From Comprehensive School to Murder Mystery Novelist: Pembroke Alumna Susan Rowland (1981, English)

Pembroke alumna Susan Rowland (1981, English) has recently published the second instalment in her mystery novel series, The Alchemy Fire Murder. We caught up with Susan to discuss her series, her career since graduating and her time at Pembroke.

Coming from a comprehensive school, and knowing nothing about Oxford, Susan chose Pembroke purely based on statistics suggesting it took on lots of English students. It was a stroke of luck that she came across those statistics, though, as the College would allow her to develop the passion for her subject which has stayed with her for life. 1981 was only the third year that women were admitted to Pembroke, and Susan remembers how there were still fourth-year students who had been admitted in an all-male cohort, leaving her very much at the centre of huge change in College. Though at the time there were “no accommodations made for women”, she also added there was “no real prejudice” either; even those tutors who were less keen on a mixed college didn’t treat her any differently to their male students.

 After graduating in 1984, Susan moved into teaching at comprehensive schools, alongside studying for an MA, before moving to Newcastle to complete a PhD at the University. From there, her career took her into Higher Education teaching, first at Northumbria University, then Liverpool University, and finally a full-time permanent role at Greenwich. At the time, Greenwich University was still a polytechnic, meaning all of the students she taught were the first in their families to go to university, something she found extremely rewarding. She told us she loved her time there, but eventually “ran away” to the States with an American poet she had met, and began teaching in California where she still teaches today, although the couple now live in Oregon.

Alongside teaching, Susan has also published two academic books on Jung and feminist revision, which ended up leading her to write detective fiction. “My interest first came from an academic point of view, as detective fiction is very mythological,” she said, citing the genre as essentially a “rerunning of the Holy Grail myth”. This, combined with her experience of how “male-dominated” Oxford was as an institution during her time here, led her to the idea of a fictional Oxford college founded by Julian of Norwich, St. Julius, where she could set her mystery novel. A female-founded college, founded in the 1400s, allowed her to introduce a feminine influence into her fictional Oxford, laying the basis for an exploration of gender within her novel. The novel also combines many other topical issues such as climate change and mental health, as well as gender specifically within religious context. Susan explains that “although this is a fictional book, it’s also kind of a research into, for example, the masculinity of Oxford University and masculinity and femininity in religious groups”.

Other novels in the series feature different fictional Colleges beyond St. Julius, based on real-life counterparts. The Sacred Well Murders is set in Exmoor College, a fictional Exeter, and another novel is set in Cardinal College, which fans of Thomas Hardy may recognise as Christ Church. Though eagle-eyed readers may notice a familiar College entrance on the front cover of The Alchemy Fire Murders, this is supposed to represent St Julius, which is not, she says, a reimagining of Pembroke. The particular image was chosen for sentimental reasons, as it features Susan’s former room from her student days in Staircase 8. She shared that her fourth novel, though, may finally feature Pembroke in the form of Pemberton College.

Susan left us with a piece of advice for Pembroke students who will be graduating soon, suggesting that developing one’s creativity is the most important thing, as it will in turn develop your resilience. As the world changes so rapidly, Susan feels creativity will offer “more strength, more answers and more ways of handling challenges”.

We were delighted to hear from Susan and look forward to the future of her novel series. You can find more about the books here.