FAQ for A World Invisible

Where did the idea for ‘A World Invisible’ come from?

When I decided to write a novel, the V&A Museum was high on my list of possible key locations.  It is my favourite museum – I am very familiar with it after many hours spent wandering there and drawing from the exhibits.  Shortly afterwards, I was drawing in the Small Sculpture Gallery and the first chapter simply arrived in my head, practically fully formed; all I did that evening was write it out, almost as if taking dictation.  Then I had to discover why Rebecca’s drawing had turned out like that, and who the other artist had been.

The rest of the story arrived in fits and starts, usually when I was thinking about something quite different.  I often find that if I ask a question out loud then an answer immediately follows; it is as if translating the thought into actual words kick-starts the wordy bit of my brain.

Why did you choose to include a fantasy element?

Somehow I knew from the start that the other artist in the gallery was, let’s say, uncommon.  The rest followed naturally. I have always enjoyed fantasy elements in fiction, although rarely whole fantastic worlds.  If you can’t meet ‘otherness’ in stories, where can you?

What age of reader did you write ‘A World Invisible’ for?

I didn’t have any particular reader group in mind when I was writing it.  I wrote what I would enjoy reading.  I love K M Peyton’s books, which often feature characters in their late teens and early twenties, and Rosemary Sutcliffe’s, of course.  The world looks very different when you are twenty from when you are fifty, but we can all remember what it was like.

When I was a child I was as much interested in young-but-grown-up characters as in other children, and in my mid-teens my favourite novels were led by adult characters – ‘Jamaica Inn’ by Daphne du Maurier, ‘The Flight of the Heron’ by D K Broster, and ‘Wuthering Heights’ of course.  Even ‘The Lord of the Rings’ doesn’t have children in it.

I find it rather sad that the label “young adult” has been hi-jacked by bookshops for fiction aimed at readers as young as twelve.  It seems that there is nothing for the sixteen- to twenty-year-olds who don’t want to read about high school kids but also would sometimes like a hero younger than thirty.

Which authors have influenced you?

I’ve already listed several.  I read all the classic children’s fantasy books – the Narnia series, Tolkien, Alan Garner, ‘Tom’s Midnight Garden’ by Philippa Pearce, Ursula le Guin’s ‘Earthsea’ trilogy, anything by Nicholas Stuart Gray – all wonderful examples of fantasy integrated with reality.  I read plenty of pony books too, of which my favourites were Ruby Ferguson’s ‘Jill’ books which are full of spot-on conversation, and in my teens hit the novels of Margaret Campbell Barnes and Norah Lofts, where the historical setting is what contributes the magic.

Jane Austen tells such a good story, one thing leading on to the next without any tricks but always keeping you hooked.  Anne Hoffman’s novels, especially her early ones, prove that you can slide a little magic into even a contemporary American setting.  Barbara Vine stretches a secret to last a whole book easily, and her prose is so beautifully balanced and pleasurable to read.  Diana Norman creates marvellous, gutsy heroines.  Helen de Whitt’s wonderful contemporary book, ‘The Last Samurai’, had me spluttering with laughter even in public – most embarrassing.  And there are many others… Too many.

What made you decide to write a novel?

For years I thought a full length novel beyond me, but two things happening at around the same time as I turned fifty made me think again.  First, my father became ill with mild dementia, and it suddenly seemed important to prepare for my own old age.  I knew I wouldn’t be able to work with horses into my eighties, and the kind of art I create will become difficult when my hands begin to stiffen.  But you can write by proxy if necessary, dictating into a recorder, and I decided I ought to concentrate on writing for public consumption.

The other factor was the daybreak moment when I realised that writing a novel is more like painting a picture than I had realised.  An artist doesn’t start at the top left corner and paint her way in detail down to the bottom right.  She works in layers, instead, with underpainting first followed by blocking in the major shapes, and detail is added incrementally, always with an eye for the overall balance and direction.  With a novel the general ideas come first, followed by the characters, and the scenes, dialogue, descriptions can be layered on top.  If you realise something needed to happen earlier for this current development to work, you can go back and put it in.  You balance the story in the way the artist balances the painting – a touch of blue top right to echo the expanse of blue bottom left.  All of a sudden a novel seemed possible after all.

Do you have a regular routine for writing?

I write every day.  The time of day changes depending on what I have planned.  Writing can take place after dark, but horses need to be fixed in daylight.