Lisa Jewell: ‘I will never sell out my characters’

As always, Lisa Jewell has looked to her own life for inspiration for both her releases this year. Her novel, It Could Have Been Her (Penguin Random House), reveals how an instinctive decision altered the course of a character’s life.Lisa has also written the Audible original, All She Wants For Christmas. Read by Matthew Rhys, Ruth Wilson and Phoebe Dynevor, the audiobook was released in November.“It is a psychological thriller about a bestselling novelist,” Lisa says over a video call from her home in London. “It is quite autobiographical. I have taken my truth and twisted it around to add a dollop of darkness.”It Could Have Been Her speaks of the role chance plays in our lives. The sliding-doors concept fascinates Lisa. “We’ve all had a moment where we realise how if we had made a different choice we could have ended up in places less comfortable, not necessarily in the house of a serial killer,” the 58-year-old author says with a laugh.A life-changing decisionLisa talks of how a decision made when she was in her early 20s had far-reaching consequences. “I answered a lonely heart advertisement in a newspaper because I wanted a boyfriend.” Lisa went on a lunchtime date with the man. “I knew on that first date that he wasn’t for me. I didn’t follow my gut instinct and allowed myself to be pulled along by his charm and ended up being married for five years.”Instead of living her best life in her 20s, Lisa talks of being locked up in a house. “I was not exactly a prisoner, but I wasn’t allowed to see anyone or go anywhere for five years. So I’m acutely aware that at any given moment, making a bad decision or not listening to your gut can derail everything and take your life off the journey it was supposed to be on.”Sometimes, Lisa says, a split-second decision can also introduce good things into your life. “A piece of grit can grow into a pearl. That five-year marriage was a gift in so many ways. I learned so much about myself, about relationships, and about control, which is something I’m constantly writing about my books.”Jane Trevally, who was a side character in Lisa’s 2025 book, Don’t Let Him In, is the engine that powers It Could Have Been Her. Jane went to a house 25 years ago and felt there was something wrong. She fled, and later, when she realises the house is at the centre of the disappearance of a young woman, she begins to investigate.Meet Jane TrevallyJane shares her first name with Agatha Christie’s elderly amateur sleuth Miss Marple and also references her in the novel. “I was an Agatha Christie addict as an adolescent. I read every single Christie book but did not know that Miss Marple’s first name was Jane until somebody told me after I wrote this book. I was very aware, as the writing of It Could Have Been Her evolved, that Jane was turning into a glamorous, much more eccentric, much less methodical (laughs), version of Miss Marple.”This caused people to ask Lisa if there will be more Jane Trevally books. “I did not set out to write a Miss Marple-style book. I gave Jane a very dark character arc to go through. She goes on a journey through the book and learns things about herself. By the end of the book, she goes to therapy, sells her childhood home and moves on. She’s sorted, living in her sensible house in London with money in the bank. So I feel like I do have to leave her as much as I would like to spend more time with her.”The dog that sparked a thrillerThe plot of It Could Have Been Her is set in motion by a little white dog. “Can you see behind me?” Lisa asks indicating a soft toy. “I bought this white dog when I was writing the book and had him sitting next to me. All my books start with tiny little details that fascinate me, things that nearly happened to me, and then I think, what if the thing that nearly happened to me had happened to me?”Lisa was walking her dog when another dog appeared, which is pretty much how It Could Have Been Her starts. “It didn’t look like it had its owner with him and my brain went into ‘we have to find out who this dog belongs to’ and ‘wouldn’t it be weird if the dog had a chip with an address somewhere on the other side of the country’. Then maybe I would take the dog back and feel there is something odd about the owner.”Characters before twistsThough Lisa’s books are full of twists and turns, she insists she does not try to manipulate the reader. “I take it from my gut when I make those decisions about how to show readers things they didn’t know and how to convert readers’ expectations of people they’re reading. I instinctively feel like I cannot make my characters do anything unrelated to the person they are. I would rather the book was boring than be inauthentic, unrealistic, or unlikely.”The Hampstead House plays a big role in the novel. “It is a real house and in an area of London that exists. It has these very unusual, interesting houses, and there’s a very strange atmosphere around it. This house in particular is right on the edge of the heath. I saw it when I was walking my dog one day and thought I had to set a book in this house.”Lisa realised It Could Have Been Her had echoes of the real-life UK serial killers, Fred and Rosemary West. “The wife was complicit and the children knew what was going on. While the trope of a serial killer who imprisons girls while the family remains unaware is common, the fact that everybody in the West house knew what was going on made me realise I could use it to inform the characters in my book.”After starting her writing career with rom-coms in the early noughties, Lisa moved to psychological thrillers. “The thing people loved the most about my romances were the characters, and my readers still say that it’s the characters that draw them to my books. Just before I came on this call with you, I had a message from a reader asking whether Jane Trevally was based on a real person and if she was, she wanted to have a cup of tea with her,” Lisa says smiling.Her characters are important to her, Lisa says. “I would never sell them out for any twists or reveals. Like I said earlier, I like my characters. I find other aspects of writing thrillers challenging. For instance, I don’t love plotting, but I enjoy building characters. I will not start writing a character unless I am sure that I’m going to know them intimately.”