IN DEPTH
Arriving at FBF The Thunder Girls
Blake’s rags-to-riches tale arrives at FBF after author repurchases rights from Macmillan
Raised by a cult-following father who banned reading, homeless on London’s streets as a teen: Melanie Blake’s life story is remarkable— but it’s not the one she decided to commit to the page, and she is now intent on getting into readers’ hands
Tom Tivnan @tomtivnan M
elanie Blake rifles through The Thunder Girls to the back cover and holds up the author photo for me: “I mean, people will take a look at this
picture and say to themselves, ‘Look at this woman, she doesn’t take any shit.’” We are in swanky London hotel bar, at “mimosa
I am thinking about my readers who are, for the most part, working-class women like me who want stories about other strong women
Text by Tom Tivnan
o’clock”, and Blake looks just as glam as she does in her author pic. And aſter just a few minutes in her company, I realise she certainly doesn’t take any shit. But the agent- turned-author is being a bit mischievous, and she is doing this in trying to explain the context for the success of her first novel, which topped the Kindle charts and débuted in the Mass-Market Fiction top 10 on its release in July. The hugely fun book centres around the titular Thunder Girls, a 1980s girl band who broke up at the height of their fame aſter one of the group betrayed the others to go on to solo success, ruining the careers of her bandmates in the process. Thirt years on—aſter addictions, bankruptcies, breakdowns and divorces—the old record label wants to get the band back together for a huge money-spinning tour. But can the past be put behind them? Blake says: “This is escapism—people want to read that right now. I am thinking about my readers who are, for the most part, working-class women like me who want stories about other strong women who have gone through all the trials and tribulations of life and are still standing.” But with a bit of glitz thrown in. Hence the popstar theme in the novel. And the bad-ass, take-no-shit photographs which hark back—consciously and very deliberately—to Jackie Collins and Jacqueline Susann glam.
Lady Boss Blake is not playing a part, though. She is almost a Jackie Collins character come to life, but one whom Collins’ editor might
have asked for redraſt on, as Blake’s rags-to-riches story seems a tad too unbelievable. Born in Stockport, Greater Manchester, Blake’s life was
relatively happy until the age of seven, when her father came home one night and announced he had joined a Continues overleaf
28 17th October 2019
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