Interviewing Ally Wilkes
Hellooo!
Last week I reviewed the great horror tale All The White Spaces by Ally Wilkes a thoughtful yet chilling slice of cosmic horror featuring a doomed Antarctic expedition that also explored masculinity in a very refreshing way. Wanting to know a bit more about the book Ally kindly agreed to answer a few questions and what else we can look forward to in the future.
Hi! Thank you for such a detailed and thoughtful review of ATWS! I thought you were absolutely spot-on with your analysis of it as a post-War coming-of-age for Britain as well as Jonathan – more on that below.
How would you tempt readers to read All The White Spaces?
If you liked The Terror (the TV show, or the book by Dan Simmons) but wish it was set in Antarctica post-WW1 with a trans lead… if you like cold sad men on boats… if you’re a fan of ambiguous ghost stories like The Shining or The Haunting of Hill House… or if for some reason you have an irrational fear of the aurora – then I have the book for you!
What was the attraction of the period and location?
I’ve just always been obsessed with historical Polar exploration – those amazing adventure stories filled with drama, larger-than-life characters, and survival against the odds. ATWS is my love letter to the Heroic Age of exploration, but it’s tempered with – I hope – a realistic modern perspective on the attitude and worldview (and hubris!) that went into these expeditions. I also wanted to look at those Edwardian ideals and certainties through the lens of the horrors experienced in the First World War; you’re utterly right that it’s a post-War coming-of-age for, say, Britain, or the very idea of Antarctic exploration. Plus, Antarctica – brr. It’s a scary place, full of isolation, harsh elements, sudden losses of visibility, with very very little human footprint, or possibility for rescue if something goes wrong. Who hasn’t been intrigued by it?
Masculinity and its toxic side is one of the horrors we experience in this book. What led you to this theme and using Jonathan to explore it?
I think the theme grew from the setting I chose – Antarctic exploration at the time was a very masculine environment, as of course were the trenches of WW1. There was considerable overlap of these two worlds, so I wanted to play around with that and take a look at how masculinity was presenting itself in all these different ways – and changing. I really needed an ‘outsider’ character to do so: someone who felt they’d been denied their birthright in this world of men, and Jonathan came to me naturally as a result. Assigned female at birth, he’s just finding his feet as a man, but the story isn’t so much about him ‘becoming’ a man, as it is about him discovering what kind of man he wants to be.
When plotting how do you approach making us getting scared? What work does it well for you?
Anyone who’s read ATWS will be able to tell that I love a slow burn – with, of course, a few hints of early foreshadowing or red herrings! I prefer not to show the full extent of the supernatural element too soon, and normally think very carefully about the point in the story at which it will reveal itself: an excellent book on structure and plotting, which I think holds as good for novels as it does for films or TV shows, is Into The Woods by John Yorke. Then when I rewrite or edit I like to look intensively at the ‘scare’ aspect of the book separate from everything else, and make sure that I’m happy with the way it’s weighted and distributed throughout, so it doesn’t either peak too soon or fizzle out!
To my mind, Dark Matter by Michelle Paver is one of the hands-down scariest books around. It’s an extremely short book but utterly immersive (the joy of first person narrative!) and she really takes her time in laying out the characters, scene-setting, atmosphere of unease, and so on before we see anything which could be attributed to the supernatural. It pays off, of course, because by then we’re so invested that we just want to know what happens next.
What else can we look forward to from you in the future and where can we find out more?
I’m still obsessed with Polar exploration horror, and I’m busy cramming all the things I couldn’t fit into ATWS into a different novel, haha. Seriously, though, it’s another historical horror set on a doomed expedition to the Arctic in the 1800s, and allows me to indulge my morbid fascinations with both scurvy and survival cannibalism. The best way to keep up to date with me is on Twitter @UnheimlichManvr – I really should update my website (hangs head).
If there was one book, not your own, that you wish you could get everyone to read what would it be and why?
I absolutely love a haunted-house story in whatever form. I’ve already mentioned Dark Matter above (which is a haunted cabin in the Arctic), but one of my favourite books of 2021 took the haunted-house genre to new places altogether: Tell Me I’m Worthless by Alison Rumfitt. This is a debut novel by a trans writer, set in Brighton’s LGBTQ scene, and deals with the horrific and traumatic fall-out experienced by two best friends who go into a house that’s haunted… by misogyny and fascism. It’s a very visceral, gutsy book which really gets its nails into you, and the supernatural bits are bone-chillingly frightening. Plus, it’s from an indie press (Cipher), which is always worth celebrating!
