Growing up, I never thought writing books could be a job. I loved reading though and my dad would take me and my sister to the library every weekend where we’d seek out the latest Sweet Valley High books, or whichever of the R. L. Stine Goosebumps series they had in that week (usually something to do with ‘killer gunge’ or haunted ventriloquist dummies). It never crossed my mind that I might see my own book in a library one day.
Lizzie Pook by Magdalena Smolarska
I was a journalist before I became an author and made a living writing weird and wonderful stories. I travelled to Goa to ride motorbikes with India’s first feminist motorcycle gang, stayed at a squat in north Paris with a group of women who staged topless anti-Putin protests and reported from the world’s largest twins festival in the town of Twinsburg, Ohio. Louis Theroux and Jon Ronson were my idols. I loved their style of ‘gonzo’ journalism and was always inspired to seek out interesting and unusual stories.
I’m obsessed with wildlife and plan all my travels around what I might see. I’ve been lucky enough to encounter some of the rarest animals in the world, from snow leopards in the trans-Himalayas, to Ethiopian wolves in the remote Bale Mountains. You’ll find plenty of nature in my books, too: sharks, whales, crocodiles, birds and all sorts of creepy crawlies.
I’m an identical twin and my sister Rose is always my first reader. The question we get asked the most is ‘Do you feel one another’s pain?’ The answer is: not quite. But I knew exactly when she was going into labour. I sat bolt upright in my bed at about 2am - three minutes later I got a text to say that her waters had broken.
I spent a lot of time out in Australia researching Moonlight and the Pearler’s Daughter. I became fascinated by the dangerous pearl diving industry and tales of men being stalked on the seabed by sharks as they searched for glimmering pearl shell among the weeds. I travelled all around Western Australia, visiting remote pearl farms and camping on clifftops. I interviewed everyone from bus drivers to crocodile hunters. It was a years-long research process and a total labour of love.
I can’t write in coffee shops. I wish I could as it looks so nice - tapping away at your laptop and drinking a chai latte - but I’m one of those boring writers that needs silence. If I’m struggling to concentrate, I’ll sometimes stick on a ‘green noise’ soundtrack on Spotify; the sound of crickets, cicadas and frogs helps focus my brain.
I’m interested in the dark parts of history - the plagues, the crimes, the seedy underbelly of things. My next novel covers the advent of ‘dark tourism’. I’m always much more interested in the bad guys than the good guys.
Moonlight and the Pearler’s Daughter is out 3 March, £14.99, Mantle