Not as much as my novel writing influenced my PhD work. I chose my PhD topic so that I could research the sort of fiction that interests me. I’m drawn to stories that marry elements of the literary gothic with mysteries: the failure of the present to escape the past, deep dark secrets, family ties, the unreliability of memory, crumbly old houses, lonely libraries, forgotten gardens, discovered diaries … swoon! 

Last updated on December 21, 2009 by Kate Morton