What's the first thing you think of when you hear the name "Clare Francis"? If it's the distinguished British crime writer, author of such best-sellings novels as A Dark Devotion, Deceit, Betrayal and Requiem then you will have made Francis's day. However, if you associate her first with the moniker of internationally acclaimed yachtswoman, Clare Francis will not be happy at all.
Both incarnations are true. In 1973, she crossed the Atlantic single-handed, and three years late or she took the women's record in the Observer Transatlantic Race, with a crossing in 29 days. In 1977, she was the first woman skipper to participate in the biggest race of the lot, the Whitbread Round the World Race. There was immense media interest in all of these events. Since then, she has not sailed, and she dislikes any reminder of her nautical career. Why?
"Particularly in Britain, people don't like you to move on. In Britain, I feel I disappoint people by being a writer. They want me to live by the sea (she lives in London). There's a feeling in the media there that they made me in my sailing days, and I should be happy to stick with the image they created. The British have a sickly adoration for heroes in the old mould. I felt for a long time like Sean Connery - trying to shake off this early association. Him with Bond. Me with the sailing."
Clare Francis certainly does not look like the cliched image of a sea-dog. Dressed in a smart black suit, and with the classic type of bone-deep beauty which age never cheats, she has an aura of effortless elegance. If she looks this amazing now, a quarter of a century ago the media must have been calling her the Seventies equivalent of a babe. No wonder they were annoyed when she kicked off her deck shoes.
"What matters to me these days is the people who read my books," she states firmly. Since 1983, she has been writing crime novels. The first was Night Sky, which was hugely successful. BBC 1 will be showing a two-part adaptation of Deceit in the spring, starring Francesca Annis and Peter O'Brien. Her latest novel is Keep Me Close, which features an Irish entrepreneur called Terry Devlin, who has just opened "the finest hotel in Dublin", The Kavanagh five star: Ireland's booming economy of the late 90s makes it into fiction. Paddy Kavanagh would surely be chuffed.
"I try to write a book every two years," Francis explains. "In fact, I'm trying to step up production, because I only feel happy when I'm working. When I'm writing a book, I have more free time, because the time I have, I really enjoy. I suppose it's a bit of a puritanical attitude."
Why the fascination with the crime genre? "I enjoy investigating the moral dimensions of humanity. Morality fascinates me. You might say that I have faith in human nature. Given the right conditions, I believe it verges towards the good. Morality is an elastic concept."
Later on, she says that the quality she would most like to have is that of serenity, though actually she seems to exude this naturally. She says she never has nightmares when she's writing or researching her novels. "Usually the terrible event has happened before the book opens," she points out.
Suspense is the key element. "I think a crime writer can learn so much from one of Hitchcock's films. He really was the master of suspense. Of course, he worked through the visual medium. Writers have to spell things out a little more. My favourite Hitchcock would have to be Rebecca. Both as a book and as a film it broke all the rules. You know, the ending at the beginning."
AS for writers in her genre, the one she most admires is Ruth Rendell, writing as Barbara Vine. She does follow certain cases that are reported in the papers, but rarely gets her ideas in this way. Like every other crime/suspense novelist since the oldfashioned and class-snobbish Agatha Christie (who got away with calling one of her most successful books, Ten Little Niggers), Francis thinks that DNA has changed both the nature of crime solving and crime writing.
"The old-fashioned detective who relies on an understanding of human nature has given way to DNA profiling. It's very hard for anyone to commit a crime now and not leave any evidence. In France, for instance, there's always been this tradition in the villages of writing poison pen letters. Now they think they can extract DNA from stamps that were licked 20 years ago. DNA has revolutionised detection. The great tradition of sleuthing and amateur sleuths is gone. But the crime novel will always adapt. It's a wide church now."
Keep Me Close, by Clare Francis, is published by Macmillan at £16.99
