1. Did you always
dream of being a writer?
I’d really like to say yes to
this. That I get to write for a living now because I knew exactly what I wanted
for myself and was dedicated and savvy enough to make it happen… but the truth
is, as much as I’ve always loved to write, when it comes to careers I don’t
think I ever even considered it. A bit like rock-stardom I suppose, or
movie-making. I’d have thought of writing professionally as something only the
fortunate few got to do, something most likely out of the average Joe’s reach.
Hooray for getting it wrong! As usual.
2. Your newest novel
is called Letting You Go, what is it
about?
Letting
You Go is about a family’s journey back from the brink of estrangement and the
damage people inadvertently manage to do to one another, particularly loved
ones, by holding onto secrets. Even those secrets that are kept with the best
intentions.
Alex Foster is the central
character in the book and she has a huge mountain to climb when her lovely mum
Blythe falls ill and Alex has to return to the hometown she’s avoided since her
little brother’s death a decade before. Alex hasn’t only been avoiding her
hometown and its memories though, she’s also been keeping her distance from the
man who couldn’t forgive her for not watching Dillon closely enough. Her dad.
Alex’s part in what happened
to Dill is indisputable, but when she does return home Alex is confronted by
more than just the old ghosts she left behind and quickly finds out that she’s
not the only person who’s played a starring role in her family’s
heartache.
3. What was your
inspiration for the book?
I think I tend to write about
issues that strike an uneasy chord with me, either as a mum or sister or friend
etc, so quite often topics that worry me personally ping into my head and thankfully
give me something to write about and make me feel super grateful I’m not in my
characters’ shoes, poor buggers.
The triggering event of Alex’s
journey in this story, Dill’s accident, was an avoidable tragedy in Alex’s eyes
and in the eyes of her fragmented family too, so Alex having to get through
life bearing the weight of her brother’s death seemed such an awful concept to
me it had me hooked fairly early on. Alex’s main issue of guilt, how easy her
initial mistake was for anyone to make and how her family unravelled because of
it made me feel more for Alex than I have done for any of my characters so far.
It’s too easy to think of people in simple terms of being either goodies or baddies but none of us are infallible and good people cock up too
and that was what I wanted Letting You Go
to be about.
4. Can you tell us
more about the main character(s)?
The story mostly follows Alex,
but her younger sister Jem is on a fairly big journey of her own through this
book too. Jem’s quite the contrast to Alex. Unlike her big sister, Jem’s been
afforded the chance to grow up and flourish without the crippling burden of such
a tragic accident on her shoulders so, unlike Alex, Jem still enjoys a close
bond with their dad, Ted, and is a much feistier, self-assured character. That
said, Jem’s still keeping a few things to herself and also has to take a gamble
on difficult truths over easy secrets at the risk of causing further upset
within her already fraught family.
Ted Foster, Alex and Jem’s
dad, is one of my favourite characters. He might be a strong-willed workhorse
of a man but his family is his weakness and Ted has made a few bad calls over
the years as he’s stumbled to protect the women he loves from the unpleasant
realities of small-town scandals.
When Ted originally found out
why Alex was so distracted the day Dillon fell into the river, he couldn’t ever
see a way to accept that Alex’s then boyfriend, Finn, was anything but a
self-serving bad influence on his daughter, so when Alex returns home to
support her ill mother and Alex and Finn’s paths inevitably cross again, Ted’s
dislike for his daughter’s childhood sweetheart is rekindled, adding further
pressure to an already fragile reconciliation with Alex.
5. Where and when do
you write your stories?
Argh, wherever and whenever I
can! I have a one-year-old son, Jesse, who pretty much dictates the parameters
of any productivity around here. I’m writing this now while he briefly snores
on the sofa next to me, but mostly I work late into the night when the rest of
the rabble’s asleep. Letting You Go was
a bit more tense than usual because it was largely written well after normal
people’s bedtimes, sandwiched between Jesse’s four-hourly breast-feeds and the
sleep that had to be factored in somewhere before the other kids were getting
up for school, but we got there in the end…somehow! Newborns or not though, I’ll
always be a night owl I think. Sleep is for wimps! That said, when I think
about super-organised authors tapping away in quiet houses floodlit with
afternoon sun, my lip does curl a bit.
6. What do you do and
enjoy when you’re not writing?
Fresh air. I live right by a
big old area of forestland called Cannock Chase and love to blow the cobwebs
away up there with Knighty and our delightful little hoodlums. Nature’s good
for the soul, I just wish walking around in it didn’t take so much time out of
the day or I’d be a-wandering all over the place.
Any sort of escapism is good
though. After completing a novel I try to cram in as many books, films and
box-sets as poss before I start feeling a bit slobby. Any free time left over
around the family and housework and mundane to-do lists usually goes on food
and cocktails with the girls, who usually haven’t seen me for half a year by
that point.
7. Can you tell us
more about your debut novel Since You’ve
Been Gone?
Ah, Since You’ve Been Gone. My first! I still can’t believe I got to
write that book! Or that it was published by such a fantastic team and was on
the TV and all of that wonderful loveliness. That was such a special time for
us, I’ll love everything about that experience forever.
Sorry, rambling on!
So the story centers on Holly,
owner of a bespoke cake shop, at a time when she’s just about picking herself
up after the sudden death of her husband, Charlie. At least that’s what Holly’s
trying to put over to her friends and family in hopes they’ll just leave her
alone to suffer her devastation privately.
Holly’s going through the motions, getting through her
workload each week, when a spiteful cake-order sets her on a collision course
with the Argyll’s, a father and son pairing whose biggest concerns in life seem
to centre on debauchery and making money.
Ciaran Argyll and his polished upbringing couldn’t be
more removed from Holly’s beloved Charlie and the down-to-earth, simple life
Holly’s heart is still broken without. But Holly isn’t the only one with wounds
to heal and she of all people should know that it’s easier for some people to survive
their lives hidden behind a carefully constructed façade.
Since You’ve Been
Gone is about Holly opening herself up to the unknown and gambling on love
again despite knowing first-hand the costs involved when love is cut short.
8. If you could switch
places with a character from a book, who would it be and why?
I’m sorry, I say this time and
time again, but probably still Anita Blake from Laurell K Hamilton’s Vampire Hunter series. These books are
my absolute fave indulgence, and the pint-sized Ms Blake makes for an
unconventional but utterly kick-ass heroine. She’s gritty, tough and has a
crazy set of equally gritty men in her immediate circle. Oh, and she has
creepy, otherworldly super-powers too. And unmanageable frizzy hair. Like mine.
I bloody love her.
9. What books have most influenced your life?
Lord of The Flies was the first book to give me a nightmare!
And I remember both I Know Why The
Caged Bird Sings and To Kill A
Mockingbird stopping me in my tracks when I first read them in my teens. I
think they were probably the first books to really make me sit back and think
about unfairness and injustice.
Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads
monologues stayed with me too, in particular A Cream Cracker under the Settee. I was reminded of those
monologues when I read The Unlikely
Pilgrimage of Harold Fry recently, which I enjoyed immensely. Stories about
the human heart are regularly set amongst the young and beautiful, these stories
are a real tonic to all of that.
Umm, what else…
The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe was one of the most magical books
I read growing up and even now the thought of discovering a snow-laden Narnia
beyond hanging coats is utterly exciting, because you never know, right? Magic
is so important in life. I don’t understand why we need to know the science
behind everything all the time. I’d much rather keep checking my wardrobe in
hope.
10. What are you
working on at the moment?
I am one whole week into my
fourth - FOURTH! - book for Harlequin/Harper Collins. I’m really excited about
it, which is usually the case at this stage. The tears come later.
It’s a little darker than I’ve
written before so I’m a tad nervous how that’ll go down. Whereas guilt, family
bonds and redemption were some of the drivers for Letting You Go, this next novel is more hung up with the
consequences of our actions and how silly situations can quickly escalate past
the point of no return in the marvellous age of social media.
I still feel like a rookie so
trying out something a bit different with each of the books I write doesn’t
seem like too bad an idea, see what fits me best sort of thing and keep the old
fingers crossed! This will be the first novel I’ve written from three lead
perspectives so I’m hoping there’ll be three times the headaches, heartaches
and dramaramas. With the plot, I mean, not just my deadlines.
11. What do you enjoy most about writing?
Hmm... The freedom, I think.
Writing does for the brain what a good swim does for the body. Leaves you
knackered and gives you chest-pains. Only kidding, that’s just at the deadline
end of things. Writing invigorates you, gets the old endorphins flowing. Plus, you
don’t even have to shave your legs first which is a total bonus.
It’s an oddity though, the
whole writing thing. It’s such an open thing to do – put something you’ve made
yourself after months of hard work, out there for strangers to enjoy or poke at,
depending on their viewpoint.
It’s open, but it’s so
personal too. Regardless of what an author writes about, we’re sharing
something of ourselves with the world, the feelings we’re trying to convey, the
themes we want to share through our books. This is how our fraught little
brains and emotions work, all spilled out onto paper. Or Kindles.
I do wonder how cool it would
be to write under a pseudonym one day. Try something completely different and
let blow. My dad’s come up with a storyline involving cannibal tribes (don’t
ask) and keeps trying to talk me into giving it a go. I think he’s just trying
to steer me away from writing anything steamy though. The thought of his
daughter writing the fruity stuff makes his toes curl.
12. Pick three authors you want to have dinner with and
tell us why.
Liane Moriarty because I
L-O-V-E her. I’m reluctantly growing up a bit now, three kids under my belt,
growing need for Spanx and all that. I see a lot of the people Moriarty writes
about in my own day-to-day, at the school gates and so on, so it relates. I
also really like her balance of serious issues and funny observation. For me,
her stories and characters just click.
JK Rowling, not because I’m a
groupie (have still to read any Harry Potters, sorry) but because I believe her
to be a decent human being, a hard-working mother/writer/humanitarian, plus I
hear she’s an advocate for the magical side of life. So of course I’d like to
see if she’s good company… and how she holds her cutlery.
Laurie Lee. (You never said
they had to be alive!) His words draw a scene so beautifully… I reckon he could
ask me to pass the pepper and I’d fall in love with him.
13. Imagine Letting
You Go would be turned into a movie, who would you cast for the main
characters?
Oh dear. I always imagine this. Maybe it’s an
author thing? Or maybe I day-dream a bit too much. After such a crazy baptism
into authordom though, the strangest most unlikely thing has already happened
so a movie doesn’t seem such a bonkers thought after all that.
I think I see Alex as somebody like Kelly Macdonald,
or maybe Emily Blunt. Emma Stone would make a great Jem and for some reason, I
always thought of Kris Kristofferson when I was writing Ted. I was also perving
on Gabriel Aubry a lot when I was
writing this book, so a roughed up version would make a very agreeable Finn. The
accent might be a bit of a problem, mind. Maybe we should go for Charlie
Hunnam… or Tom Hardy. Scherr-wing.
14. Your second novel A
Part Of Me was published last year, what is it about?
A
Part of Me follows Amy on her journey to becoming a mother despite fate repeatedly
whipping the rug out from beneath her. She’s had an awful time, the
relationship and career she’s invested herself in both seem to be falling apart
just when her arduous path to motherhood finally seems to be getting her somewhere,
so when one-man whirlwind Rohan Bywater blows into her office one day, Amy
finds herself stuck between a rock and a really hard, unfamiliar place. Her
head is telling her to ignore the cracks and stick to the plan for the sake of
her dream, but her heart is telling her to risk everything she’s been working
so hard for on someone new and completely unconventional, an unpredictable
wildcard who is adamant that parenthood is not, and never will be, for him.
15. You have your one blog, what do you post on there?
Umm, a bit of everything, I
suppose. I’m trying to get into the swing of posting more regularly than I do,
but it’s my little spot where I can go to reflect on the things that stick out
in my world for whatever reason. So there’s the odd bit of booky stuff, of
course. Any covert pics I manage to take at posh publisher dos will end up on
there. But I also use that space to share the things that I love, or laugh at
the daft stuff Knighty and I get up to with the kids or just to have a bit of a
rant about how crap it is that my gorgeous sister is so ill. It’s a bit of a
hotchpotch. An unedited hotchpotch.
16. Coffee or tea?
Tea. Strong and
milky with one big fat sugar, thanks.
17. Paperback or e-reader?
Paperback. I like things. I
like to have them in my hands and appreciate them. Like Gollum.
18. Mountains or the sea?
That is a toughie. A forested
mountain over a cold ocean any day. But then lilos are more fun than crampons,
I reckon.
19. Summer or winter?
Winter. Snow rocks my world.
20. Sweet or salty?
Arghhh… this is TOO hard!
Both, Simona, I love both! My popcorn is always BOTH!
About the author
Since securing the top prize in ITV's widely-publicized UK writing contest, Anouska Knight has become an international sensation with her debut novel, Since You've Been Gone, hitting both The Bookseller and Heatseekers bestseller lists and securing praise from the likes of Jackie Collins and Jenny Colgan.
A former bakery owner, she has gone on to wide acclaim in her native England and now writes full-time, currently on her next novel for Harlequin/Harper Collins.
Anouska lives in Staffordshire close to the countryside where she grew up, with husband Jamie, her childhood sweetheart, their two growing boys and new baby son. When not writing or wrestling small children, Anouska can still often be found baking and will whip up a cake at the drop of a hat if asked nicely.
Anouska lives in Staffordshire close to the countryside where she grew up, with husband Jamie, her childhood sweetheart, their two growing boys and new baby son. When not writing or wrestling small children, Anouska can still often be found baking and will whip up a cake at the drop of a hat if asked nicely.
Anouska on Twitter: @AnouskaKnight
Website: https://anouskaknight.wordpress.com
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7177129.Anouska_Knight?from_search=true&search_version=service
