Interview with Rachel Louise Driscoll

As should be clear by now, I love pretty much anything to do with ancient Egypt. So when I learned about a debut novel featuring a young Victorian Egyptologist whose life is upended by a chance discovery, I wanted to know more. What I discovered was a thoroughly engrossing tale about the lasting bond between siblings, both human and divine. Although this book, like so many associated with the subject—especially those focused on the scholars and adventurers who found the tombs—includes the timeworn image of the mummy’s curse, the author takes the curse as the metaphor it is and uses it to reveal her characters’ failings. Read on to find out more from this interview with Rachel Louise Driscoll.

The House of Two Sisters is your debut novel. What inspired you to write fiction, and specifically this novel?

I have loved writing as long as I can remember. Being raised on classic literature from a young age inspired me to make up my own stories in my head, and over the years I started writing them down. This particular novel came to me when I stumbled across an article describing Victorian mummy unwrapping parties. I am a Victorian at heart, so I already knew I wanted to write a Victorian Gothic novel, and I’ve had an interest in Egyptology since childhood, so I decided to marry both eras together and explore the subject of nineteenth-century Egyptomania.

The book opens in 1887, with Clementine Attridge. Although only eighteen and a Victorian woman, she is also a gifted reader of hieroglyphs. How did that come about?

Clemmie came to me in the early stages of plotting the novel. I was greatly inspired by Amelia Edwards, who wrote A Thousand Miles up the Nile and who could read hieroglyphs, but Clemmie really became her own person as I prepared to write the book. She has small elements of myself in her (largely being the younger sister, her closeness to her family, and her introverted nature) but at the same time, she’s very different from me. It was a joy to watch her develop as I wrote the book.

And what else should potential readers know about her as a person?

Clemmie is asthmatic, something else that I was able to draw from personal experience in writing. Thankfully my asthma is greatly improved these days, but it was interesting to write about a Victorian suffering from asthma whilst wearing a corset in the hot Egyptian desert.

That initial scene focuses on the unwrapping of what turns out to be a highly unusual Egyptian mummy. In what way, and what can you tell us about the unwrapping itself?

It’s a somewhat unsavory event, to say the least. Victorian mummy unwrapping parties were made famous by a gentleman called Dr Pettigrew (also known as Mummy Pettigrew). He would unwrap mummies and dissect them. I don’t want to give too much away about the events of the unwrapping in the opening scene of the book, but I was shocked by this macabre practice and wanted to bring it to light in a gothic novel.

The central conflict of the novel revolves around the two divine sisters Isis and Nephthys, as well as the human sisters Clementine and Rosetta. Could you say a bit about them?

I really wanted to explore the subject of sisterhood in a novel. I am the youngest of two sisters, and my sister and I were extremely close growing up. Even though there was nearly five years between us, we did everything together. We were home-schooled, and studying at different levels, but we were still classmates, and we were playmates, and best friends. When my sister got married, I remember feeling “left behind,” and I wrote this book in the wake of that, wanting to explore the depths of sisterly bonds.

Clemmie and Rosetta are also extremely close, but recent events which Clemmie blames on a “curse” have been driving the sisters apart. Isis and Nephthys were also sisters, and they are driven apart by betrayal and murder in their family. The novel explores the betrayal of Nephthys and how she worked hard to piece her murdered and dismembered brother back together, and Clemmie’s shortcomings and her attempt to bring healing to her family.

The novel switches back and forth between this event in 1887 and its immediate consequences and Clementine’s trip to Egypt five years later. What does she hope she can achieve by undertaking this voyage?

Clemmie arrives in Egypt on a secret mission—to return something which she thinks has cursed her family. It is her hope to bring an end to the curse if she can return what plagues them. As she makes her journey, she learns that there is more to her family’s troubles than she first thought.

In Egypt, Clementine encounters a young Englishman, Rowland Luscombe, and a brother/sister pair—Celia and Oswald Lion. They become her traveling companions. What do they add to the story?

I didn’t just want to explore sisterhood in the book, I also wanted to look at sibling relationships in general (including the brothers Osiris and Set in the myths). I loved writing Oswald and Celia, the hunting-mad brother and flighty sister, who I hope bring a little entertainment and also appeal to my personal interest in a “protective brotherly figure” (which I would have loved for myself). Celia made me laugh out loud when I was creating her.

As for Rowland, he is mysterious, and I don’t want to say too much about him. As my agent said when we first chatted about the book, with Rowland we wonder can we trust him or can’t we, all whilst kind of fancying him. Readers will just have to read to the end to find out if they can trust Rowland or not.

You also get at some themes of contemporary relevance, especially the theft of other countries’ antiquities. Could you tell us a bit about that element of the novel?

In The House of Two Sisters, my characters come to learn about respecting, protecting, and preserving the past. As a place that has seen much conflict and unrest in its long history, making it vulnerable to crime, smuggling, and vandalism, Egypt is a great setting for this subject. I primarily sought to explore how mummies are handled, remembering that they are actually human remains. There’s something which feels wrong about digging up someone who had been laid to rest, and I wanted to consider the morality of it in this novel.

And what of you? Are you already working on another book?

I am busy working on my next novel, which I can’t wait to share more about. What I can say is that it’s another Victorian Gothic mystery woven with myths/legends (but I won’t reveal which ones yet!). It also delves into some subject matters close to my heart. I’m really excited to say more when I can!

Thank you so much for answering my questions!

Rachel Louise Driscoll is a former librarian and winner of the Curtis Brown Creative scholarship. She lives in the northeast of England with her husband and her cat, Cleopatra. The House of Two Sisters (published in the UK as Nephthys) is her debut novel.