Katherine MacAlister meets a best-selling novelist whose Hollywood success has finally persuaded him to give up his day job in the NHS

How SJ Watson’s partner sleeps at night, I’ll never know. If you were one of the 40 million people to read his debut novel, Before I Go To Sleep, you’ll know what I’m talking about.

If not, you may have seen the film of his tale about a woman with amnesia, which starred Hollywood heavyweights Nicole Kidman and Colin Firth.

Watson wrote his first book between shifts as a clinical scientist and it was bought by the movie industry before it had even been published.

“It wasn’t until I was on set with Nicole Kidman in front of me, in a wig and costume, that I realised it was actually going to happen,” the 44 year-old Londoner remembers.

“In fact, the first time I watched it, I got so absorbed in the film I forgot I’d written it.”

Then, after taking 18 months of unpaid leave from the NHS, he was telephoned recently by his boss, who said he guessed SJ Watson wouldn’t be returning to his job.

He’d be right, because the next book, Second Life, is just out and Watson’s appearance at Chipping Norton’s Literary Festival is, therefore, a major coup.

“I’m like a kid in a sweetshop at literary festivals. ‘Look, there’s Ian Rankin. I can’t possibly go and speak to him.’ I love all that,” Watson chuckles.

“But I also like my own company, so don’t mind spending my time surrounded by imaginary people. I enjoy the solitude.

“And yet the most exciting thing is still going out there and meeting people who have enjoyed my books.”

On finding out he is coming to Oxfordshire to discuss Second Life, about a woman whose sister is murdered, I wonder if he waits for an idea to hit home before he starts writing?

“The best ideas are magnetic and, when they have legs, others then slot in and fit together. But this has been an idea I’ve been thinking about for years, so almost predates the first one.”

Is it different this time around? “Yes, because before I was writing purely for myself, but now I’m aware of editors, agents, reviewers and readers, people picking it up because it’s got my name on the cover and the responsibility that comes with that. But, ultimately, I have come full circle and realise the only way to write it is to concentrate on doing it for myself.”

Whether Second Life gets to the big screen remains to be seen, although it’s got all the attributes.

So is it hard handing over his babies to Hollywood?

“No, because I always see them as a cover version. I let them get on with it and find it exciting to see what they take from it, and turn it into.”

With the advent of Gone Girl and Before I Go To Sleep, it seems a new genre has been born.

“I don’t know if it’s a new genre. Someone coined it ‘chick noir’, which I thought was rather patronising. I prefer ‘domestic noir’.

“But I always set books in a domestic environment, because that’s what makes sense. I don’t think I could do the whole car chase and gun world. I work in a world that people recognise, not an imaginary one. I like taking ordinary people and putting them in extraordinary circumstances.

“I don’t think I’m a particularly dark person or see this as a particularly dark book, but I suppose it is.”

What took him so long to start writing? “I’d always dabbled, writing diaries, short stories, that sort of thing. It was more about having the confidence to carry on and give myself permission to be a writer.

But more than that it was about putting the hours in; several years as it turned out. But I knew if I didn’t at least try, I couldn’t live with myself. And I’m much happier. That’s how I knew it was the right decision.

I’d found my role in life and it’s the best job in the world.”

SJ Watson
The Theatre, Chipping Norton
Saturday, April 25, 6pm-7pm
Tickets: chiplitfest.com or 01608 642350