White Lies (32 page)

I think having kids makes you realise the challenges your parents faced and helps you to understand the choices they’ve made - whether you agree with them or not. We all have good relationships and bad family relationships, but most of them are anchored in childhood - those little flashes of memory are what your siblings and your parents are formed of. And then you’re all adults together and sometimes you need to completely rewrite your relationships to accommodate the fact that those familial connections aren’t quite so simple any more.

White Lies
explores the milestones of life - from childhood and parenthood to old age. How did you go about researching the novel and creating your characters?

I actually found Peter easier to write than Matthew, despite him being so far away in age from me. Perhaps deep down I’m just an angry old man. With both characters, I started with a premise and they grew from there. For Matthew it was the difficulty of dealing with the death of someone he hated. How do you deal with that situation? Especially when everyone’s looking to you for help? For Peter it was a case of fear and denial: he sees ageing as a sort of disgrace and he doesn’t want to face up to what he’s leaving behind. Neither of them knows what they want, but they’re determined to blame someone else for their situation.

The novel had its own milestones, too. I started writing it soon after my first son was born, and finished the first draft just before my second son was born. When you become a parent, there’s suddenly this new awareness of the million little things that contribute to your child’s personality - how you affect your child’s view of the world, how they are shaped by their experiences and their relationships, how easy it is to get it wrong. It’s an overwhelming responsibility at times. And you start to see the trace of family in everyone – what made them that way, what they’re going to pass onto their own kids, what’s nature and what’s nurture. And in case you’re asking what I think you’re asking: no, neither my parents nor my children are depicted in any way in
White Lies
.

Who are your favourite writers?

I have an enormous space in my heart for Kurt Vonnegut. He has a way of finding humanity and humour in the deepest darkness. Then there’s Joseph Heller, Amy Hempel, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Shakespeare, Cormac McCarthy, Margaret Atwood, Ali Smith… Too many to mention. I read a lot of short fiction and non-fiction, too.

What did it mean to you to win the Luke Bitmead Bursary?

Winning the bursary felt like being very, very drunk without actually having had anything to drink. It was a big, lucky leapfrog into the publishing world and I am so grateful to Legend Press and Luke Bitmead’s family for making it happen. It’s inspiring to work with a group of people who are so generous in their support of new writers, and who have such an admirable goal of raising awareness of the truths of mental illness. And I feel proud for
White Lies
to be a part of that.

White Lies
was the Winner of the
2013 Luke Bitmead Bursary

The award was set up shortly after Luke’s death in 2006 by his family to support and encourage the work of fledgling novel writers. The top prize is a publishing contract with Legend Press, as well as a cash bursary.

We are delighted to be working with Luke’s family to ensure that Luke’s name and memory lives on – not only through his work, but through this wonderful memorial bursary too. For those of you lucky enough to have met Luke you will know that he was hugely compassionate and would love the idea of another struggling talented writer being supported on the arduous road to securing their first publishing deal.

We will ensure that, as with all our authors, we give the winner of the bursary as much support as we can, and offer them the most effective creative platform from which to showcase their talent. We can’t wait to start reading and judging the submissions.

We are pleased to be continuing this brilliant bursary for a seventh year, and hope to follow in the success of our previous winners Andrew Blackman (
On the Holloway Road
, February 2009), Ruth Dugdall (
The Woman Before Me
, August 2010), Sophie Duffy (
The Generation Game
, August 2011), J.R. Crook (
Sleeping Patterns
, July 2012), Joanne Graham (
Lacey’s House
, May 2013), and Jo Gatford (
White Lies,
July 2014).

For more information on the bursary and all
Legend Press titles visit:
www.legendpress.co.uk
Follow us @legend_press