Why Kate Atkinson delved into the world of Nazi sympathizers for her new novelTranscription

Now Kate Atkinson, takes on WWII espionage.

The whole place smells like orchids and olives and old-world money; even the waiters wear white dinner jackets.

In her latest novel, passing unnoticed isnt just a virtue, its a necessity.

Credit: Euan Myles

Who was the enemy?

What do they look like, and what are they doing?

Are they all spies?

Little, Brown and Company

And by the time I finished, it had become a relative thing.

But dont qualify what Atkinson writes as womens fiction, like.

What does that even mean?

In itself, that phrase is completely denigratory.

I would love to revisit them, but I cant work out how, she admits.

Id write them every day if I could.

Does Atkinson really have the time or the inclination for all that at this point in her career?

And I have so many ideas.

I could sell ideas.

If that diminishes, well, Ill stop.

But this is the path Im on.

This is what I do.