my life. There was nothing I could do in that moment, but depend on them. Whereas before I had predominately seen the pivotal surgery scene from Baxby’s perspective, now I understood the intense bond of gratitude Crackleton felt towards someone who saved his life.

Finally, cause and effect worked in the opposite direction too. The historical characters in Paying in Blood, some of whom later sailed on the Mayflower and formed the first English Baptist group, showed amazing courage and resilience in the face of surveillance, persecution and danger.

Alongside, countless other ordinary people endured poverty, sickness, powerlessness and war, unable to assume they would stay alive from one year to the next. In addition to providing an excellent setting for a crime thriller, they have inspired me to persist through my own challenges.

In the second book in the Alexander Baxby series, due to be published in Spring 2025, the physician will solve the mystery of Englishmen drowning in Amsterdam, whilst encountering more political intrigue and espionage.

Karen Haden’s historical crime novel Paying in Blood was published by Sharpe Books in 2024 www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CW6LKGK7

This article was published in Feb edition of CWA Readers News https://mailchi.mp/thecwa/the-cra-newsletter-17364161