From a Saskatoon writer’s workshop to millions of readers – and the big screen

—By Glynn Brothen

It was easy for author Alan Bradley to accept an invitation few creators get — a chance to step into his mind’s eye.

From the Isle of Man, he travelled to the production set of a 1950s era England which was re-created inside a onetime estate of Henry VIII. Those real locations were reimagined as Bradley’s ‘Buckshaw’ mansion from the long-running Flavia de Luce mystery book series, now being developed for film.

“It was very, very … close. It was one of the first things that [production] asked me is ‘what do you think about it?’ And my reaction was: it’s perfect,” Bradley said in a video interview.

“It’s the way I would have done it. It was the way I pictured it, and they were able to be so tuned in to think what I was thinking about when I was writing and picked that up and capture it on film.”

The filmmakers commitment to Bradley’s original source material meant he was asked to review every iteration of the script. It’s a marked difference from his days at a writer’s workshop in the Prairies.

“Saskatoon was a hotbed of writing talent. There are so many writers there that are of very high calibre. And to be able to know them and work with them and talk about writing and do sessions, critical sessions with them, where they tear all your skin off… I think initially of myself as a Saskatoon writer,” he said, adding the group was “great fun” with “lots of laughing.”

With other writers, Bradley confided a lifelong goal to write a mystery novel. He was told it would take him 10 years from start to finish.

It took him 15.

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie is the first book in Alan Bradley’s soon-to-be 12 mystery series about a young detective. (Penguin Random House/Submitted)

“After… sort of doing nothing, really, just enjoying being retired and being in Kelowna and eating peaches and cherries and stuff, I finally decided I was going to do [it].”

He took to a desk in the dark basement of his split-level home to avoid all distractions.

Flavia was not the first character that came to mind. His first instinct was to follow the credo of many authors before him: Write what you know.

The former television engineer did just that. His narrative focused on a CBC reporter trying to access a source within a house.

But for some reason when Bradley sat down to write, a young girl continued to appear within his pages. All his efforts to focus on his main character continued dissolving into writer’s block. Finally, he figured he would write an interaction between the two personalities, in which the quick-witted girl taunted the incapable reporter.

“Obviously she’s much more powerful than this guy I’ve been writing about. I tried to write something about her, but I couldn’t do that because I didn’t know what her name was.”

So began a series of walks by Okanagan Lake where Bradley tried to figure it out.

“Is your name Margaret Thornberry? Is it Daisy Carter? I don’t know if people believe this, but this went on actually for a couple of months with me walking every day… but I was going along asking questions of [her], like, who are you?”

Finally the key words opened up the mystery to mystery-writing: Is your name Flavia de Luce?

It was a moment of clarity for Bradley, but with a catch. The inspiration was there, but it meant scrapping the current novel. He rushed home from the walk.

“I sat down and said ‘OK Flavia, talk to me.’”

Soon, Bradley had the bones for what became The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie – the first of many books to come.

It was transformative as a writer, Bradley said, because it was an abandonment of any core formulaic principles for fiction. There were no graphs, charts, chapter outlines or character sheets.

“For me, that is not the way it worked,” he said.

“I realized that the process of writing is the process of listening. The way it worked was just to be quiet, and listen, and write down what the characters said and just sit on a little stool in a corner, just very hushed.”

Flavia, it turned out, was a precocious 11-year-old with a knack for chemistry and revenge. But at her core, she’s a gumshoe, capable of finding and solving mysteries.

Bradley’s first book went on to win the Crime Writers’ Association Debut Dagger Award, the Dilys Winn Award, the Arthur Ellis Award, the Agatha Award, the Macavity Award, and the Barry Award, and was nominated for the Anthony Award. Millions of copies of his novels have been sold worldwide.

“And so, here we are. I’m just finishing [book] number 12, and Flavia is still talking.”

Principal filming for Flavia took place in October 2024. The film’s release date has yet to be announced.