PHOTO: Author Michelle Shine, photographed by Caroline True.
A Journey Through Art, Loss, and Literary Imagination
Michelle Shine blends history, healing, and personal experience to craft powerful narratives that challenge convention and resonate with emotional depth and historical insight.
Michelle Shine brings a rare blend of intuitive insight and intellectual depth to her writing, shaped by a life immersed in both healing and storytelling. Her background as a homeopath seeps into her fiction, enriching it with layers of emotional and psychological nuance. Longlisted and awarded across several literary platforms, Michelle’s work spans from the evocative Mesmerised, where historical and fictional worlds converge, to the hauntingly personal Song for Ria, and her most ambitious novel yet, Ash on the Vine—a sweeping narrative that intertwines family history with complex political realities. In this exclusive interview with Reader’s House Magazine, Michelle reflects on the power of research, the inspiration behind her unforgettable characters, and the experiences that have shaped her voice as a writer who dares to challenge convention with grace and conviction.
Michelle Shine’s writing is rich with empathy, intellectual curiosity and emotional resonance, offering a profound and original perspective in contemporary literary fiction.
In your novel “Mesmerised,” how did you approach intertwining the lives of historical figures with fictional characters?
Most of the main characters in Mesmerised are historical figures who, as a lover of impressionist art, I had been researching for many years, long before I knew I was going to write about them. As a homeopath, I had also researched Dr Gachet and Dr Jean-Martin Charcot, both of whom worked at La Salpêtrière in Paris. The main theme of the novel is the juxtaposition of unorthodox art and medicine and the lives of the people who practised them in that time and place and so in order to make the plot come alive I had to invent a compelling character who needed healing, alongside the enigmatic Edouard Manet, who also needed healing in real life.
What inspired the narrative of “Song for Ria,” and how did you develop its central themes?
I put it out into the ether that I was interested in the 27 club and wanted to write about it. I was working on something else at the time, something dystopian that wasn’t going anywhere, and Alison, the protagonist, just arrived one day, sitting at her piano where she started to narrate her first person story to me. I found her fascinating and became merely the conduit for her story throughout the first draft. On reflection, the central themes of child rearing whilst pursuing a career, loss of a loved one and seeking answers via shamanic healing followed by a stay on the Hopi reservation makes Song for Ria semi-autobiographical.
“Alison, the protagonist, just arrived one day, sitting at her piano where she started to narrate her first person story to me.” – Michelle Shine
Could you discuss the research process behind your portrayal of 19th-century Paris in “Mesmerised”?
The research for Mesmerised was extensive and as I’ve already mentioned, took place over many years and started long before I even knew I was going to write the novel. And maybe I never would have, if my soulmate hadn’t passed away suddenly one night. I was halfway through an MA in Creative Writing at Birkbeck at the time. I deferred the final year, gave up my homeopathic practice and totally uninspired, hid away from the world for quite a while. When I went back to my writing group, they suggested I start writing about ‘that Gachet guy and those artists you love so much’. I took them at their word. My research included: Walking the streets of Paris; Hanging out at the Musée d’Orsay and the Louvre; Reading biographies about the characters. One very important, memorable book is The Private Lives of the Impressionists by Sue Roe. All of these things, together with my own imagination, brought the time and place alive to me in a very vivid way.
How does your background influence the themes and characters in your novels?
Being a homeopath has definitely ignited an interest in what lies beneath the surface. It is a constant motif that seeps into all my storytelling, and leads to a ‘thought provoking’ theme in all my work.
How has your writing evolved from your earlier works to your latest publications?
My latest novel, Ash on the Vine is, I believe, my most ambitious work to date, taking the reader through flashbacks on two parallel journeys; one from Eastern Europe and the other from Iraq. After WW2, these very different characters meet at Atlit detention camp in what is now called israel and become man and wife. Present day in the novel is 1989 and the continuing story includes the perspectives of their child and grandchild, and a peace loving woman living in one of the Palestinian territories with her husband and daughter. My research for this novel was extensive. I travelled to Lithuania, Israel, and a Palestinian refugee camp and trawled through many, many historical documents. 1989 was the year of the first intifada and the inception of Hamas, so the story is timely, with the Israeli family becoming a target for a terrorist attack. It is both a family saga and a political thriller. Despite its controversial subject matter Ash on the Vine managed to get itself longlisted for both the Fiction Factory’s First Chapter Award and the Yeovil Prize. It has also been chosen as one of Love Reading’s indie books they love.
What advice would you offer aspiring authors aiming to craft compelling historical fiction?
Start with an idea that excites you and at least one character you want to get to know and travel alongside. Bring authenticity to the story by doing tons of research, so the time and place you are writing about becomes vivid in your imagination. Create a timeline of important dates and events that you wish to include in your story. Write every day and don’t stop until your story is told and you hit the last full stop. Then edit, edit, edit. Oh, and find a writer’s circle who will help you by critiquing your work.
