Interviewing Heather Child

I’ve been really lucky to speak to one of the most versatile authors I’ve read in recent years Heather Child is the author of the fantastic thriller Everything About You and the unusual fantasy tale  The Undoing of Arlo Knott while both very different both are great reads.  

Hellooo!!

Thank you for The Undoing of Arlo Knott I loved it!  If you were book tempting the novel how would you describe it?

It's about a man who has an 'undo' button for life, so he can make no mistakes and have no regrets... at least in theory. He impresses friends and charms women and always says the right thing, but it makes life into a game where he can cheat too easily, and his actions have unintended and scary repercussions. 

What attracted you to the tale of someone who could rewind time?

It’s probably because I make a lot of mistakes! It would be pretty good to be able to undo them as easily as you can on a computer. I'm also interested in the power of hindsight and its counter-current: the poignancy of the road not taken. Both have inspired a lot of literature, art and music.

Arlo could often be quite a unsympathetic character but you still made him understandable rather than totally despicable? What is the balancing act in an unsympathetic character?

It’s quite tricky - how flawed can a character be before they become a full-on bad egg? Arlo has to make a lot of mistakes, but any behaviour is understandable if you can identify what triggers it, and his story kicks off with a major childhood trauma. He has to be capable of redemption because the book is asking whether there is any value to messing up: do errors help us grow, help enrich our achievements? I’d like to think that even if you really screw things up there’s still a way forward, even if it’s the way back. 

So after the technology thriller of Everything About You this felt a very different direction.  Do you like moving between setting and styles?

I'm an ideas person, so the setting and style will always suit whatever concept I’m hoping to explore, plus it’s refreshing to be working with new characters and scenery. It’s good to stretch yourself with a bit of experimentation too – I’m interested in mixing in science or philosophy, blending genres, or even messing with the format, though writing something saleable is also a concern!

Do you like to write in silence or is there a soundtrack to suit the story?

I suppose for Arlo it should have been something like ‘Turn back time’ by Cher. But no, I’m happy with just the howl of wolves and roar of the waterfall outside my cave...

Is the Bristol Writing community as much fun and supportive as it looks to be on twitter?

Absolutely - there must be a ley line or something that magnetises this area for lovely, imaginative people. The Westcountry is teeming with sci-fi and fantasy writers - Peter Hamilton, Stark Holborn and Gareth Powell, to name just a few – and everyone I've met so far has been a lot of fun and very supportive of fellow writers.

If there was one book you wish you could throw into someone’s hands and say read it – not your own – what would it be?

What a Carve Up! By Jonathan Coe is just the thing following this dire election result - it rounds up all the worst bogeymen (and women) of the Thatcher era, locks them in a country house and dispatches them in colourful and pertinent ways. What makes it particularly impressive as a novel is that it’s both comic and literary, and superbly constructed. Go pick it up if you need a little pick-me-up!