House of Trelawney

"It’s the story of old money running out, people who are land rich and cash poor, you know? So again, it’s a familiar… well, to British people, anyway: the story of the aristocracy falling apart. What does it mean for someone who’s had all that privilege, to lose it? What does that look like? So on one level, it’s about aristocracy, and what we’re going to do with all these big old houses. Do we want to keep them? And what’s the point of the aristocracy? But ultimately, it’s a story of a family coming back together in crisis, and deciding what to do with what seems to be a crumbling old pile of bricks. Support Five Books Five Books interviews are expensive to produce. If you're enjoying this interview, please support us by donating a small amount . I’d just read the memoirs of the Duchess of Devonshire, Deborah Devonshire, who ran Chatsworth House, Wait For Me! . House of Trelawney was quite funny to read after that, because I felt like I had seen the world from one point of view, and then was taken into this fictional view of the same place. I suppose it’s funny because we like seeing people who have all the advantages falling on their ass, don’t we? I suppose it’s the death of the eccentric, in some ways. Because we see the eccentrics in the older generations, but of course the younger generations are just dealing with bills. They’re dealing with a legacy that they now have to question, and they have to justify, and they have to pay for. Rather than just being handed a load of privilege, they’re like, ‘Here’s some land, and here are all the bills, bye. Also, no one likes you anymore.’ She does manage to make you feel sorry for the Trelawneys, whilst laughing at the most slapstick funeral procession in the history of fiction. The winner’s announced on the 1 July. And normally there is a pig involved, where the winner gets to roll around in the hay with a pig at Hay Festival (that’s a nod to P. G. Wodehouse ). But this year, of course, you can’t socially distance while rolling around in the hay with a pig, I think there are official government guidelines on that. Hay Festival happened online, rather than in real life. We did look into whether you could deliver a pig, but we thought that probably the pig wouldn’t be into that. We want the pig to be happy. It’s supposed to be a romp in the hay, not a torturous journey in a UPS van. No. No pigs will be forced to wrestle. We’ll figure it out, and try to get the pig involved."