Wonder Women
What can you tell us about your new book Wonder Women?
The story is based around a North London children’s clothing shop with a unique concept, started by a woman called Jo. She employs two women, Holly, a young designer, and Mel, who has a lot of retail experience. Each of the three women, and Lee, Jo’s husband, is trying to balance their commitment to the shop as it gets more successful, with heavy responsibilities to their own families in different forms. It covers a number of quite serious issues: caring for an ill relative, teenage kids going off the rails, and the challenges faced by working mums and stay-at-home dads.
The book is about motherhood, so how can readers who are not mothers enjoy your book?
It’s less about motherhood and more about juggling – about balancing work, family (be it kids, parents, siblings whatever), and other obligations, along with your own dreams and aspirations. I think we all know the feeling about being pulled in loads of directions and feeling that we’re not doing anything well.
Where did you inspiration for the clothes shop story line come from?
You’ll think I’m making this up, but I dreamed it… just like Jo does in the book. Only instead of going look for premises, I opened a Word file and typed “Chapter One…”
The book touches upon the subject of role reversal of the bread earner, so do you think this can ever work in a relationship?
This is based on my own experience: when our little one was seven months old, I went back to work full-time and my husband became a stay-at-home dad for seven months. He still classes it as one of the most valuable experiences in his life. I wish all dads could do it.
Jo recruits Holly and Mel in the shop, so how important is friendship within a work setting do you think?
They’re not friends before they start to work, but they immediately recognise a kinship… a sense that they have the same priorities and values, and I think that’s essential for good, close working relationships. A friend of mine has a great expression. If she meets someone she connects with, she says to me, “She’s our tribe.”
Your first novel This Year’s Black was longlisted for the South African Sunday Times Literary Award, so what can you tell us about this book and how did it make you feel?
This Year’s Black was my first book – the one where I launched in and just wrote, because I had no idea what I was doing. It has a lot of autobiographical stuff in it… it’s about a South African who comes to live and struggle in London. I love it, but it has all the hallmarks of a first book. It’s over written and a bit uneven, although I think it’s a good story. When I have time, I hope to re-edit it so it can be re-released. It’s currently out of print. The longlist was a fabulous accolade.
You also have two children, as does Jo in the book, so is it at all autobiographical?
Not really, as mine are very far apart in age: Matt is 20 and at university, and Ted is three. There are elements of their stories and the stories of friends and their children scattered throughout the book, though.
You were a writer of comedy, so how much has this helped you to capture the funny elements to your novels?
I love writing dialogue: I think what makes a book fun to read is crackling, witty and insightful conversation between the characters. I think decades of writing for performance has helped me with this. I used to do observational stand-up comedy, and I like wit that is based in humanity and real experience, not in unbelievable situations, so I hope that comes through too. Oh, and I also wrote on Sesame Street, and there I learned to keep it simple!
What is your personal writing process?
When I begin a first draft, I write very strictly, every day, completing a set word count. I find that keeps me focused and stops me getting stuck. Second and third drafts are much more fluid, and I usually need more coffee and cake to keep me focused and stop me procrastinating…
What is your favourite novel?
That’s like asking which my favourite child is! I love so many. Catcher in the Rye won my heart at 16 and I still love it, and I love Dickens and all of Sarah Waters’ novels. I’m also partial to a good detective yarn or a mystery (Ruth Rendell is a big favourite). In my own genre, I cannot stress how deeply I admire the delicate balance Marian Keyes achieves between humour and seriousness. She’s a genius.
What is next for you?
I’m working on a new novel, provisionally called Were those the Days? It’s about a woman called Beatrice, whose old university love comes back into her life. Suddenly, she’s forced to examine the memories and the nostalgia upon which she has built her whole life. It’s about the subjective and wobbly nature of remembering. I’m enjoying writing it very much indeed.