Lynda La Plante: 'I took on the Mafia and lived to tell the tale all because of Scouse trait'

Lynda La Plante has managed to pack a thousand lifetimes into one. The celebrated writer has shared the stage with Anthony Hopkins, come face-to-face with some of Britain's most notorious criminals and even had a run-in with the Mafia across her remarkable 81 years.

Lynda, who has enjoyed great success as an actor, screenwriter, producer and author, has finally caved in to overwhelming demand to share her incredible life story in a new memoir, Getting Away With Murder, which was released this week. The Prime Suspect creator is renowned for her award winning crime fiction, but admitted turning the lens on herself came with its challenges.

She told the ECHO in an exclusive interview: "You go through emotional impacts that you don't quite understand. You remember things you maybe didn't want to remember. Emotionally sometimes you remember good things that you would like to share. Other [things] you didn't share that weren't so nice."

Lynda pulls no punches in telling her own story and said the most difficult part to revisit was the breakdown of her marriage. The author was married to Richard La Plante from 1979 to 1996 before she discovered he was having an affair with her PA.

READ MORE: Escape to the Chateau's Dick and Angel on show return: 'We were in bed and read we sold the chateau'

READ MORE: Leo Sayer's 'mind blown' by life changing Liverpool moment: 'My career was falling apart'

The writer admitted reliving this moment to write the memoirs wasn't easy, adding: "When you break down that situation in your life, it is emotionally hard to just dismiss it and say I didn't feel anything. Yes, I did feel something.

"You can't leave out the moments when I was really hurt because it's cheating in some ways." Lynda laughed she still might not go into as much detail as the brighter moments as she joked: "They're just a bit short."

The 81-year-old always resisted the idea of writing a memoir as she bought into the advice from one of her crime writing heroes. She told the ECHO: "It was quite odd because Raymond Chandler was asked if he'd ever do his memoir and he said 'who the hell would want to know if I had a tricycle as a child. I'm never going to do that'."

However, the author reconsidered when she realised she could tell her life story in a way she wanted rather than adhere to the traditional structure of an autobiography. Lynda's story takes readers all over the world, but her beginnings are firmly rooted in Merseyside as she was raised in Crosby.

The writer's family life was struck by tragedy as her sister died in a car accident before Lynda was born. Although the harrowing incident had a traumatic impact on her parents, Lynda, whose maiden name was Titchmarsh, was inspired by how her family showed defiance in the face of tragedy as she mainly has positive memories from her early years.

In the book, she said: "Today in the downstairs of my home, I have a hanging plaque. It reads: a good laugh is sunshine in a home. It’s the motto I’ve lived by all of my life and it was my parents’ dictum too. Even now, whenever my sister Gill and I meet up we spend most of our time in hysterics. The slightest thing can set us off. Up front, our lives in Moor Lane were also filled with uproarious laughter."

Lynda knows the importance of laughter and said the Liverpudlian sense of humour is instilled in her as she credited this for the way she has always been able to take a balanced approach to writing grisly subject matter. She told the ECHO: "[Liverpool has] totally shaped me. You can't come from Liverpool without that humour. It's in everything. Because I do feel if you're writing about a very dark subject. You have to lift things up so it isn't just dark, dark, dark."

Lynda has smashed through social barriers her whole life as she was inspired to try her hand at writing with her hit series, Widows, when she became frustrated at the lack of interesting female characters in television dramas. Lynda inherited her fearless approach from her nan, Gertie, the tough matriarch who she enjoyed a close relationship with growing up.

She said: "She'd just hold up an umbrella and cross a major thoroughfare and just expect everything to stop. She was a fighter." Lynda's passion for the arts comes from a more unexpected source as she said it was her uncle, Stanley Hugill, renowned as a folk music performer, who first sparked her creative pursuits with his stories of travelling the world.

She said: "He had been at sea since he was 12 and he was outrageous and he was wonderful. My mother used to be in terror when I'd pedal off on my bike to see uncle Stanley if he was home."

Lynda has carried the spirit of Gertie and Stanley throughout her whole life as she studied at RADA before returning to Merseyside to enjoy an incredible career at the Playhouse as part of the Liverpool Repertory. The ECHO interviewed Lynda in the famous Williamson Square theatre that holds such a special place in her heart.

Reminiscing on her stint at the Liverpool Playhouse when she shared the stage with stars such as Anthony Hopkins and Steven Berkoff, she said: "I had such a great time here. To be among some of the best actors in England. We had this wonderful competitive relationship with the burgeoning Everyman. [Liverpool] was bombed to smithereens [in WWII] and rising up from it was a fantastic city. You can feel the energy, it's everywhere, and that's what great about it. It's better than London."

That combination of Liverpudlian humour and fearlessness that left Lynda in good stead through her acting career proved to be particularly valuable when she made the move to writing. While conducting research for what became the 1990 novel, Bella Mafia, Lynda was determined to gain an authentic insight into the mob and relentlessly pursued connections to the criminal underworld until she got inside access to the Cosa Nostra in Palermo.

During a time when almost 500 members of the Mafia faced criminal charges in a high profile trial, Lynda managed to woo the mafioso with a bold lie that claimed she was working on a James Bond film and found herself in close quarters with some dangerous criminals. However, Lynda said being able to remove herself from the situation and see the funny side was always vital when she was thrust into a potentially dangerous encounter.

She recalled a meeting with a mob insider who eventually provided the inspiration for the character of Paul Barolla in the book as she told the ECHO: "The acting was very much helpful if you're interviewing a repellent killer who you don't want to really give the time of day, but if you're writing a character you need to get a semblance what is it that makes them.

"That is where the acting is helpful because you can't show you're repelled. In the book, I loosely go into being in Palermo with the Mafia. The underbelly is always the humour and that's the Liverpool in me.

"I've got this mafioso whose been guiding me. He says listen to me, there is one problem. They must never know that it's me that's been guiding you. Because I give you information. Don't put me in it. You understand?"

Lynda was in stitches as she revealed the mob insider later had a change of heart and wanted to receive some credit for his role in the book. She said: "I told him, 'you will get this manuscript. You read it and if there's anything that worries you and you can be shot, you tell me and I'll take it out'. It had to have been about a year writing it. So I give him the manuscript and he goes off, he comes back two days later. I have a problem. Nobody is going to know it's me."

The curiosity that drove Lynda to infiltrate the mob and also go face to face with notorious serial killers such as Peter Sutclifffe and Dennis Nilsen is showing no signs of wavering. The author remains as inspired by her work as ever as she still writes every day and averages two novels a year.

Lynda, who adopted her son Lorcan when she was aged 59, harbours no plans of ever retiring and said the fighting spirit showed by her family growing up in Crosby is the key to her staying power as she looks forward to the next chapter of her fascinating life.

She said: "I think I'm very fortunate because I have a happy gene. There is something inside that you kick me down and I'll get back up. And I'll keep on getting back up. I think that fighter instinct is in me." Getting Away with Murder by Lynda La Plante is available now.