I’m a writer, based in London. The first of my Marleigh sisters series, based in Regency England, comes out with Avon/HarperCollins in 2023. 

My mystery novel Thirteenth Night won the Exeter Novel Prize in 2022. A collection called Marmite and Mango Chutney won the SI Leeds Prize in 2016. I’ve been a writer-in-residence at Literature Works/Plymouth University and Leverhulme/University College London, and taught creative writing at the University of East Anglia. I’ve been a British Council writing mentor and a writer-in-residence with Spread the Word/City of Stories in 2022. My short story ‘A Heist in Three Acts’ is coming out in Ellery Queen Magazine soon.

@AmitaMurray on Twitter and Insta and www.AmitaMurray.com website

Welcome to the Hive, Amita. Congratulations on your debut Unladylike Lessons in Love. Can you tell us a bit about it? What can our readers expect?

This is the first novel in my Marleigh sisters Regency series. It’s an answer to my lifelong love affair with Georgette Heyer’s world. If you like swoony Regency men in their skin-tight pantaloons, and you know, you just know the magic of the Vauxhall pleasure gardens is for you, and the murky streets of Whitechapel intrigue you, then come join me on this ride. Each of the novels in this series focuses on one of the Marleigh sisters, the daughters of an English earl and his Indian mistress. In the first book, Lila owns a gambling salon and the ton loves to flock to it as night dawns. One night, Lila’s old friend Maisie Quinn, who Lila has been searching for for years, comes running to her for help. On the same night, the delicious but enraging Ivor Tristram accuses her of being his father’s mistress. Mayhem ensues. Lila must fight to protect Maisie, and for this she needs Ivor’s help. But can she work with him and still guard the sanctity of her heart that she’s protected for so long? (No, reader, she cannot!)

Just for fun, can you describe your book in just five words?

Fun, flirty, passionate, explores diversity!

Tell us a little something about your writing process – do you have a certain method? Do you find music helps? Give us a glimpse into your world!

Writing is breath and food and water for me. I can’t do without it. I’m restless and easily bored and have intense feelings about everything, and I need writing to ground me. I can write anytime, anywhere. I’ve trained myself over the years to be able to switch from other jobs and the usual crazy round of kids’ stuff that is always going on to writing – in a blink. I write on my tried and trusted (and old, very old) laptop, but if I have to, I can write in a journal, my phone, scraps of paper, anywhere really. I’m always scribbling. I must have chocolate to write, but other than that, it’s all optional. I do it because I must!

What initially drew you to writing a regency romance set in Britain? Was Bridgerton a significant source of inspiration to you?

I live in London and I find it easier to write about places I know. Other places I love visiting in Britain, like Devon/Cornwall and parts of Yorkshire will come into the series too. So, setting it in Britain was the easy part. Truth is, I’m a long-standing fan of Georgette Heyer’s novels and her wit and sparkle always affected my writing. But it was Shonda Rhimes’s version of Julia Quinn’s Bridgerton novels that gave me the space to explore diversity in this genre. Before then, I simply could not have imagined I had a place in the Regency genre. In the early to mid-1800s, London was a much more diverse place than we know. Most commercial and romantic fiction doesn’t explore this. There were tens of thousands of people from the Americas, the Caribbean and Asia. So, here I get to explore not only Heyer’s runaway stagecoaches and deliciously annoying gentlemen but also Indian lascars and nannies from the Caribbean and mixed-race daughters of English earls and their Indian mistresses. 

Your book also features a mystery element. Without spoilers, are you able to tell us a bit more about this sub-plot? 

Maisie Quinn used to be Lila’s friend when they were little. They lost touch a long time ago and Lila still feels horribly guilty about it. She’s been searching for Maisie for years, with no luck. One night, Maisie comes begging for help. Maisie is one of my favourite characters. She is strong and always stands up for herself and never backs down in a fight. But her betrothed (Sunil, a lascar from India) has been accused of assaulting a young woman of the ton. Lila is desperate not to let Maisie down again – but as luck would have it, the enraging Ivor Tristram is one of Sunil’s accusers. She needs this annoying man’s help. It doesn’t help that the stupid man thinks that she is his father’s mistress. And, oh, so it begins…

Can you tell us a bit more about your characters, Lila Marleigh and Ivor Tristam? What inspired their personalities? 

I guess it’s hard to escape yourself when you’re writing your characters. Probably all of my main characters have something of me. With Lila, it is her annoying habit of becoming more sociable and animated the more vulnerable she’s feeling. Lila finds it almost impossible to admit to vulnerability and she hides it fiercely. She also feels any number of nameless longings that she doesn’t think she has any time or right to feel. She is nothing if not resourceful, nothing if not a survivor. Her passions run deep. In comes Ivor Tristram, arrogant, annoying, a product of an unhappy and splintered family. He doesn’t believe in love, and oh, he thinks Lila is his father’s most recent mistress. What could go wrong? I always think friction is an essential ingredient for a romance, so, yes, there’s lots of interesting friction between these two.

And Lila’s two sisters, can you tell us a bit about them? In what ways are they similar to Lila and in which ways are they different?

Anya is a singer and sitar-player in Queen Charlotte’s court. She is strong like Lila and even more private than Lila, but her waters run deep. She’s a deep pool to Lila’s tornado. She doesn’t let you in easily, but there’s a strong sense of the comedic there, and also a deep intuition. Her music is everything to her. It’s the place she allows herself to be herself. It’s the place to which she retreats. Mira is a writer of society gossip. She is strong and fiercely independent, like her sisters, but she maintains a cold, almost anonymous front. She hides behind that, and behind her severe clothes and neat hair, as a writer and as a woman. She thinks of herself as pragmatic, as someone not as talented or beautiful as her older sisters. She is reluctant to acknowledge her longings or her sensual side. This is about to change…

Unladylike Lessons in Love also explores important themes such as colonialism and being an immigrant in a western society. How important were these themes to you?

Really important. Literary and sci-fi/fantasy are much better at exploring these histories. In commercial and romantic fiction, it’s almost unheard of for writers to explore this past. Yet, colonial history colours and affects almost every place on earth, and especially Britain. The early 1800s were the height of colonialism. British men had gone to various parts of the world and set up base there, and workers like lascars and nannies were flowing back to England. Many of these British men had relationships in these colonies and had mixed-race children who were not easily accepted in the colonies or in Britain. This history has an impact today. Not only is it essential that we understand this history, but also that we let it colour what we imagine we know about people and relationships. And it’s so important that commercial and romantic fiction catch up to other literary genres. We can’t keep thinking that something fun and frothy can’t also have depth. If you like your heroines fun and sparky and strong and vulnerable, if you like your places to have colour and show you new sides of themselves, then I’d love you to try this series.

We see such varying opinions from authors when it comes to the time of editing their books. How have you found the editing process? Enjoyable, stressful or satisfying?

The thought of editing makes me sick. It’s a monster, waiting to pounce if you so much as turn on your laptop. Much better to chuck your laptop out the window or flush it down the toilet. That’s the only way to deal with it. Luckily, though, I work with some amazingly experienced editors like Lucia Macro and Kate Bradley, and my agent Priya Doraswamy is a dream. They have a very light touch with editing and whatever questions they ask always make the story better. So, after waffling and fighting nausea for a couple of weeks, I normally sit down and once I do, it all gets easier and better. (Obviously, a good, strong dose of chocolate helps.)

We always appreciate a beautiful book cover! How involved in the process were you? Was there a particular aesthetic you hoped they’d portray?

I’ve been very involved in the book title and covers this time around. Both sides of the Atlantic have done a brilliant job with the very, very different covers. But it took a while to get to these final versions. Luckily, both sides were very good with taking feedback and patient with my wailing. I didn’t have a particular look I wanted, but I wanted it to feel true to the story and the characters. The series is a mix of the fun, romantic and deep, and it’s great that the covers reflect that. The heroines are feminists and I didn’t want that to be diluted either. And yes, it took us about 200 titles before we hit on this one, I’m just saying… 

Another question just for fun and one of our favourite questions here on the Fantasy Hive: which fantastical creature would you ride into battle and why?

It would have to be a dragon. They’re magnificent. The colours, the scale, the size. They’d give voice to my restless, creative, vulnerable and firmly-annoyed-about-things side. In almost all mythology and fantasy, there are hybrid creatures, and they are a firm favourite too. Though, that said, my favourite animals are the lynx and the flamingo, so maybe a hybrid between those….!

Can you tell us a little something about your current work(s) in progress? Is there anything you can share about the next book in The Marleigh Sisters series?

I love Anya and Damian’s story. Anya is a singer, and besides working in Queen Charlotte’s court, she takes on private clients too. To her great shock, one of her late-clients – Lady Budleigh – leaves her a fortune but makes the very annoying Damian Ashton the executor of the will. Anya must get married (Damian must approve her choice of suitor) if she is to claim her inheritance. Of course, the Budleigh family are not at all happy with this turn of events and will do everything they can to get Anya’s inheritance from her. I love this couple. I love their verbal sparring. I love their chemistry. But can they overcome their personalities – Anya is deeply private and fiercely independent and Damian doesn’t trust anyone, not for a second – or will they never quite make it? We shall find out…

Finally, what is the one thing you hope readers take away from your writing?

I hope they enjoy the dialogue. I hope they enjoy the fact that every single character I write, major and minor, is unique, with their own strengths and flaws. I hope they appreciate how strong the women are, and how much sexual agency I make sure they have. But I really hope they get a sense of the diversity of Regency London, the colours that are in that palette that have not been explored yet. If you love Regency with its sparkling banter and its hair-splitting adventures, and also like depth and strength in your characters, I hope you’ll join me on this adventure.   

Thank you so much for joining us today!

Thank you for having me! I love your questions!

Unladylike Lessons in Love is out today in the US from William Morrow – you can order you copy HERE.

The expected UK release is 20th July – you can pre-order your copy HERE