Emmerdale star Jessie Elland’s exciting new chapter which she kept secret from ITV soap co-stars
Emmerdale fans will know Jessie Elland as portraying Chloe Harris in the ITV soap
A former Emmerdale star has opened up about an exciting new chapter in her life which she initially kept secret from her co-stars.
Millions of Emmerdale fans will know Jessie Elland from her two-year spell as Chloe Harris in the ITV soap. The character was last seen in the show back in 2023.
Since her exit, acting star Jessie has enjoyed a very varied period in her career. Last year, we saw her tread the boards in the touring production of 101 Dalmatians: The Musical and this summer Jessie has released her debut novel The Ladie Upstairs.
Describing the book, Jessie said: “It is a gothic thriller, horror adjacent, about a servant who works in this grand mysterious supernatural house. It is about her relationship with the lady upstairs and how that develops and grows into something twisted.”
She added: “I really enjoyed writing it. I’ve always been a big reader and writing is something that I’ve always wanted to do so it was fun just to write for me.” To mark the release, we have caught up with the Emmerdale star to talk, cover to cover, the major milestone in Jessie’s life.
How does it feel for your debut novel to hit the shelves?
“I still haven’t formed the right answer when people ask me that. As a way of explaining it, it feels like Christmas Day. You have all the build up, then you have Christmas Day where it happens and you still don’t know what to do with yourself. It is that kind of feeling.”
Given the amount of work you’ve put into the book, how did it feel to physically hold a copy?
“It is so surreal. I have got a collection of books behind me (seen on book shelves during our video interview). I look at them sometimes and it still doesn’t click. Even in bookshops, it is amazing to see it in windows and on tables. Even if I go in and I’m holding it to sign it, I have this feeling of ‘these must be fake’. A feeling of ‘this is too good to be true’.
Of course The Ladie Upstairs has been met by a positive response. That must mean the world to you?
“It is so surreal to think of people reading it. I’ve received some pictures of people reading it. I had one sent in the other day from Berlin as it is in a shop there – that is really, really crazy. I left a lot of things ambiguous in the book so it is really rewarding to see people come up with these different interpretations. That’s what I really wanted to achieve and that’s really special.”
Have any ideas come to the surface which you hadn’t considered from reader theories?
“They have which is such a huge compliment. At a few events, I have had a few people ask what things mean. I’ve had to be that annoying author and reply ‘I’m not going to say’. I don’t want to spoil anyone else’s interpretation with my own.”
Where has your passion for writing come from?
“It came from a very young age. Somewhere in my room, I’ve got a very big box of books. I say books, what they are, in fact, are A4 sheets of paper folded over. They have titles with things such as ‘James and The Giant Tomato’ scribbled across them.
“They are from when I was about five or six. I’ve always really loved books. I was an avid reader. I started reading freakishly early as a kid. I think I read the first two Harry Potters when I was about five.
“Nobody believed me, so they bought a little quiz book to see if I was fibbing or not. So, I’ve always been interested in books and writing was a natural progression from that. I started acting professionally before I started writing but it was the other way around, I wanted to be an author first and acting was secondary to that.”
How it is being able to now refer to yourself as an author?
“It is really surreal. I have to keep reminding myself as I’m still writing and I’m working on new projects. I have to firmly say to myself that this is my job now.”
Judging from the shelves behind you, there’s an impressive collection of books which you have amassed?
“This is only half of it. I have a whole wall on the other side which is filled and a lot of boxes of books I had as a kid. I’m a big book hoarder.”
How did you find writing alongside your acting work?
“I had the idea about a year before I got the Emmerdale role. I’d just come out of uni, I didn’t have an acting agent and I had three jobs at once – I didn’t have time to write.
“When I got Emmerdale, the schedule for that is mad but you do have the odd month where your character’s storyline quietens down and someone else takes over (in the central plots). You have time to do what you want. So, I decided to write. Using time in the dressing room and travelling to work also.
“I was just so grateful to be in that position where I had that time to knuckle down and use it to write the book. For 101 Dalamatians, that came when I’d finished writing it and it was in the editing process. It was really, really strange to be going on and doing this lovely Paddington-like family show, which is nice and sweet, and then going into the dressing room to then sit and edit this really macabre, very adult, dark book that I’d written.
“Weird but quite nice to have the contrast as it kept both sides nice and interesting for me.”
During your time in Emmerdale, you were part of the soap’s book club which was called Rather Be Reading – how was that experience?
“There were so many readers, cast and crew, at Emmerdale and I love bullying, I say bullying with love, people into reading. I love hearing what other people are reading as I like to keep my reading interests as wide and diverse as possible. So, it is really nice to hear all kinds of book recommendations from friends and colleagues.
“It was me, Daisy (Cambell who played Amelia), Edenn (Taylor-Draper who plays Belle) and Izzy (Isabel Hodgins who plays Victoria Sugden). We had this book club where we got to interview other authors. When the book club started, I was at this point where I was writing the book, but I’d kept it secret. So, it was great for me, as an aspiring author, to hear from authors and get their writing advice. Their experience and log it secretly.”
That must have been an invaluable learning experience?
“I just love talking about books with people and surrounding myself with people who write or just love reading. That really fills my cup.”
It is nearly two-years-ago since we last saw your character Chloe Harris in Emmerdale. How would you reflect on the period since your exit?
“I have been very, very lucky to tick off these huge ambitions that I have had for a long time at such an early stage in my life. I definitely don’t take it for granted. Looking back over the last two years, and my time at Emmerdale, I look back very fondly. It is very bittersweet. That’s nostalgia, in general, isn’t it? Looking back at such a lovely time that’s ended. It is nice to have the memories of it.”
Did you find your acting experience helpful for visualising the narrative of your book?
“I think so. On two different levels. When I write, I tend to sit back for a second and visualise the scene in my head. Almost like I’m watching a film or a TV show. Then translate what I’m seeing in my head onto a page. So, I think it helps in that sense being used to being on a TV set and watching lots of film and cinema – it definitely influences it.
“Then in a more direct way, I guess, a benefit from being an actor is that it helps you get in character a lot and see things from different perspectives and pick up things you might not usually see. It also helps me, my book isn’t a first person narration but, despite that, I still wanted the narration to feel like a character in its own sense and have a really strong voice. Everything that I’ve picked up on and learned, over the years, from the acting world really helps me do that.”
How have you found melding the two?
“I think people seem surprised. I’m always surprised that they are surprised as I think it is such an obvious symbiotic relationship. They slot together and feed off each other so nicely. Writing helps me in my acting work. Then I think acting helps me in my writing work.”
What has been the response from some of your Emmerdale friends to The Ladie Upstairs? Particularly those from the book club?
“My publishers really nicely sent me special copies to send out as this VIP package to friends and family as well as influencers and book talkers. So, I got to send some special copies out to Eden, Izzy and Daisy. Then I had a private family and friends book launch which a lot of the Emmerdale lot were at as well. So, that was very, very special.”
How was it been having the launch events?
“It has been absolutely amazing. It has been the best part of it. In the run-up to knowing these events are coming I was very nervous. As writing, for me, is quite an isolated experience. I was doing it in secret for a lot of the time and it is vaguely embarrassing, I guess, to be sat in a room creating these imaginary people and then having to go out in public to speak about them. So, I was worried about how I would find it.
“But, from the get-go, it has just been the most incredible thing. Readers, other writers and other authors have been so welcoming and so supportive. They have been very, very generous. It has been really lovely. It is nice to geek out with them.”
What’s next in your career? And, how do you envisage those opportunities heading?
“I think I’d like to try to balance both (writing and acting) for as long as I can. I’m very, very lucky to have both things and have my feet planted either side of the door – so to speak. I want to really try to balance that as long as I can.
“It is really nice to know I have both. I think at some point in the future, I would love it if they fused together in some way. That’s already happened, to some degree, as I do a lot of voiceover work and I got to do my audio book. That was a meeting of two of my worlds. It would be nice to continue that and develop it.”
Will we see you write a second book?
“So, The Ladie Upstairs is a standalone piece. There won’t be any sequels to that – without spoiling anything. When you read the book, you’ll understand why that’s the case. I’m always writing. I don’t think I’d ever be able to stop – even if I hadn’t published a book and become an author. I’d still be writing.
“So hopefully, there will be some new books to follow very soon but not as a continuation of this story.”
