Marianne Kavanagh has written a captivating novel set in Dorset about people at their worst and at their best. Joanna Davis finds out more about the real life story that gave birth to this author's intense thriller.

We all have stories and thoughts that won’t let us go - a special memory, a chance encounter or even a missed opportunity.

But for London author Marianne Kavanagh it was someone else’s story that took hold.

And that somebody was a Dorset publican from the Victorian era, whose tragic life Marianne first became aware of on a holiday to Purbeck 15 years ago.

Marianne describes hearing about the tale of tragic John Ball as ‘being kidnapped by a snippet of historical fact,' , which led to her writing her third novel, the Purbeck-set historical psychological drama Should You Ask Me.

John, of the Ship Inn in Langton Matravers, shot himself after a row with his wife. But because John committed suicide he couldn’t be buried in consecrated land and was taken outside the village and buried in an unmarked grave.

Marianne said: “We went to stay in a cottage in Purbeck 15 years ago and there was a book on the shelf called Purbeck Isle by Rodney Legg. There was a tiny mention of a John Ball, a publican. It was a story that, for some reason, I couldn’t stop thinking about. John and his wife Mary were an ill-matched couple and the book says that John turned the gun on himself.

“I started thinking ‘what if he didn’t actually commit suicide?’ ‘What if it was actually all a charade?’ That was the starting point for me and my imagination took over.”

With a parallel time line incorporating Wareham in 1944 and Victorian Purbeck, the book becomes a battle of wits between two generations as secrets are revealed.

Young policeman William, who is suffering from injuries that ended his army career, interviews elderly, formidable Mary in 1944, who has information about human remains discovered nearby.

Marianne said: “I think the book is very character driven. I was interested by the idea of an elderly person talking to someone who was much younger.

“It’s implied by the sergeant, William’s boss, that Mary is an elderly person who is rambling and I liked the fact that she had this painful and long held secret," Marianne said.

Should You Ask Me has been described as ‘Hardy-esque’, a perfect fit for a Dorset-set novel, but unintentional on Marianne’s part, she says.

“I do admire Thomas Hardy and it’s a great honour to be thought of as ‘Hardy-esque,” she said.

The landscape, towns and people of Dorset have led Marianne to have a proper love affair with the county, she admits.

“I do love Dorset and I love the Isle of Purbeck. When I was doing my research I was astonished to find out what was going on there before D-Day. It must have changed completely.”

Marianne is a former journalist who has worked for Woman, Tatler, the Sunday Telegraph magazine and British Marie Claire.

She said novel writing is something she ‘always wanted to do.’

“Like every published writer I wrote novels that never saw the light of day. But when you work in journalism you have to distil everything and get used to writing short, snappy things. The articles I used to write would be around 1,500 words, a maximum of 2,000.

“Novel writing is entirely the opposite!” she laughs. “I found I really had to relax into it. It’s not easy to go from one to the other. My husband is my best reader and critic. I gave him this book and he said to me ‘That’s great, but where’s the other half of it?’ I found I had to go back and talk more about everyone.

“But being a journalist does make you very good with deadlines and I found when my publisher would set me deadlines I could easily meet them.”

This very distinctive, almost genre-defying novel, has been showered with praise by fellow authors - with one notable name among them.

Oscar-winning actor Emma Thompson read Should You Ask Me and describes it as 'an unputdownable combination of thriller and psychological drama'.

Marianne said she had to take a deep breath before asking the Remains of the Day and Sense and Sensibility star to read her book.

She said: “I knew Emma from a long time ago. It’s very hard to get yourself noticed when you’re launching a book as there are so many different books being published. I thought I could just ask if she would read it but I find it hard to ask favours but I took a deep breath and asked. She said yes! She’s a lovely person. She has some friends who live in Wareham."

Marianne's next book is a psychological character study called Disturbance ‘set somewhere in the middle of England’, which will be published in February 2019. But for future material Marianne may well turn her attention to Dorset again,

"I would love to use Dorset as a setting again. I'm totally in love with the county. I've got friends who live in Poole and moved to south Wales so I'll have to find another reason to come back!" she said.

*Should You Ask Me by Marianne Kavanagh is published by Hodder & Stoughton on May 31. It’s available in paperback and ebook, priced £8.99.