Shalini Boland was signed by Universal music and trying to make it as a singer/songwriter when she took a decision that changed her life.
After having her first child, she missed being with family, so decided to give up music, and started writing fiction to remain connected to her creative side. This led her to writing books that include 16 psychological thrillers and becoming a two-million best-selling author.
The prolific writer’s latest novel The Silent Bride, published on Thursday (1), is another pacey plot filled with shocking twists, which revolves around a woman realising the man she is about to marry isn’t her fiancé, but a stranger and no one believes her.
Eastern Eye caught up with the gifted author to discuss her journey, new book The Silent Bride, and the secret to writing a great psychological thriller.
Did you imagine your journey as a writer would become so action-packed?
I’ve always been quite ambitious and will give a thousand per cent to everything I do. Even when I’m exhausted, I’ll say yes to good opportunities. So, I think that while I’m always pushing and striving, things will never become boring. I love the idea of chilling out, but then I become antsy and will start eyeing up the next thing. Although there were many long, frustrating years in between, where I was trying and failing to get any traction – not much action going on, just angst.
Was there one moment or book that made you realise how much of a passion writing is for you?
Finishing my first book was the moment I thought, I’ve done it! I can do this! And I want to do it again.
What inspired your new book?
The Silent Bride was inspired by that classic, perfect scene of a bride walking down the aisle and her groom turning to look at her. I then thought it would be intriguing to put a dark spin on that scenario.
Could you tell us a little bit about the story?
Alice Porter is excited to marry the love of her life, Seth. But when she walks down the aisle of their little country church, the groom turns to look at her and she doesn’t recognise him. She’s confused, scared, embarrassed even. Everyone is staring at her. What should she do? Where is Seth? What follows is Alice’s quest to discover what happened to her groom, and who the imposter is.
Tell us more…
The problem is, everyone else believes it to be the real Seth, and thinks the issue is with Alice. She feels alone and insecure. Not only has she lost her husband-to-be, but her friends and family are treating her as though there’s something wrong with her. The novel is a psychological thriller about love, friendships, family, and betrayals, with a few dark and shocking twists along the way.
How as a writer do you put yourself in the shoes of a protagonist experiencing a trauma?
The cover of her new novel
After the book is plotted and I start the writing process, I tend to immerse myself in the story, writing intensively for around a month. As I write in the first person, it’s easy to slip into my character’s mindset. I can quite easily give myself the creeps, or become angry after an argument scene, or upset during an emotional scene. I’ve occasionally had to stop myself from getting cross with my husband for something my protagonist’s husband has done – oops.
What draws you towards the psychological thriller genre in particular?
I love the deception aspect of it. To lead the reader along a certain path and then, at the final moment, reveal a totally new angle that they hopefully missed. It’s fun to make readers gasp in shock.
What according to you is the secret of writing a strong psychological thriller?
For me, it’s all in the plotting. Coming up with a strong outline that includes the main character’s journey, the setting, tension, action, and twists means that I can go on to write a great story knowing I’m not going to run out of ideas or write myself into a corner. Of course, there’s still room for surprise additions, but as long as I’ve tightly plotted the whole novel, then I can write it with confidence.
Do you have a personal favourite moment or section in the new book?
It’s got to be the dramatic opening. But I’m also really happy with the way I ended it. There are a few sharp surprises in there that will hopefully leave the reader feeling satisfied.
How do you feel before one of your books is published?
Absolutely flipping terrified.
Who are you hoping connects with this book?
I’m always desperate to please my existing loyal readers. I know people say you should write for yourself, but having written twenty-six books now, I can’t help but have my readers in mind as I write. Hopefully, new readers will connect with my books just as much.
What inspires you?
My family – corny, but true. If it weren’t for them, I don’t think I would be a writer.
What do you enjoy reading and do you have a favourite book?
Besides devouring thrillers, I also love to read fantasy and historical fiction as they’re a total switch-off from work and everyday life. My favourite book has to be Gerald Durrell’s The Talking Parcel as I must have read it at least 20 times as a child, and then several more times when I read it to my children.
Why should we pick up your new book?
As Clare Mackintosh – one of my author heroes – said on her Instagram reel, she thought the premise of The Silent Bride was so bonkers that she had to read it to see how I was going to pull it off. I feel like that’s a great reason for anyone to pick it up.
The Silent Bride by Shalini Boland published by Thomas & Mercer (£8.99, paperback original) is available now
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A seated Jain enlightened teacherAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Ganesha from JavaAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
A Chinese silk painting depicting the BuddhaAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
ArdhanarishvaraAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Head of a grimacing yakshaAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
NagaAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
The Bimaran casketAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Hunia Chawla
A still from rehearsal
Them performing liveNajmuddin Saifuddin Qawwal Group
The cast of Marriage Material in key moments from the play, including Avita Jay, Kiran Landa, Omar Malik, Irfan Shamji and Anoushka Deshmukh
Sathnam Sanghera’s 'Marriage Material' adapted into bold new play on conformity
The play Marriage Material at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre is Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti’s adaptation of Sathnam Sanghera’s novel of the same name, which first came out in 2013.
She is lucky to have Iqbal Khan direct Marriage Material. The play, a co-production with the Birmingham Rep, is set in the late 1960s. Mr and Mrs Bains (played by Jaz Singh Deol and Avita Jay) run a corner shop in Wolverhampton. Their younger daughter, Surinder (Anoushka Deshmukh), is 16, her sister Kamaljit (Kiran Landa) is just a bit older.
They have a neighbour, Patwant Dhanda (Irfan Shamji), who, as we shall soon see, is not a very pleasant man. In fact, he comes across just as racist as Enoch Powell, who represented Wolverhampton South West for the Tories from 1950 to 1974.
It will be recalled this was a time when Sikhs working on the buses were told they couldn’t wear a turban. That was a hard-fought battle that had to be won.
The Bains, meanwhile, simply want to get their girls married off.
Nothing new here, I thought.
What makes the tale different is that the plot twists and turns down the generations. Mr Dhanda, who has the makings of a paedophile, makes a pitch for one of the girls when Mr Bains dies early in the play. “A life with no man in the house is no life,” he informs the newly widowed Mrs Bains.
Mr Dhanda has a wife but she has returned to India so he considers himself to be a free man.
Surinder’s English teacher from school, Miss Flanagan (Celeste Dodwell), who is also head of the fifth form, tells Mrs Bains about her daughter: “I don’t want to embarrass you, but she is bright. Ridiculously bright.”
She adds: “Mrs Bains, I think it would be a pity if Surinder didn’t stay on at school.” The initial response from Mrs Bains is not encouraging: “Too much education makes people’s brains get mixed up, they don’t sleep at night…”
But she is finally persuaded that Surinder should be allowed to stay on for a while longer before being married off.
Mr Bains was very old school. When Surinder confides she would one day like to be “a somebody”, he is amused that “my daughter wants to be a somebody”.
“Like you,” she tells her father.
Mr Bains consoles his daughter: “We will find a somebody for you to marry.”
At the point of a possible marriage, however, Surinder is sweet-talked by chocolate salesman Jim Wilson (Tommy Belshaw) into running away with him. They share a love of literature, and he calls her “Sue Bains”. But the relationship does not end well.
Once she has left, Surinder is written off as “dead” by her family. The story that is circulated is that she was only 16 when she was killed in a car crash. That’s better than to let on that she ran off with a white man.
By the time she is reconciled with her sister towards the end of the play, a great deal has changed. Kamaljit married Tanvir Banga (Omar Malik), a young man who helped out in the Bains’ corner shop. When the two sisters meet again, Tanvir has also died. But he and Kamaljit had a son, Arjan Banga (Jaz Singh Deol doubles up for this role after the death of Mr Bains). He has come home after his father’s death to help his mother who is still running the family corner shop.
Meanwhile, Mr Dhanda’s business has prospered. He now has a son, Ranjit Dhanda (the role is taken by Omar Malik after Tanvir’s death), and he is nearly as unpleasant as his father.
Arjan has an English fiancée, Claire (Celeste Dodwell). In London, Arjan worked as a creative director. But after deciding to stay in Wolverhampton to help his mother, he decides he cannot marry Claire because she is white. In other words, Asians are not free of racism, either. Happily, at the end, the couple are reconciled.
As for Surinder, she parted company with Jim Wilson after realising he was all talk, depended on her for money and had failed to earn a penny from his literary pretensions. She had prospered, though, as a hotel owner and had been transformed in time into a well-groomed businesswoman. After being tracked down by Arjan, she decides to return to her roots in Wolverhampton and help Kamaljit run the family corner shop. Perhaps 50 years had passed during the passage of the play.
Being subjected to racism turned some Asians into racists themselves. The word goreh (white person) is repeatedly spat out with venom. Maybe it is worth remembering the play’s audience isn’t exclusively Asian – white folk are watching as well. And maybe some of the toilet humour ridiculing white people, which always makes me cringe, could be cut out.
In Sanghera’s novel, there is a quote from Enoch Powell’s speech in November 1968: “The West Indian or Asian does not, by being born in England, become an Englishman. In law he becomes a United Kingdom citizen by birth; in fact, he is a west Indian or an Asian still... he will by the very nature of things have lost one country without gaining another, lost one nationality without acquiring a new one. Time is running out against us and them. With the lapse of a generation or so we shall at last have succeeded – to the benefit of nobody – in reproducing ‘in England’s green and pleasant land’ the haunting tragedy of the US.”
In Marriage Material, where the acting is marvellous (apart from Mr Dhanda’s Indian mannerisms and accent being overdone) we do travel across a couple of generations.
There is a scene when Tanvir rejects Mr Dhanda’s vision of creating a little Punjab in Wolverhampton.
Mr Dhanda wants to take over the Bains’ corner shop and is putting pressure on Tanvir to sign the papers. He says: “In this country, money is the path to freedom.”
“Sign, please,” he instructs Tanvir. “We must make sure our children learn to behave nicely, according to our rules.”
He insists: “We maintain our identity so we can be ourselves.”
Tanvir disagrees: “We can be us here. With the goreh.”
Dhanda warns him: “Then we will be inviting chaos.”
Tanvir’s comment is telling: “You sound like Enoch.”
Kamaljit, who is expecting a baby with her husband Tanvir, says: “I would like my child to grow up knowing the history of the Gurus and to read the Granth Sahib. And to love their culture.”
Tanvir tells his wife: “I would like my child to go to the finest schools, to cheer for England in the World Cup and eat Yorkshire pudding on a Sunday.”
Kamaljit sets out a dream that has perhaps come to pass with many third and fourth generation British Asians: “Maybe our child can do both.” Much, much later, in a throwback to the past, we learn of Surinder’s O-level results: “Biology A, Chemistry A, English Language A, English Literature A, French A, History B, Latin A, Mathematics A, Physics A…”
Kamaljit tells her younger sister: “Never mind about the B.”
And that is quintessentially Asian. Their acting is outstanding.
Marriage Material is at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre until June 21, and at the Birmingham Rep from June 25-July 5