LEAF ARBUTHNOT - "Looking for Eliza"

Looking for Eliza is the original title, but we have a certain inclination for the Italian one - which translates Two Cups of Tea at Swinburne Road – because it conveys a more romantic, and "English", geolocation. It is an exquisitely English novel, after all: Oxford and the academic environment, of course, but it is when the door of Swinburne Road of the elderly widow poet Ada opens, that things begin to change for her and also for Eliza, a young PhD student struggling with an old love and in crisis in her studies.

It is a brilliant debut for 31-year-old Leaf Arburhnot, assistant editor of The Week magazine and freelance journalist, whose reviews and articles have been published in magazines such as Vogue, The Sunday Times and The Spectator. She interviewed Hilary Mantel, Jilly Cooper and King Charles III of England, among others. She was a judge for the Forward Prize for Poetry in 2020 and the Michael Marks Awards for poetry pamphlets in 2017, and studied Modern Languages in Cambridge.

We know that you chose Primo Levi as your dissertation topic. Why did you decide to make him such an important part of your book?
Levi is one of very few writers who has walked right into my heart, from almost the first word I read. I admire his writings on the Holocaust, of course, but it’s his warmth and mischief and humour that make me love him. I wanted to wind him into the book, and decided that his wire figures could help with that.

What inspired you to write so profoundly about such an unusual friendship, in terms of age?
I think we undervalue friendships across generations. I loved spending time with my grandparents (all but one, my 103-year-old grandmother, are dead now). I think the relationships I had with them were very grounding.

Both Ada and Eliza know what loneliness is, although in different ways. You explore in your book female loneliness. As a woman, do you think that men have it harder?
I've been struck over the years by how little some of my male friends talk to their male friends about their lives. My girlfriends know a lot - I mean, a lot! - about my life. Men often feel embarrassed to admit they're lonely - or they don't even recognise it to begin with.

Eliza has insecurities about the value of her studies. Sometimes she wrongly thinks of herself as an imposer. Have this kind of feelings ever occurred to you while writing your book?
I didn't feel like an imposer but I was certainly repeatedly overwhelmed with a belief that I was writing something really bad. When I reached the 30,000-word mark (about a third to the end) I remember thinking "Oh, God. What a load of rubbish! Shall I just delete it all?"

One of the main characters is a poet. Do you have any interest in this literary form?
Yes but I'm not a good poet. I don't read as much poetry now as I used to, either, so if I wrote poems now they'd be even worse than they used to be, at a time when I read more poetry! I do keep a close eye on my prose, though - I edit over and over again, and try to polish words till they shine (often I fail).

Italy is mentioned often in your book. What is your relationship with the “Bel Paese”?
I absolutely love Italy. Outside the UK, it's my favourite country. I find Italian people very warm and amusing, the food delicious, the literature brilliant, the appreciation for beauty inspiring. I've been going to Rome once or twice a year for some time and would love to live in Italy at some point.

In the cover: Lead Arbuthnot
images courtesy of the publisher