THE BEGINNING OF THE WORLD IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT
Spirits in jam jars, mini-apocalypses, animal hearts and side shows. A girl runs a coffin hotel on a remote island. A boy is worried his sister has two souls. A couple are rewriting the history of the world. And mermaids are on display at the local aquarium.
The Beginning of the World in the Middle of the Night is a collection of twelve haunting stories; modern fairy tales brimming with magic, outsiders and lost souls.
So a couple of weeks ago I asked
the lovely Jen Campbell to sit down and have a slice of pizza and chat with me* about
her short story collection The Beginning of the World in
the Middle of the Night which is published today. This
is how that chat went.
*I say ‘with me’ but actually
real life prevents Jen and I from eating pizza together as often as I’d like so
what I actually mean is she was there and I was here although in my case the
pizza was in no way hypothetical.
Jen! You absolute gem, thank you
so much for taking the time to talk to me about The
Beginning of the World in the Middle of the Night.
Before we get started, let’s
warm up with a quick fire round. I think
you’ve done this before but whatever – I want to see if your answers have
changed.
Ready, steady, GO:
1. Coffee, tea or…? TEA
2.
Favourite
film? Spirited Away
3. Favourite book? His Dark
Materials
4. Summer or winter? Winter
5. Favourite Colour? Green
6. Last thing you ate? Toast
7. Dream holiday destination? Japan
8. If you could jump to any point in history, who would you have
dinner with? Right now, you.
9. What are your pet peeves? People
being inconsiderate.
10. Talk to me about fairytales. 100 words about why you love
them so much. GO. Fairy tales are fascinating
because they belong to all of us. They are living breathing things that have
slithered their way through history, evolving and changing to suit social
climates.
WELL THAT WAS FUN (also some of your answers are the same which is excellent. Also, can we actually have dinner please, sometime relatively soon?).
Anyhow, on to
the proper bookish stuff which is obviously the most important part.
Let’s get started.
Firstly, I’ve read The Beginning of the World in the Middle of the Night (and I loved it, by the way, so much) but for anyone who’s yet to get
acquainted with the book, can you tell us a little bit about it?
It’s a collection of twelve
haunting tales, many of which are inspired by fairy tale. They are not fairy
tale retellings; they are stories about characters who are obsessed with storytelling.
These characters use stories to root themselves, or find themselves, or explain
questionable things they’re doing. That might be purchasing hearts online, or
running a coffin hotel, or working in a night-time aquarium where women dress
up as mermaids.
The book feels like a modern
fairytale collection, full of whimsy and magical realism, sometimes funny,
sometimes heart-breaking and always deliciously strange. Where did the ideas
come from?
All over the place. ‘Margaret
and Mary and the End of the World’ was inspired by a painting at the Tate
Britain. ‘Aunt Libby’s Coffin Hotel’ was inspired by con artists of the 19th
century who pretended to have found the ‘missing link’ in Darwin’s theory of
evolution. Animals was inspired by a fairy tale called ‘The Giant Who Kept His
Heart Outside of His Body.’
Have you or
your friends/family influenced the characters in any of the stories in any way?
Are you in there? If so, is that your favourite character? If not, who is? I
love Jacob from Jacob and also Ankaa
from Aunt Libby’s Coffin Hotel
The title story is definitely
inspired by some middle of the night conversations Mr M and I have had, though
I wouldn’t say the characters are based on us specifically. There are a few
characters I’ve pieced together from real-life encounters. All writers are
magpies like that. I’m not sure if I have a favourite character… it would feel
mean to pick one.
Which of the stories is your
favourite? Do you even have a favourite? Is it mean of me to make you choose one?
CHOOSE ONE.
Again, that is mean ;) I have
been keeping a tally of other people’s favourites, though. Margaret and Mary
and the End of the World seems to be winning right now.
How do you name your characters
because I feel like you don’t just go through one of those baby name lists and
pick at random?
I have a LOT of fun picking
character names. I don’t want to give too much context, because I don’t want to
spoil stories, but this might be interesting for those who have already read
the collection:
Cora (from the first story,
Animals) - is another name for Persephone, who was abducted by Hades and kept
in the underworld.
Libitina (Aunt Libby’s Coffin
Hotel) is the Roman goddess of funerals and burial. Ankaa (from the same story)
is the brightest star in the constellation of Phoenix, a bird who is constantly
reborn.
Margaret, Mary and Gretel are
all forms of the same name (Margaret and Mary and the End of the World).
If The Beginning of the World in the Middle of the Night was a DVD what would the special features be - are there any
scenes that ended up ‘on the cutting room floor’ or story ideas that didn’t
quite make it that you can share?
Oh, there was a final story that
I knew was terrible and I asked for it to be cut before my editor even read it,
ha. That would not be on the special features. Lots of non-fiction research
would probably be on the special features. The fish that live at the very
bottom of the ocean, death rituals from around the world…
From a purely selfish point of
view, because I kind of have attachment issues and struggle to let go, will we
see more from any of the worlds you’ve created here? Follow up stories,
expansions into novel(s) etc? For the love of all that is good give me more of Plum Pie or Aunt Libby’s Coffin Hotel.
I honestly don’t know - ask me
again in a year or so.
The Beginning of the World in
the Middle of the Night is your
second book release since the end of the summer – you don’t make life easy for
yourself do you – how did working on this book, from the initial concept to
publication - differ to Franklin’s Flying Bookshop?
It’s difficult to compare the
two, as they’re very different. I’ve been working on these stories for the best
part of three years. At first I was crafting them while doing other writing
projects (such as Franklin) but after getting a book deal for them in summer
2016, I focused on them for the following seven months. It was a bit of an
intense time.
Do you write every day? What is
your routine? What advice can you offer those of us that would love to write?
I do lots of different things
(running writing workshops, a Youtube channel, judging literary prizes etc) as
well as writing so, no, I don’t write every day. It all depends on my schedule
and what project I’m focusing on/when deadlines are. My advice is to write as
much as you can, whenever you can. Make the time for it, as it’s not going to
happen on its own. Use prompts if that helps. I run writing workshops if that’s
of interest (www.jen-campbell.com/writing-workshops). Edit your work until it’s good. Keep coming back
to it. Read your work out loud to help you notice any flaws. Read other books.
Then read some more.
I feel a little bit like short
story collections don’t always get the love or even the recognition they
deserve and I know you read a lot of them. What are your top three?
Sweet Home by Carys Bray
A Guide to Being Born by Ramona
Ausubel
Other Stories and Other Stories
by Ali Smith
& because I’m always on the
lookout for new book recommendations, what are you reading right now?
Eight Ghosts by Max Porter,
Sarah Perry, Jeanette Winterson etc.
What’s
the best book you’ve read this year, and what should we be keeping our eyes
peeled for?
Mend
the Living by Maylis De Kerangal is the best book I’ve read this year. You
should all keep your eyes peeled for Winter by Ali Smith.
Finally because I feel like I’m
going on a little bit, what’s next for you? Other than a well-deserved rest?
A
novel… probably… but I think I need to have a few more cups of tea, first.
Thanks Jen, and mahoosive congrats on the book. Hurrah.
The first thing I did after this chat was get me a copy of Mend the Living. The first thing you guys should do, assuming you haven't already, is get yourselves a copy of The Beginning of the World in the Middle of the Night. It's out today.
