Spring 2003,
Volume 24, Number 1
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By JOHN LEE, MA ’96
Photography by PERRY HASTINGS |
“He loved me so much that he stood outside
our home for hours on end. He pressed up against
the front door, as if trying to hear what we were
doing inside. He didn’t offer any violence,
not explicitly so; but his hulking presence was
always a threat. We couldn’t enter the house
or leave without confronting him. We couldn’t
let the children out.”
CRIME WRITER MICHELLE
SPRING, BA ’68
is used to describing taut scenarios like this in
her popular series of Laura Principal detective
novels. But the stalking incident, from an account
she wrote for the London Sunday Telegraph, was real.
Spring was the victim. And while the 18-month ordeal
was deeply disturbing, it was also the catalyst
for her transformation from successful academic
to award-winning novelist.
Now based in Cambridge, England, Spring was born
in Victoria and spent most of her childhood in Nanaimo.
At UVic, she began in education but was soon diverted
by sociology, which she recalls as the “first
subject that talked about people like me, from a
working-class background.” Spring remembers
hanging out with friends in the campus bar, reading
Hermann Hesse and the occasional horror book, and
writing “nothing more creative than shopping
lists.” After graduating, she married and
eventually moved to Cambridge, 80 kilometres north
of London. In 1971, after working as a part-time
researcher, Spring began teaching sociology at a
Cambridge adult education college.
Specializing in the sociology of education, Spring
combined teaching with graduate research, producing
an influential study in the field. “At the
time, sociology had an important impact and you
could work in areas that you really cared about,”
said Spring, who used the surname Stanworth from
her first marriage throughout her academic career.
By 1983, she was guest lecturing at Cambridge University
and in 1989 she became professor of sociology and
women’s studies at her college, now Anglia
Polytechnic University.
A popular instructor known for her friendly disposition
towards students, Spring felt she could help the
troubled individual who turned up at her office
in May 1990. “He was moving along the corridor
against the wall, like he was in the SAS. He seemed
a bit strange but I felt sorry for him. I thought
he needed as much help as I could give but I suppose
I was the first person to show him any concern.”
She wrote letters to tutors and counselling services
on the student’s behalf and listened to his
problems. But the positive attention provoked a
dangerous response. He began calling Spring’s
home day and night, eventually insisting he would
kill her family so she would marry him. “I
became increasingly frightened, and sneaking around
feeling afraid all the time was incredibly wearing.
But the worst part was not knowing when it would
end.”
Police and psychiatrists barely helped, believing
a crime had to be committed before serious action
could be taken. Then, 18 months after meeting him,
the stalker called Spring to say that “Nick”
was coming to see her. Even now, Spring doesn’t
know if Nick was real or a dangerous alter ego,
but Nick phoned soon after to inform her of the
violence he had in mind. Within minutes, the stalker
was at the door claiming Nick was with him. Her
husband away, Spring called the police and locked
herself in the bathroom, clutching her children
and a large kitchen knife.
After they endured a terrifying hour under siege,
the police finally arrived and removed the stalker
from outside the family’s home. He was taken
to a psychiatric hospital, where he remains.
Finally free of their ordeal, Spring’s family
took a four-and-a-half month trip to California
and Vancouver. She had intended to write some fiction
during the break—she planned a family saga
—but the stalker ordeal came tumbling out
in a fictionalized tale. “I had to get it
off my chest,” said Spring. The story’s
central character became Laura Principal, a cool-headed,
bookish head of the Cambridge branch of Aardvark
Investigations.
With no plans to publish the story, Spring took
her time finishing the book alongside her teaching
over the next two years. Once it was completed,
she decided to write a second novel for possible
publication, using the first manuscript to hook
an agent who convinced Spring of the stalker story’s
potential. It was promptly sold to Pocket Books
and Every Breath You Take appeared in stores in
1994.
Quickly starting on book two, Spring again centred
the action on Laura Principal. For a while, she
balanced her academic and writing pursuits, finally
realizing in 1997 that she had developed a greater
passion for fiction. “I cried when I made
the decision to leave behind my academic career.
It was saying goodbye to an important part of my
life as well as the regular salary. But from the
moment I handed in my notice, I knew it was right.
And since I went full-time (as a writer), I can
more wholeheartedly dedicate myself to writing and
the books have improved.”
Growing to five tightly-plotted suspense novels,
the Laura Principal series has dealt with contemporary
issues such as children who kill and the links between
privilege and prostitution. In 2002 Spring won the
Arthur Ellis Award from the Crime Writers of Canada
for her latest book, In the Midnight Hour. The prestigious
award is named after the nom de travail of Canada’s
official hangman. Past winners of the “Arthur”—a
figurine with a noose around its neck that dances
when a string is pulled—include Carol Shields,
William Deverell and Nora Kelly.
Fellow “Arthur” winner and best-selling
crime writer Peter Robinson has known Spring for
more than 10 years. He believes she has several
key qualities as a novelist. “Michelle writes
a fine story,” said Robinson, “with
believable situations that come from her personality.
And she writes well about social issues, but not
in a preachy way.”
Joe Blades, vice-president and executive editor
at New York-based Ballantine Books, the Random House
imprint that now publishes Spring’s novels,
is impressed with her characterizations and sense
of place. “I’ve always been very taken
with Laura Principal and Michelle’s supporting
characters. And the tale of two cities—London
and Cambridge—is attractive to North American
readers.”
Blades believes Spring’s greatest writing
successes are still to come. Her next novel—about
a night lawyer—could be “a bigger leap
into the marketplace.” For Spring, the new
story is a chance to stretch as a writer. “It’s
more difficult than I thought but I’m trying
something more ambitious.”
She’s also planning a novel centred on Venice
Beach, California and another set in BC’s
northern backwoods. And she wants to tackle the
short story genre and even write song lyrics. But
she hasn’t abandoned Laura Principal. The
popular stories were recently optioned for TV, and
Spring is plotting her next novel in the series,
this time tackling the theme of neighbour rage.
“I’m happy to work hard, but I want
to work on things I care about. I feel I’m
still working at all this, but if I wasn’t
developing, I wouldn’t be interested in doing
it at all.”
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| Last updated:
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