It wasn’t until my early retirement, though, that I started writing books. I started writing a novel at age five, and have written articles for various publications all my life. I actually spent most of my life working on the technical side of television production, but would like to think that I’ve always been a writer. Have you always had a passion for writing, or is it more of a recent development?Īlan Bradley: Well, the Roman author Seneca once said something like this: “Hang on to your youthful enthusiasms-you’ll be able to use them better when you’re older.” So to put it briefly, I’m taking his advice. Question: With the publication of The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, you’ve become a 70-year-old-first time novelist.

As the pages fly by, you'll be rooting for this curious combination of Harriet the Spy and Sherlock Holmes. But don't be fooled: this carefully plotted detective novel (the first in a new series) features plenty of unexpected twists and turns and loads of tasty period detail. In Alan Bradley's critically acclaimed debut mystery, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, adult readers will be totally charmed by this fearless, funny, and unflappable kid sleuth. But who can blame her? What else does an eleven-year-old science prodigy have to do when left to her own devices? With her widowed father and two older sisters far too preoccupied with their own pursuits and passions-stamp collecting, adventure novels, and boys respectively-Flavia takes off on her trusty bicycle Gladys to catch a murderer. When Flavia discovers a murdered stranger in the cucumber patch outside her bedroom window early one morning, she decides to leave aside her flasks and Bunsen burners to solve the crime herself, much to the chagrin of the local authorities. Up at the great house of Buckshaw, aspiring chemist Flavia de Luce passes the time tinkering in the laboratory she's inherited from her deceased mother and an eccentric great uncle. Amazon Best of the Month, April 2009: It's the beginning of a lazy summer in 1950 at the sleepy English village of Bishop's Lacey.

Book sweetness at the bottom of the pie