When Imogen Robertson gave up her TV career for a stab at a detective novel, she feared it was a big mistake. But her gamble paid off, she tells Sharon Griffiths.

AT the time, says Imogen Robertson, “it seemed like a very stupid idea”.

The freelance television director had finished working on the children’s series Numberjacks and had decided not to look for more work, but instead to take time off to finish her first novel.

“And when it was finished, there I was, with no money, no TV work lined up and no book deal. And I wondered what I’d done.”

There was, of course, a happy ending.

Her first book, Instruments of Darkness, was snapped up and published to great reviews. Her second, Anatomy of Murder, has just been published, her third has been delivered (“Such a good feeling. I’ve spent the morning tidying my desk, clearing away all the notebooks full of research.”) and she’s already planning the fourth. The first two have sold abroad for serious money, so Imogen has no need to worry about the day job just yet.

“Anyway, my needs are fairly simple.

A big cup of coffee and a window to look out of and I’m quite happy.”

The books are historical thrillers, featuring a spirited 18th Century gentlewoman, Harriet Westerman, and a grumpy recluse, Gabriel Crowther, with a mysterious past and who likes cutting up bodies.

Imagine a mix of Jane Austen with Charles Dickens, a dash of Inspector Morse, a pinch of John le Carre and a helping of Patricia Cornwell or Kathy Reichs and you might have a vague idea.

THEY are multi-layered, intriguing, oozing with atmosphere and historical detail – naval warfare, actors, singers, musicians, anatomy, stately homes, aristocratic dress and the crowded, stinking London slums – and yet wear their research very lightly.

There’s also a lot of blood, lovingly and stickily described, and the bodies pile up alarmingly. And there are lots of brilliant characters.

Their creator almost cried when she had to kill some of them off.

“Dreadful to kill my darlings. If I didn’t care about them so much, then no one else would either.” However, she still managed to stick the knife into quite a lot of them quite effectively.

Imogen, 37, was born and brought up in Darlington, where her parents still live. She went to school at Abbey Road and Hummsersknott, studied Russian and German at Cambridge and worked in television for ten years.

“I enjoyed TV, but it’s an expensive business and very constrained, especially children’s television, by what you can do and by budgets. So it was lovely to start writing instead. If I wanted a naval battle, there was no argument, I just wrote one. It was enormous freedom and fun,” she says.

Although a very different medium, television wasn’t a bad training for writing. “You’re dealing with stories and pacing and whether to show a wide picture or a close-up and what bits to concentrate on and when.

There are more similarities then you first think. “ Imogen had always written, but with the erratic TV work pattern, had difficulty finding time to do anything seriously but then was inspired to enter the Daily Telegraph’s “First 1,000 words” competition.

“I might not have time to write a whole novel but I reckoned I could find a thousand words,” she says.

She was one of the winners and so encouraged that she took that writing break. And hasn’t looked back. “I have been so incredibly lucky, I know that.”

Music features strongly in both books and her second is set largely in a theatre and features a deliciously malevolent pair of castrati, as well as musicians and composers.

“I learnt to play the cello while at Abbey (school) and recently took it up again. My teacher and I talk a lot about 18th Century music and play a lot of Baroque music. I was fascinated about what everyday life was like for musicians how they lived how they paid the bills, put supper on the table.”

She put some of her characters into a music shop, printing the latest songs and sheet music for popular demand. As well as a passing mention of Mozart, there is also a cameo appearance by the 18th Century composer Stephen Paxman, thought to come from Durham.

Imogen now lives in Bermondsey with her partner Ned – cheesemonger, psychologist, jazz musician “and he cooks too,” – but gets back to Darlington regularly, and to her old school, judging the speech competition at Hummersknott last year.

The third novel is set in Keswick and entwines lots of legends and folk tales. Wordsworth doesn’t make an appearance, (“That would have been a bit obvious.”) but his house does.

The fourth will probably be in Germany “all those lovely little courts, each with their own musicians.” It is likely there will be yet more.

Harriet Westerman and Gabriel Crowther are an unusual pair of detectives but they are already making their mark and we will certainly hear a great deal more of them.

Definitely not such a daft idea after all.

■ Anatomy of Murder, by Imogen Robertson (Headline Review, £19.99); Instruments of Darkness, (Headline paperback, £6.99).