Interview with Eleanor Anstruther

📚 Recommendations for ravenous readers

Dive into these literary explorations of familial relationships, mental health, community, and friendships. Plus some am-dram (amateur dramatics) and theater.

Eleanor Anstruther

(2025)The Midhurst Amateur Dramatic Society are putting on a production of Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit, and Tessa has agreed to play a part. But when she suffers a psychotic episode, Ros, a C-list celebrity and new to the community, takes her place. In this darkly comic tale of psychosis in the Home Counties, the stage is set for a blistering examination of mental illness, how we treat it and why we don't. While Tessa is sectioned in a secure psychiatric hospital, the relationships in the community unravel, and by the time she's released, all that we thought we knew, and all of our judgements, are thrown into question.

Tom Lake by Ann Patchett (2023)In the spring of 2020, Lara’s three daughters return to the family's orchard in Northern Michigan. While picking cherries, they beg their mother to tell them the story of Peter Duke, a famous actor with whom she shared both a stage and a romance years before at a theater company called Tom Lake. As Lara recalls the past, her daughters examine their own lives and relationship with their mother, and are forced to reconsider the world and everything they thought they knew.

The Correspondent by Virginia Evans (2025)Sybil Van Antwerp has throughout her life used letters to make sense of the world and her place in it. Most mornings, around half past ten, Sybil sits down to write letters—to her brother, to her best friend, to the president of the university who will not allow her to audit a class she desperately wants to take, to Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry to tell them what she thinks of their latest books, and to one person to whom she writes often yet never sends the letter.Sybil expects her world to go on as it always has—a mother, grandmother, wife, divorcee, distinguished lawyer, she has lived a very full life. But when letters from someone in her past force her to examine one of the most painful periods of her life, she realizes that the letter she has been writing over the years needs to be read and that she cannot move forward until she finds it in her heart to offer forgiveness.

If you’d like further inspiration, Backstory bookshop’s theme for the month is “Books set in the future.”

Share The Spark

✏️ Resources for wonderful writers

Ann in my writing group recommended Meander, Spiral, Explode: Design and Pattern in Narrative by Jane Alison. I’m enjoying this exploration of more organic, nature-inspired narrative structures compared to the typical narrative arc, three-act setup, or hero’s journey.

This month’s guest, Eleanor Anstruther, who champions all writers as independent artists, suggested joining ALLi: The Alliance of Independent Authors. My browser tab is open to sign up so I can get help reviewing my publishing contract (!!).

If you’re a writer, you’ve probably heard of

Jane Friedman

. This authority on all things publishing recently featured on the London Writers’ Salon podcast. I love her 30,000-foot view of the publishing industry: in these times of nervousness about AI, she reminds us of naysayers of the word processor (which would take away women’s typing jobs!!) and even the printing press itself. She considers AI as an intern: it can do legwork for you, but you need to check its output. If you want to know more about routes to publication, it’s worth perusing Jane’s super-useful Key Book Publishing Paths.

The Hope Prize is open for submissions, deadline October 31.

The lovely folks at Collaborist are offering a review of 25 pages of your writing to give their intern Maddy more experience. Email them at info@collaborist.org.

👣 My moseying

Some friends from my Bologna days in the 1990s got in touch and asked to write about my experiences. The article in vox@bo is followed by my flash fiction story, “His Bones.” More info and links are on my website.

I submitted the first 5,000 words of my work-in-progress novel to three prizes: the Bridport First Novel Award, the BPA (Blue Pencil Agency) First Novel Award, and the First Novel Prize. These deadlines at the end of May fueled me to write and edit the first three chapters of my book. Many thanks to the beta readers who gave feedback. The Bath Novel Award would require a full manuscript of longlisted entries, so I didn’t enter that one: I didn’t want to enter it hoping not to get longlisted since I don’t have that many words finished. The others require 10,000-15,000 more words by the end of July, which is feasible.

I’ve ordered four more copies of Tomorrow There Will Be Sun directly from Australia since the UK copies are sold out.

My Instagram account name was the16stories, the original title of my short story collection. Now I’m myself: @madelynpostman.

📊 Tracked on Chill Subs

Short story collection submissions to small presses⏱️ 12 pending🚫 6 rejected🎉 1 publication offer!🟰 19 total

Novel prize submissions of my work in progress⏱️ 3 pending

🎙️ Author interview with Eleanor Anstruther

I came across Eleanor Anstruther on The Write and Wrong Podcast and she’s also been a guest on the London Writer’s Salon podcast. She has published both traditionally and independently, in that unusual order, and is working on a kitemark for indie authors. Listen to the Patreon supporters’ full version of The Write and Wrong episode for more on that initiative.

Eleanor was born in London, educated at Westminster School and studied History of Art at Manchester University where she was distracted from finishing her degree by a trip to India. She was lost and found for the next twelve years, starting a commune and traveling the world before finally settling down to write. Her acclaimed debut novel, A Perfect Explanation, was long listed for the Desmond Elliott Prize and the 2019 Not The Booker Prize. Her memoir,