Page 46 of Wanting Daisy Dead
A Year Later
Transcript from The Killer Question Podcast
Final Episode: Young, Beautiful and Dead – Interview with the Author
Tammy : Today is a year since The Killer Question hosted a special weekend where five suspects, and old friends, were invited back to their university for a weekend to celebrate the birthday of their late friend and housemate, Daisy Harrington.
The recently released Sunday Times bestselling book, Young, Beautiful and Dead , tells the story of what happened that weekend. When old rivalries, passions and guilt came to the surface, the electric and febrile atmosphere climaxed in an unexpected confession from the real murderer.
In this final episode we’re talking to the bestselling author who knew both the victim and the killer, and attended that fateful weekend.
The book has been sitting at the top of the bestseller list since the day of its release four weeks ago, and a film of the book has been optioned by a big studio in Hollywood.
Tonight we’re back at the university, and it’s amazing how much has happened in the twelve months since we were all last here. So, I’d like to welcome new bestselling author, and former student of St Luke’s Campus, Exeter, the very talented Georgie Fraser.
Georgie : Hi, and thanks for having me on the podcast. Have to say I got chills just walking back in here.
Tammy : Yes, from The Killer Question ’s perspective, we were all a little freaked out to return after such a surprising weekend. I don’t think any of us expected the killer to be Maddie.
Georgie : It was the biggest shock ever.
(Georgie giggles.) Thing is, Maddie being the murderer was such a twist, because she always seemed the sweetest. And I have to add – she Is the sweetest. She’s the loveliest, kindest girl, and it’s such a shame that what happened happened.
But believe me when I say most of us are capable of something like this, given enough heartache and pain.
Tammy : Yeah, I’m sure you’re right, Georgie. Alex says it now all makes sense, and, like you, he can see what Maddie must have gone through, but even as her friend he says he had no idea it was her. In fact, Tiffany, Alex and I all thought it was Dan, your ex-husband.
Georgie : Yeah, well, I had my doubts about Dan too, but I was also suspicious of Lauren Pemberton. And when I discovered she’d stolen Daisy’s book and passed it off as her own, I was pretty convinced she was the murderer. But I feel bad for even thinking that now.
Tammy : For any listener who’s been living under a rock for the past year, Lauren Pemberton is the former housemate and author of A Day in the Life and Death , who was at the centre of a row involving accusations of plagiarism.
After it emerged on the Killer Question weekend that her 2007 prize-winning novel was actually written by murder victim Daisy Harrington, a civil lawsuit was begun by Teresa Harrington, Daisy’s mother.
Georgie : Yes, it was shameful. I heard Lauren settled out of court, and had to sell everything, including the family home, to pay Teresa. I heard she’s in rented accommodation ... Very sad.
Tammy : So, you took the baton, and began working with her old agent Finty Dole on this new one, which has sold a million copies in just four weeks?
Georgie : Yes, Finty called me after she parted ways with Lauren – she felt, as I did, that the book just had to be written.
This case has remained in the collective consciousness for more than twenty years.
Daisy Harrington is the every-daughter, and every parent and every teen can relate to the girl going away to college with her life before her, only to be slain by her lover on a lonely beach.
Tammy : Her lover, Maddie Parr, was sentenced to a minimum of twenty-five years in prison. Are you still in touch with her?
Georgie : Yes, I spoke to her only the other day.
Obviously we worked closely over the phone while I was writing the book, and I visited as often as I could.
Maddie was so honest and open. I refuse to paint her as a one-dimensional killer – she’s so much more, and I wanted the reader to know the kind, lovely, fragile person she is.
I hope that comes through in the book. Maddie still doesn’t fully understand her own actions, and will never come to terms with what happened that night.
Tammy : In the book you use an interesting phrase, that she ‘cowers in the face of her own brutality’.
Georgie : Yes, it’s like she’s two people.
Under extreme duress, Maddie was capable of a violent killing.
But the prison staff and psychiatrists she works with agree: it was an aberration, a moment, it will never happen again.
Maddie was faced with a particular set of circumstances, and because of the emotional roller coaster, the stress, and her inexperience in matters of the heart, she cracked.
Maddie had spent her childhood in a ballet school where training was all-encompassing, rigorous and intense.
Add to that the hothouse setting of a competitive, mostly female environment, laced with an underlying toxic culture of body-shaming and bullying .
.. It’s really no wonder that, once she entered the real world of school, then university, this shy, quiet girl couldn’t cope and rebelled against the world.
She’d loved Daisy with all her heart, and the hurt was too much.
The prison staff say she’s an exemplary prisoner, kind and caring, always helping others, and it’s just crazy that she has to stay there – but she has acceptance, she wants this, her punishment.
‘It just feels right to be here now,’ she told me.
The only thing she misses is her cat Minty, who my daughters insisted we adopt and who now lives with us – she leaves fur everywhere, but I don’t care about stuff like that anymore.
Tammy : Sounds like you’re a changed woman, Georgie.
Georgie : Yes, and happily divorced too!
I couldn’t take any more of Dan’s cheating, and after that weekend I realised my unhappiness, my obsessive cleanliness, my deep mistrust and dislike of most people – it was all down to my relationship.
I take some responsibility, but my marriage was a dysfunctional mess, and I couldn’t stay a moment longer, or allow my daughters to witness any more of it.
Dan’s now living with a much younger woman called Greta – she was one of the waiting staff at the podcast weekend.
Tammy : Wow!
Georgie : Yes indeed, but I’ve let it all go. Dan was constantly looking for someone, and it wasn’t me. I hope this one finally makes him happy.
Tammy : Let’s hope so. But, moving on, you might recall that Tiffany and I have been in receipt of anonymous donations from someone, and were disturbed to discover recently that that someone is Maddie.
Georgie : Yes, she told me about that for the book – she said that’s why she started the online sex work. It was the only way for her to make enough money to try and make it up to you both. Another example of her selflessness.
Tammy : Tiff and I struggled with this – she essentially took our father away from us ...
Georgie : Yes, and as her own father died when she was young, it’s something Maddie finds very hard to come to terms with.
She’s horrified that, because she didn’t confess, your father was taken away from you.
It’s the reason she wanted to give you the money: she knows it will never compensate, but she told me she had to do something.
Tammy : We couldn’t accept the money anymore when we discovered who it was from, and we now redirect it to a charity we set up for young women from poor and difficult backgrounds.
The aim is to give them the same chance of education and career as those who are more privileged.
At least something good can finally come of this.
Georgie : What you’re doing is wonderful, and I sincerely hope it goes some way to better lives for bright young women who need help to get to where they should be.
Tammy : That’s the plan. And, despite having mixed feelings, I do hope Maddie’s time in prison will be as positive as it can be.
Georgie : I just hope my book will help people understand Maddie.
I don’t want to seem like I’m supporting a murderer, or enjoying the spoils of that murder.
There have been lots of reports regarding the money this project with the book and film will make for me, but it’s my job.
I’ve worked hard, Tammy, and if the press snap photos of me in glitzy dresses at premieres – it’s only work. (Silence for four seconds.)
Tammy : Yeah, but nice work if you can get it. (Tammy laughs nervously, followed by silence for six seconds.)
Georgie : I’d rather not talk about this in terms of my success. What happened in the beach hut that night was a terrible thing, let’s not forget that. Now I’d just like to read a few lines from my book if that’s okay, Tammy?
Tammy : Oh, er, yeah, I guess?
Georgie : (Clears her throat, then reads dramatically.) She’d been missing for a week when they found her, and by then everyone felt they knew her.
People who’d never even met her declared their love for Daisy, and left flowers and soft toys by the oak tree outside our place.
They sobbed at her funeral, wore black, made daisy chains out of plastic daisies.
It was like they wanted to own a piece of her, a slice of grief that they wore like a fancy scarf.
Tammy : Thanks for joining us tonight, and congratulations on writing an original page-turner that really keeps the reader on the edge of their seat.
Georgie : I may have written this book, but I take little credit for the success, Tammy. People still can’t get enough of Daisy Harrington. Her story, her life and her legacy will live on in our hearts – like Princess Diana ...
Maddie