The Next Big Thing,
for those who don't yet know, is a way to network with fellow writers and to
find out a bit more about what they're working on. The idea is fairly simple.
The writer answers a set of questions on his or her blog one week, and then
invites five other authors to answer the same questions the following week.
They in turn invite five more.
I was invited by Angela Topping
What is the title of
your new book?
SERPENTINE
How did you choose
the title?
It’s rare that a book title comes to me easily, but this one
was inevitable given the content of the novel.
Location: several key scenes take place at the Serpentine, the
lake in Hyde Park, as well as at the Serpentine Gallery.
Furniture: antiques dealer John Stevenson loves the sinuous
shapes of Hepplewhite period serpentine furniture.
Character and theme: the idea of the serpent, the wily snake
that represents temptation.
Where did the idea
for the book come from?
I’m an artist as well as writer, and this book gave me the
chance to explore both my passion for contemporary art practice and my love of
story-telling. I always visit as many galleries as I can when I’m in London,
so had the raw visual material at my disposal. All I had to do was put my
enthusiasm into a fictional character’s voice. In Victoria,
I invented a character who is a far better artist than me, so I could use
artworks I’d already made and let her turn them into masterpieces.
She couldn’t have it all her own way, however. I threw a cartload of
catastrophes in her path, at least partly out of jealousy. How dare she be such
a good artist! Once I’d invented Victoria,
and she started making me angry, the book took off.
What genre does your
book fall under?
I would call it literary fiction, though one reviewer
described it as ‘romance with a brain’.
What actors would you
choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?
I love this sort of question. Unfortunately the perfect
actors for the roles are either too old or dead. However, if I could resurrect
and/or rejuvenate them, my perfect casting for the four central characters
would be Victoria: Helena Bonham
Carter (she needs to be dark and sassy and able to produce flashes of temper);
Emma: Kate Winslett (think Marianne Dashwood in Sense and Sensibility and you
get the idea. Utterly beautiful and prone to falling wildly in love with the
wrong person); John: Ian McKellen (he’s got the right looks, and the role needs
a hint of X-Men’s Magneto); Simon: I considered Rupert Penry Jones as the
obvious choice, but he’s simply not gorgeous enough (sorry Rupert) so in the
end it could only be Leslie Howard (think Ashley Wilkes in Gone With the Wind
with a bit of Percy Blakeney thrown in).
Who has published
your book?
Circaidy Gregory Press,
a small independent publishing house based in Hastings,
England. They also
published my earlier novel Small Poisons
and my poetry collection wormwood, earth
and honey, and will be bringing out the as yet unnamed prequel to Serpentine next year.
What other books
would you compare ‘Serpentine’ to, within the genre?
That’s impossible to answer, as it depends entirely on the
reader’s response. All I can say is the writing has been influenced by
everything from Jane Austen’s Persuasion
to Lawrence Durrell’s Alexandria Quartet;
and from Charlotte Brontë’s Shirley
to Stephen Donaldson’s Gap series –
but it’s unlike any of them.
Who or what inspired
you to write this book?
My first novel (now out of print) included two characters –
Emma and John – who were in the throes of a tempestuous relationship, and I
always wondered how that would work out after the end of the book. The idea
stayed at the back of my mind for a long time, awaiting a catalyst. That
finally arrived with the character of Victoria.
Once I’d invented her, I realised I could make her an old friend of Emma’s from
university days, and would therefore be able to re-introduce Emma and John and at
last find out what became of them.
Having written Serpentine, I looked back at the old novel
and realised the re-invented Emma and John were far more interesting than they’d
been in the original novel, so I’m now engaged in a complete re-write of the
first novel to give it the depth it needs. This will in effect be Serpentine’s
prequel.
What else about the
book might pique a reader’s interest?
The art aspect of the novel has proved fascinating to both art
practitioners and those who go to a contemporary art exhibition and can’t help
thinking ‘my five year old could do that’. What IS contemporary art all about?
This novel aims to show why some people are profoundly moved by the latest
installation at Tate Modern, or the latest exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery
as much as they are by the exquisite paintings by Watteau at the Wallace
Collection (the novel is dedicated to Watteau).
What is the one
sentence synopsis of your book?
I’m going to be lazy here and let Friedrich Nietzsche speak
for me. The quote I use at the start of the book says it all: Art is the proper task of life.
The following writers are continuing the tour. Do visit
their blogs in due course to see their responses to the questions:
