The inspiration for my new novel, The Uninvited Guest
The inspiration for this novel came from hearing a radio phone-in about hen parties. My ears pricked up instantly because I’m fascinated by the way hen parties have changed from having a few friends down the pub or a night club to the huge events they’ve become. One caller described how a bride to be was stripped to her underwear, doused in a liquid then a bag of flour, and tied to a lamppost by her so-called friends! I’d never heard of anything like it except perhaps at a stag party. It set me wondering what sort of women would be so cruel. Maybe one or more of them were jealous of her marrying the groom or had never really liked her? Or perhaps there was an uninvited guest who was out to cause mayhem.
Since finishing the book, I’ve heard a journalist on TV talking about her group of girlfriends kidnapping her and taking her off somewhere for her hen party. At moments it sounded like she was genuinely scared for her life.
Listening to the personal accounts in the phone-in led me to wonder another question: What if a wedding wasn’t based on love, but was purely an ‘arrangement’? It reminded me that I attended a sham wedding over thirty years ago. The groom struggled to pronounce the bride’s middle name, which was a dead giveaway that they hardly knew each other.
This took place back in the early 1990s, when Celebrants didn’t have the authority to stop weddings they suspected were marriages of convenience – often one of the couple paying the other to marry them so they could legally stay in the UK. It wasn’t until several years later that the rules were tightened. For the purposes of this novel, I took advantage of the time when the rules were relaxed as a reaction to people saying they had become too tight, which meant sham marriages in churches slipped through unchecked.
Other issues that have stirred my interest and are touched on in this novel through the characters are, bullying of young men and women in the armed forces and the effect it has on their mental health. You don’t have to go far on the internet to find heartbreaking stories of soldiers who have felt isolated and bullied.
I also touch on a lesser discussed area of domestic violence – against men. In recent years, there have been a few shocking cases of women abusing their partners. Whilst the majority of DV cases are against woman, men who are victims of abuse are often too afraid to come forward for fear of the consequences and being ridiculed.
I hope you enjoy reading The Uninvited Guest and this gives you a little insight into the creation of the story.
Thank you,
Ruby
Helplines for Domestic Violence:
https://www.nationaldahelpline.org.uk/
https://mankind.org.uk/help-for-victims/types-of-domestic-abuse/
https://www.ncdv.org.uk/domestic-violence-abuse-against-men/
https://www.helpguide.org/relationships/domestic-abuse/domestic-violence-against-men
https://refuge.org.uk/support-for-men/
Pick up your copy of The Uninvited Guest here: https://mybook.to/theuninvitedguest