Every Object Has a Story: Lady Carnarvon and Eve Chase on The Secret Thread, sisters, secrets and the lives we leave behind

Lady Carnarvon welcomes novelist Eve Chase to discuss her latest book, The Secret Thread, a dual-timeline story (1969 and today) shaped around an auction in which famed interior designer Mimi “Mo” sells her estate and reveals her life through meaningful objects; an idea sparked by seeing Joan Didion’s belongings auctioned at Christie’s in 2022. They talk about why country houses are such powerful “crucibles” for fiction, how Eve created the fictional Rush Wood to fit a chalk stream and proximity to Lyme Regis, and the novel’s central relationship between two sisters, daughters of a head gardener, whose lives diverge and are marked by a dark secret. Eve shares her 18-month writing process, her shift from 1990s magazine journalism (including travel and celebrity interviews) into fiction, and how author promotion has changed with social media, reader connection, and even her dog Harry. The conversation touches on Downton Abbey props sold at auction, the cultural value of memorabilia, archiving family papers, research choices in fiction, and Eve’s dream party guest: Dolly Parton.

01:00 Secret Thread Origins

02:46 Objects and Memory

04:18 Sisters and Dark Secret

04:52 Building the Country House

07:40 Cornwall Settings and Past Books

09:16 Writing Process and Planning

11:42 From Journalism to Novels

13:03 Magazine Era Adventures

14:16 Childhood Without TV

15:30 Writing as Active Art

16:11 Learning Later in Life

16:50 Marketing in Social Media

18:06 Readers and Attention Spans

19:45 Sisters and Shared Humanity

21:41 Dogs and Downton Abbey

23:48 Downton Props at Auction

27:37 Archiving a Historic House

28:55 Research and Hooking Readers

30:32 Bookshops and Final Farewell

You can hear more episodes of Lady Carnarvon's Official Podcasts at https://www.ladycarnarvon.com/podcast/

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