Her Empty Chair: Creating Ida

Ida has gone missing. But how can such a striking woman just disappear without anybody noticing anything?

A glamorous, elderly Parisian, Ida Laine lands in London and strikes up an unlikely friendship with a young waitress, Sylvia Morelle, who works at a French café in Covent Garden. The two bond over their love of Paris and Ida looks forward to teaching Sylvia more French every week. Ida loves her routine, you see. She visits at the same time, on the same day, every week. Until one day, she doesn’t show up.

When Sylvia finally gets to the source of the mystery, her whole world is shattered…

Creating The Character: Ida Laine

Ida is the embodiment of Parisian glamour and culture that the younger character, Sylvia idolises. So I wanted Ida to be an over the top, chic and traditionally fashionable character. She wears an extravagant, real fur coat (much to my dismay, but there’s no convincing this woman). She loves her red wine. She loves a laidback afternoon of sitting and watching the world go by from her favourite seat looking over Covent Garden Piazza. She speaks with a heavy French accent.

Originally from Lyon, she moves to Paris after marrying her childhood sweetheart whose career takes off in the city. And in this way, I suppose Ida is also playing the role of what she believes a stereotypical Parisian would be back in the 60s.

That’s why I made her favourite pastry a croissant. One of the flakiest, messiest types of pastry to try and eat with poise. Yet Ida conquers the art, of course. We all wish we could eat a croissant with the grace that she does.

Every Sunday, Mrs Ida Laine would totter over to her favourite seat in the house, overlooking the bustling cobbled streets of Covent Garden Piazza. She would gently shrug off her extravagant fur coat, allowing Sylvia to carefully drape it over the chair behind her. How a woman so frail could hold herself up in it was a mystery to all, but Ida had such grace and Sylvia truly admired her.

By now, Ida didn’t even need to speak. Sylvia knew her order off by heart: a large glass of Cabernet and an almond croissant – lightly toasted. With one manicured hand trembling ever so slightly, she would lift the glass up to her thinned lips and savour her first warming taste of red. Each sip would leave layer upon layer of crimson lipstick at the top of the glass like a kiss of appreciation. Her croissant would remain untouched until every last drop of wine had vanished.

One of the things I love about Ida is that she shows the depth that older characters can have. She has so much wit and she knows just what to say in any situation with her years of experience in life. She’s been through a lot but she has perspective and a lot of lessons to pass down.

This is something I really loved about Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club series which gives a spotlight to elderly characters. My idea for Ida wasn’t actually inspired by this as she was born back in 2017 but I am glad to have created an older character with so much zest for life like the gang in Osman’s series.

Finally safe inside where no one could see her, Ida leaned on the side table as her legs began to give and she let out a deep and painful wail. She had lost everything. How would she ever go on in this world? As tears continued to bleed down her face, yellow handkerchief turning black with mascara, Ida knew what to do. It was the only thing she had left.

The scenes I ended up loving writing the most for Ida were her interactions with her husband, Albin. Loosely based on my own parents, and their very different views and interests in life, I could infuse a bit of comedy as well as realism into their conversations. Many readers have reached out to let me know how realistic the characters felt and I think using true inspiration definitely helped!

“For the last time, Ida, please leave the man alone!” Albin ran his hand through his thick white hair with such force that Ida was sure he was finally going to start balding. As he so often did under pressure, he hid his face with his large palms like an overgrown child playing peek-a-boo.

“It would be more effective to place your hands over your ears if you really want to ignore me,” Ida highlighted.

Ida is definitely the character that I miss the most since the book’s close. I feel like I know her the most and if I could pick any character from the book to enjoy a glass of wine with and hear a tale from, it would be her.

Want to know more? Read the blurb and reviews for Her Empty Chair here.

Sunna x