Feedback with Louise Candlish

FEEDBACK WITH LOUISE CANDLISH

We’re delighted to welcome bestselling crime author Louise Candlish as our July Feedback guest.

Famous for her gripping psychological thrillers like Our House and The Other Passenger, Louise is known for her twisty plots, razor-sharp storytelling - and as it turns out, fond food memories too.

Louise shares her favourite childhood meals (Findus Crispy Pancakes and Angel Delight make an appearance), her eating regime when she is writing, and an unforgettable Sicilian fish stew that was so overwhelming it brought her to tears. She even confesses why she regrets recommending her favourite London restaurant!

Louise’s brand-new thriller, A Neighbour’s Guide to Murder, is out this month—and we’re giving you the chance to win a copy - just click the link below to enter our competition.

Photo by Neil Spence

What food always reminds you of your childhood?
Homemade meals involving meat and vegetables, because I grew up in the 70s and 80s when food was a rotation of chicken and mushroom pies, cheese and onion flans and roast dinners, always made from scratch by my mum. Afterwards, we’d have tea and Rich Tea biscuits. I feel guilty now remembering how unappreciative I was, complaining about ‘shepherd’s pie again’, because ‘proper’ food was routine then in a way that is now a treat for most of us. Of course, at the time, I thought a treat was Findus Crispy Pancakes with oven chips and no vegetables, followed by Angel Delight and, half an hour later, a Yorkie.

Do you cook, and if so, what do you like to cook?
My husband Andrew is the cook in our house and, as middle-aged men are apt to do, he has elevated refuelling to an art form. Dinner is multiple dishes, each with its own bespoke toppings, like pan-fried walnuts and oven-roasted crispy kale. It’s that cliché of every dish and pan in the house being in use (the toppings each have their own bowl as they wait to be sprinkled). So, when left to my own devices, I rebel and do something like an omelette and salad. I don’t even bother with a dressing for the salad, maybe just a squeeze of lemon.

Do you have a current favourite restaurant or type of restaurant?
My favourites are Japanese and Italian, ideally sampled in the host country. We have a local Tuscan restaurant called Maremma in Brixton, walking distance from our house, but I have not helped my access to it by recommending it so passionately – I can’t get a reservation now. They do a fantastic wild boar ragu and a beautiful tagliata steak with their own salt mix and delicious roast potatoes. We always have a spritz of some sort and wine from the Maremma region.

Does your eating pattern change when you are writing?
Absolutely. When I start writing a book, everything is calm and disciplined. I’ll write 1,000 words a day, walk 10,000 steps, and eat reasonably healthily. Greek yoghurt and berries for breakfast, a nice sandwich, maybe soup, for lunch, then one of Andrew’s extravaganzas for dinner. If on a deadline and alone, I might just eat a tub of ice cream, my go-to comfort food, or a whole big bar of Tony’s Chocolonely. I never order takeaways because I object to prices now being more than when you actually sit down in a restaurant, with service and all the other overheads. Plus everything’s all sloppy and upside down and not even hot.

What food or ingredient could you not do without?
I always think I could be one of those people who eat the same thing every day (my dad, who’s in his 80s, does this so there’s form in the family). What it would be, though… Well, I struggle to imagine life without bread and cheese. If I had to narrow it down, I’d say a superlight French baguette that’s really crispy on the base, with a strong, creamy cow’s cheese and a scattering of walnuts.

Is there a memorable meal you can remember eating?
There is a meal we had in 2001 that Andrew and I still talk about, groaning. We were in Lipari in Sicily on holiday and went to a beautiful waterside restaurant famous for its fish stew. We ordered pasta, then the stew, but we were starving and filled up on breadsticks while we waited. Then the pasta came, a huge, heaped portion, and it was so filling we were already straining our waist bands when this celebrated fish stew arrived. It was massive, enough for six people, and we felt obliged to make a dent in it since it was the house specialty and the staff were watching us for signs of enjoyment. It was my only real experience of overeating to the point of illness, worse than any Christmas Day gorge-fest. We were in tears as we walked back to the hotel – ridiculous!

Is there something particular you always keep in the fridge?
Blueberries and raspberries. Milk for my coffee (I’ve got it down to two a day). White wine.

What would be your last supper if literally anything was available to you and where would you eat it, and who would you be with?
If I knew it was my last supper then I would not have an appetite, so I’d need some deception on that score. I’d be with Andrew and our daughter and other family members, with my Labrador Bertie standing by for scraps. We’d be in my happy place, which is on the beach in the Ile de Ré, western France. I’d have sushi or sashimi to start, the fish flown in from Tokyo, then the world’s best lasagne (like Garfield, that’s my favourite dish). For pudding, I would have something like the soufflé with Grand Marnier I had the other day in a restaurant. It’s very rich so we would all share it and for once I wouldn’t care that people were digging in with spoons that had been in their mouths. Normally that’s very off-putting to me, but I wouldn’t want my last supper to be marred by bad feeling.

A Neighbour’s Guide to Murder by Louise Candlish published by HarperCollins on 17 July 2025 (Hardback, £16.99)
Click here to win a copy in our competition