Edinburgh author Ruth draws on experiences in Capital for her acclaimed book at bedtime

Ruth Thomas came to Edinburgh aged "just 18" and never left. Now in her early-50s, the Capital has long been her home, but it's to those early days as a university student in the Eighties that she turned for inspiration when writing her latest novel, The Snow and the Works on the Northern Line.

Ruth Thomas, author of The Snow and the Works on the Northern Line

It's a book that has already made its mark, having been chosen for Radio 4's coveted Book at Bedtime slot.

"I was delighted by that. It took them a couple of months to decide they were going with it and it was lovely to get that news," says Ruth, speaking from her home in Morningside.

She adds, “It is read really well by Ell Potter, who captures Sybil's voice very well."

The Snow and the Works of the Northern Line

Twenty-six-year-old Sybil is the character at the heart of Ruth’s latest novel. Happy in her job at an institute of prehistoric studies, Sybil is happily in love with boyfriend Simon, but her world is turned upside down when her glamorous, assertive former university tutor, Helen Hansen, walks back into her life...

Published earlier this month, the novel has caught the imagination of book lovers everywhere, thanks in part to the radio exposure.

"It has made people more aware of my writing, certainly,” says the mother of three. “I'd been trundling along for years with people knowing a little bit about my work, but I've never really hit the giddy heights of being a particularly well known writer, however, there has been a lot more buzz about this one thanks to the radio thing."

Ruth, who grew up in a rural village, came to Edinburgh four decades ago to study the history of art.

"I grew up just outside South London (partly why I set The Snow and the Works on the Northern Line there). That's where my childhood memories are from but all my adult life I have lived in Edinburgh, although you’d never tell from my accent," laughs the softly spoken author, who quickly swapped the history of art for English Literature when she got here.

Those first years in the Capital, however, have cast a definite influence over the new novel and there are distinct similarities between the young Ruth and Sybil.

"In my first year at university I also did a module in archaeology. That's where I learned all about the Beaker People, who also feature in the novel,” she reveals, adding with a chuckle, “I remember our tutor arranged a field trip to an Iron Age hill fort at Castlelaw, in the Pentlands. He told us all to bring compasses with us and, because I thought we were going to be drawing circular things, I brought a set of drawing compasses instead of a North/South compass, which is what he had meant.

"I used quite a lot of my slightly numpty approach at that age for Sybil; I was genuinely interested in the subject but I wasn't taking stuff on board the way I should have been, I wanted to tap into that youthful ignorance for Sybil."

That kooky approach was partly due to the culture shock of finding herself in the Capital, she reflects, "It was so different from my experience of growing up. It was this beautiful city with these amazing spacious flats that I had never come across before - Kent is very small scale and insular. It was just such a contrast and I loved that about Edinburgh. The sky seemed huge, everything was bigger, more expansive and exciting.

"One thing that slightly took me back, however, was that I didn't meet as many Scottish people at university as I thought I might, that came after I graduated when I found this whole other Edinburgh I hadn't been aware of, the real Edinburgh. I had to almost begin again as most of my peers had left the city, so the 90s were a new beginning for me."

That new start found Ruth determined to pursue her dream of writing.

"When I finished university I just hung around up here. For a while I was gainfully unemployed then I began to do a bit of freelance journalism; some book reviews for The List, I work for The Scottish Book Collector and for the Old Town News, which had its office down Advocate's Close. That's where I began to develop as a writer."

Then Sandie Cragie and poetry came into Ruth's life, which explains how verse came to play an important part in The Snow and the Works on the Northern Line.

"I actually began writing poems but, like Sybil in the book, I was rubbish at them. So I moved on to stories. I joined a writing group at the Southside Community Centre, which was run by Sandie, a brilliant and much missed poet. She really switched me on to writing and encouraged me to submit a story to Rebel Inc."

The literary journal, founded by Kevin Williamson in 1992, Rebel Inc boasts an impressive record of discovering new exciting talent. Ruth quickly found herself in unexpected company.

"I submitted a story called, Flying Down the Flights, about a girl being drunk at a party and breaking somebody's jukebox, and it got published; my first published story. It was quite exciting, there I was with the like of Irvine Welsh and Alan Warner, this polite English girl with all these gritty writers."

That was in 1993, in the intervening years Ruth has had three short story collections and three novels published, she reflects, “Until recently I preferred writing short stories as I like fairly brief pieces of writing. It took me quite a long time to work up the courage to write a novel.”

Right now, readers everywhere are very glad she did.

The Snow and the Work on the Northern Line, by Ruth Thomas, published by Sandstone, priced £8.99

Read exclusive extracts online and in print in the Evening News in the coming week

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