It was a 5 th century BC female-oriented society, and I found that supportive to my aims. I went to the British Museum and hung out in the Minoan rooms, where there were floor-plans of palaces, and interestingly, very little about males. I knew it was critical that the reader had a real sense of place, but that was the bit where I was scared, because it took a long time to get right.

I cannot tell you how glad I am that the hive works – or how much work I did to get it right. Other than the nature of bee society and the structure of a hive, what were your influences in crafting the physical and cultural world of the hive, which is such a captivating aspect of the novel? How much is based on fact and how much from your imagination? “It’s only as we get older we repress that imaginative sympathy with the natural world – and look where it’s got us.” They’re great people, they love to share. And I also talked to beekeepers and watched them work their hives, and I got a lot of help from the generous international community of bee biologists. I have to say I’m no expert, nor a beekeeper (as yet) but I did read as much as I could – and good grief there’s a lot written. What kind of research did you do in order to write so knowledgeably about bees and the world from their perspective? I wish there had been someone around to tell me about rewriting, because when it didn’t come out the way I meant (my family called it ‘sweet’ but it was supposed to be dark and dramatic) I assumed I couldn’t do it, and I remember being very upset because I really wanted to be a writer. I was always heading for the novel I started my first one age seven.

What led you to write a novel, and why one about bees? You spent many years in the film business as a screenwriter and have also worked in the English theatre. The Bees is an intelligent and literary page-turner, the perfect book for the summer of 2014. For those of us who grew up on Winnie the Pooh, The Wind in the Willows and, especially, the adult “animal fantasy” Watership Down, The Bees provides a rare kind of adventure, filled with intriguing characters, a mysterious world made comprehensible, and thrilling life-or-death stakes.

Inspired by the death of a beekeeper friend and fascinated by the world of honey bees, Paull engaged in an intense period of research and writing to produce her first novel after many years as a screenwriter and playwright. Laline Paull has written what may turn out to the “buzz book” of the late spring and summer.

The bees laline paull review