Amanda Brookfield

‘Before I Knew You’ was originally published by Penguin (Michael Joseph) in 2011. The idea for the book began with the appealing notion of its structure – two families swapping houses across the Atlantic – and then returning to their respective lives subtly altered by the experience. I saw it as a Venn diagram, two separate worlds with a sliver of an overlap in the middle. Authors love structure! It is the skeleton upon which to hang a story, giving it shape, perimeters, and back-bone – pun intended.

For me the temporary exchange of homes – trying on the shoes of other people’s lives, everyone being forced out of their respective comfort zones – presented the perfect opportunity to explore something much deeper in the psyche of my characters, triggered as they all are by events they could not have anticipated.

I am fascinated by how, over time, we each develop the ‘story’ of our own lives – trotted out and honed as the years pass, in a bid to make sense of our life-choices and also to present a sympathetic version of ourselves to others. Such versions can become like a carapace, straying further and further from reality without us realising. It takes the unexpected to jolt us out of such easy grooves – challenges of new circumstances, or buried truths pushing up from the past. My choice of title is an attempt to reflect that. For it is invariably what has happened before we meet someone that determines how an acquaintance or relationship will proceed. We might develop versions of ourselves, but the truth of our natures will always catch up with us. Then, as my characters discover, there’s a simple choice: whether to embrace the fresh insights or run for the hills.