Sally Hepworth talks about her book ‘Mad Mabel’

The book was sparked by an encounter with a reader: Hepworth says: “It started with an old lady and a threat of murder. A couple of years ago, an 80-something woman named Rosalie attended one of my book events in Australia.

Rosalie, as it turned out, had taken quite a shine to my cavalier attitude towards murder (as a perimenopausal woman, I have been known to threaten murder to anyone who causes me the mildest of irritation), and during the course of my reading, had made a decision: She was going to murder her neighbour, who’d been giving her grief over the perimeter fence.

Naturally, I congratulated her on the decision and asked how she planned to do it. (What? I’m a crime writer. Call it professional curiosity.)

Rosalie admitted she wasn’t quite sure on the how, but she was certain of one thing: She was going to get away with it. Now she had my attention. “There are two kinds of people no one ever suspects of murder,” Rosalie told me. “Little girls and old ladies.” “Thank you, Rosalie,” I said. “I think I’ve got my next book.” And just like that, Mad Mabel was born — a novel about 81-year-old Elsie Mabel Fitzpatrick, whose long-buried past comes bubbling to the surface when she’s accused of murdering her elderly neighbour.

Elsie Mabel Fitzpatrick is a fiercely independent, razor-sharp 81-year-old woman with a commanding presence and a biting wit.

It may surprise you to learn that this novel is, at its heart, a love story. Not the romantic kind of love, but the deepest, truest kind — female platonic friendship. The kind of friendship you’d fight for. Lie for. Maybe even kill for. The kind of friendship Mabel has with Daphne. Writing this book was the most fun I’ve ever had while committing fictional murder, and now — with great anticipation — I hand these characters over. Be gentle with them. They’ve been through a lot.

Could you tell us a little bit about your background and when you decided that you wanted to lead a literary life?

I’ve always been a storyteller — ever since I could talk. I wrote my first book when I was seven years old, a book of short stories titled Mustard and Ink. It was a real page-turner if you like stories about robots and quicksand. But it wasn’t until I was on maternity leave with my first child — hormonal, sleep-deprived, and slightly unhinged in the best possible way — that I decided to try writing a novel. I literally googled “how to write a book,” and, as always, Google delivered. One chapter led to another and eventually I had a manuscript. Now Mad Mabel is my 10th published novel and I’ve also written two short stories for Amazon Original Stories. And I still can’t quite believe I get to call this my job.

Is there a book that most influenced your life? Or inspired you to become a writer?

The book that inspired me to become a writer was Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin. After reading this book, I was completely taken by the way Emily writes about female relationships — nuanced, messy, and real. It made me realise that stories about women and their inner worlds can be both entertaining and profound. What makes it even more special is that my first book ended up being published by Emily’s editor, the wonderful Jen Enderlin, and Emily herself blurbed the book. (Yes, I fainted.) Jen is still my editor today, and Emily and I are great friends. It all feels very full circle.

Would you care to share any writing tips?

I became a writer the same way everyone does — by writing. I wrote one word, then another, and eventually, I had a very messy first draft. My advice? Don’t worry about polishing every sentence or sounding literary right away. Just get the story down. You can fix bad writing. You can’t fix a blank page.

How would you describe the character of Elsie Mabel Fitzpatrick?

Elsie Mabel Fitzpatrick is a fiercely independent, razor-sharp 81-year-old woman with a commanding presence and a biting wit. Towering at six feet with broad shoulders and a strong backbone — both literal and metaphorical — Elsie is no one’s idea of a typical elderly woman. She’s lived on Kenny Lane, a quirky laneway on the fringe of central Melbourne, for nearly 60 years. Elsie has little patience for nonsense but an unspoken protectiveness for her little laneway place and the people she shares it with — though she’d never admit it. In short, she is equal parts curmudgeon and caretaker, a woman shaped by time, trauma, and tenacity. She’s the kind of person you’d never expect to be a murderer — which, of course, is exactly the point.

The book moves between two timelines. How did you approach writing the past and present threads?

I always write my books chronologically — which sounds impressive until you realise it’s mostly because I get confused otherwise. Writing Mad Mabel was like laying down two sets of train tracks: one in 1954 and one in 2025, making sure they were heading for the same inevitable crash. To write the 1950s chapters, I did what all great researchers do: I harassed my mother and aunts for every scrap of information they could recall about that time. I wanted to get it right — from the hairstyles to the music that was playing on the radio to what the kids were slipping into their schoolbags. (Spoiler: it was not fidget spinners.) My goal was for the timelines to mirror each other in subtle, emotional ways. In the past, we meet Mabel: young, lonely, and grieving. In the present, she’s Elsie: old, grouchy, and still grieving. Add in Persephone, the curious seven-year-old girl across the road who reminds her of her younger self, and it becomes less a cosy neighbourhood story and more a slow-motion unravelling of Mabel’s greatest fears coming true.

What themes do you explore in Mad Mabel?

Justice. Guilt. Redemption. The morality of murder. And, most important, the power of friendship — between girls, between women, and even across generations — and the powerful, messy ways those relationships can shape a life.

What do you hope readers will take away from the book?

I hope they finish Mad Mabel thinking differently about what guilt really means and how often the truth can be more complicated than it first appears. And I hope they fall a little bit in love with Mabel, even when she’s at her most infuriating. After all, what’s not to love about a murderous, bad-tempered, six-foot-tall granny?