What makes a good story? What do you think is an essential ingredient in your writing?
I think all good stories have a truth to them, even if they’re fiction. For me, writing The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot started with my own fear of dying. There were two things that really got me thinking about death. (I’m so fun!) The first was at a routine medical appointment when a doctor found (to her alarm) that my resting heart rate was around two hundred beats per minute. I had scans and tests (including one where I had to run on a treadmill stripped down to my bra while connected to an ECG machine – not my finest hour), and while I was at the hospital for these appointments, I found myself thinking about how scared I am of dying. Around the same time, a fellow student passed away. I didn’t know her well, but she had spent years living in the face of death and her courage was another thing that led me to think about what it might be like to know you were going to die.
In my own writing, I’m drawn to characters who are missing something, and I’m especially drawn to loneliness. When we meet Lenni, she’s very lonely – she’s not only without her parents, but she’s without any true friends. And it’s not necessarily a reflection of her, it’s just the way things worked out. I think Lenni’s journey out of loneliness shows who she is as a person – she assembles a ‘found family’ in Margot, Arthur and New Nurse. When she dies, she’s surrounded by love, and it’s love she’s found for herself.
Lenni and Margot resist convention in every way. Where did the inspiration for these wonderful personalities come from?
I love unconventional people. A lot of the books, films and TV programmes I love feature unusual, quirky characters, and in real life I definitely gravitate towards people who are eccentric in some way or other. It was only when I started talking about Lenni and Margot during the editing process that I realized how many of my characters have little quirks or personality traits that I’ve seen in other people or myself.
When I started writing, it really felt as if Lenni had come to visit me in my head. I feel like I should be wrapped in scarves and holding a crystal skull to say that. But honestly, her voice was so clear in my mind. I knew how she’d react to things, how she’d push people’s buttons, how she would respond to kindness and to indifference. I mentioned earlier that the first words I wrote are more or less intact in Lenni’s opening chapter. Throughout the editing process, so much of the book has changed, but that first scene with Lenni has stayed the same. It makes me happy that the reader’s first meeting with Lenni was also my first meeting with Lenni.
Meena is a fascinating character. Where did she come from? Do you know anyone like her in real life?
In the early stages of writing, Meena was inspired by a person I knew briefly in real life. What was magical about this person was that she just didn’t care what people thought about her. She was very free. I’m the opposite. I’m very self-conscious and I want everyone to like me. If a stranger is rude to me, I’ll think about it for days. From that starting point, Meena evolved into her own person, but that unselfconscious spirit and energy is where I began. I also didn’t want Meena to be too idealized – she can be selfish and undependable, but Margot sees those things in her and loves her anyway. One of my favourite parts of the book is when Meena is finally able to tell Margot how she feels (in Vietnamese, of course, because Meena has never done things in conventional ways). If Lenni had been able to grow up, I think she would have been a bit like Meena as an adult – very free, unapologetic.
You are a very visual writer, there are so many colours and images scattered through your book. Do you have a background or any special interest in visual arts?
Whoever marked my GCSE art ‘portfolio’ would tell you I have no business being an artist, but I love colour and art. There are a lot of people in my life, past and present, who I associate with certain colours or items or images. When I had the idea of Lenni and Margot’s friendship growing from an art-therapy class, I went to some painting-while-drinking-wine classes and they gave me a sense of how it might feel to be in an art class. (Lenni’s frustration at not being able to paint what she can see in her head came from my own feelings!) I also collected online pictures of amateur art, to get a feel for the kind of things Lenni and Margot might have made.
You get into the heads of two characters who are at opposite ends of the age spectrum. Are you interested in cross-generational friendships? What appeals to you about the potential of such a relationship?
I love the idea of two people becoming friends despite being at completely different points in their lives. I think inter-generational friendships offer so much opportunity for sharing. It’s not just the case that Lenni is learning from Margot, but Margot is learning from Lenni. I remember years ago someone telling me that they felt the same inside at forty as they had at eighteen – their body was ageing, but who they were essentially as a
