The Jewel Box

The Jewel Box

A glamorous, sophisticated novel set in the scandalous world of London in the roaring twenties.

"I am outraged at the reports of various pretenders claiming to be me… Doormen, if even in doubt ask 'Diamond' to blow you a smoke ring. This is a very particular talent of mine, and should instantly reveal any fake gems. Oh, and by the way, I have never in my life had to ask for a free drink!" - Diamond Sharp.

Grace Rutherford is the one and only Diamond Sharp, the 'It' girl of 1920s London, whose weekly newspaper column delights readers with tales of her nightly escapades: the dinners, the dancing, the hairdos, the fashion, the men…

Caught up in the glitz and glamour of the day, Grace begins a passionate affair with charming, flirtatious American author Dexter O'Connell. Soon, though, she finds herself falling for John Cramer, the charismatic neighbour her widowed younger sister adores. Irresistibly drawn to both men, Grace discovers that they are bitter enemies. As she becomes tangled up in the mesh of secrets and lies that bind them together, she must try to find out which man, if either, she can trust.

"Sex in the City meets London's Roaring 20's in Davis's satisfying novel" -UK Publishers Weekly.

Anna Davis lives in London with her husband and two children, and works part-time for a leading literary agency. She is a former Guardian columnist and the author of three previous novels including The Shoe Queen (2007).

The Jewel Box
Random House
Author: Anna Davis
ISBN: 9781863256292
Price: $24.95

Interview with Anna Davis

Where did you get the idea to write a Sex and the City style storyline but set it in the 1920's?

Anna Davis: I am fascinated in the 1920s and had already set my last book, The Shoe Queen, in that decade. I knew I wasn't done with the Twenties when I'd finished writing that book, and felt that I wanted to write about 20s London (The Shoe Queen is set in Paris). London is my home city and at that time it was the world's biggest city, a real global nerve centre and a very exciting place. It was also a city and a moment where there was a clash between modern and traditional ideas - I found this fascinating. Against that backdrop I wanted to tell the story of a strong, outspoken, witty girl - someone fun, who you might quite like to go out for a cocktail with. And I was reading a lot of magazine and newspaper material from the 1920s as part of my research - there was a lot of really sassy stuff being written and it inspired me to make my heroine a columnist. Grace definitely needed a romance, and her two charismatic American love-interest men were both inspired, to an extent, by F Scott Fitzgerald. I was re-reading his novels and short stories and also his love letters to his wife Zelda, and found myself falling under his spell. His books are so sparkling and glamorous, even as they tell stories of human weakness and inner collapse. Just amazing. I loved the idea of having Grace encounter not one, but two, men who were so much more fascinating and handsome and intriguing than anyone else she'd ever met, and then becoming more and more confused about both of them. I didn't really think about Sex and the City, but I can see why you make the link!


How much research did you have to do to ensure you could realistically set The Jewel Box in the 1920's?

Anna Davis: I do think if you're setting a novel in the past, you have to do everything you can to make it convincing. Research is a lot easier now that there is so much stuff online - for example, if I'm writing a scene where someone goes to the cinema in May 1925, I can find out in minutes what film they might have been watching. But you can't rely on Google to create a whole realistic fictional world. Over the last few years I have really immersed myself in the 1920s: I've now got shelves full of books on the fashions, the art, the architecture, social history, transport etc. in the Roaring Twenties. I've read lots of novels written at that time and also memoirs and books of letters. There's a fine balance to be drawn though: You can lose yourself in the research when you need to be getting on with your novel. Other people's stories can lead you away from your own if you're not careful. Or you can become so desperate to show you have done your research properly that you can over-burden your novel with too much information. In the end, you can't really recreate an era absolutely flawlessly unless you have lived through it yourself (which, of course, I haven't). I hope that my 1920s world is convincing, but I reckon anyone who was actually alive then would probably be able to find all sorts of holes in it!

Where you able to become engrossed in the 1920's lifestyle, to the point you wish you'd lived it?

Anna Davis: Absolutely! The 1920s is the ultimate party decade - certainly for those who had the money to party. You have to love the fashions, don't you? The girls had great hair-cuts and beautiful dresses and smoked cigarettes in those amazing long ebony holders without yet having a clue that cigarettes are so bad for you. What could be better than dancing the Charleston till dawn every night? And the art and literature of the time were so cutting-edge and vibrant and exciting. With the First World War firmly behind them, the smart set were bent on a delicious hedonism. It was terribly short-sighted of course. The Great Depression of the 1930s was just ahead of them and the Second World War just beyond that - but they were still blissfully unaware that they were dancing on the edge of the abyss. Hmm, quite like the 1990s when you come to think of it...


How much of your inspiration for the novel and themes come from your own life and those around you?

Anna Davis: I'm sure there must be little details and ideas that come from my life and the people around me, but not much. Nancy's two little children are quite like mine. I too have a girl and boy (with three years between them), and some of the things Nancy's children do and say are lifted straight from reality. In general I don't base characters on real people. If you put a friend or loved one into a novel, you are bound to exaggerate many of their characteristics and create a distorted version of reality. That distortion is inevitable - it's part of the process of fictionalising, but it's very easy to hurt people's feelings that way. And I don't believe in writing for revenge either. I don't want my novels to be fuelled by hate or grudges. What I enjoy is losing myself in a fictional world which is often a welcome escape from my own!


Was it interesting to create a character like Grace Rutherford? Is she loosely based on anyone you know, personally?

Anna Davis: I loved writing Grace. I wanted to create a heroine who was very modern, living the wildest of 20s lifestyles, but also with a more old-fashioned side to her personality. I think of her as very sparkly and sharp when in her gossip columnist mode, but with a softer side which she gives vent to when at home with the family. She was inspired, in part, by some of the bright Flappers I read about, such as Lois Long, who write columns for the New Yorker magazine under the name Lipstick. But she's not based on any one person. I have a little in common with Grace, as I too have a hectic life and more than one job: I work for a West End literary agency as well as writing. But I'm also very different to Grace: I'm married with two children and my life is far less wild, glamorous and romantic than Grace's. My hair is cut into a bob, but I don't go to the hairdresser's enough for it to be a proper sharp bob like hers!