One Small Thing: Lesley Thomson
My friend Domenica gave me rosary beads when I was researching Death
of a Mermaid. Catholicism is one of the themes in my new standalone crime
novel. Three women (the Mermaids), meet at a convent school in the eighties,
each has a differing relationship to the church from cynical to habitual to
devout.
I was brought up without a faith. My dad was a Scottish
Presbyterian lay minster later a Communist. Mum abandoned the Protestant faith as
a teenager. While both were reflective and principled, I wasn’t brought up to
believe in a God.
At school we had secular assemblies (Nelson Mandela, equal pay
for women). Me and my mates mucked about in RE. All this meant that my
understanding of Catholicism was scant at best.
So, when I came to write about these girls, I turned to Domenica
who is a ‘Cradle Catholic’. Generously, she invited me to Mass and answered my questions
about transubstantiation, the significance of Mary, even how to genuflect.
Domenica (aka crime writer Elly Griffiths) brought these Rosary
beads back for me from Paris. She’d had them blessed by a monk in the Sacre
Coeur.
Whenever I research for a novel, I go to where I’ve set the
story, I walk in my characters’ shoes. I wanted the felt experience of working
through the beads and uttering a prayer. I filmed Domenica demonstrating a
decade of Hail Marys and copied her. Now, I feel the cool of the glass, the
rosary’s solidity and its frailty.
Death of a Mermaid was published during
lockdown. With bookshops, libraries and other venues shut, I’ve been doing on-line
interviews. These beads remain important. They signify my enduring and special
friendship with Domenica. Never more have our laughs, serious conversations and
mutual encouragement been so vital to life. Our friendship matters to me in
these uncertain and dark times.
The Rosary beads feature in the novel which I dedicated to
Domenica.
You can find out more about Lesley's work here. 'Death of a Mermaid' is out now, and available at Amazon and Waterstones.
Stay well, stay safe, stay home.
