WebMarApr2020

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for a long time. How did it all come about?
What made you decide to write a book for
children?
I think it’s really nice you felt like it was
gathering pace in my imagination, it definitely
has been for quite a while. I started writing for
children about six years ago now. Before then
I’d been writing short, slightly strange and
very playful fiction with young people as the
main characters but I’d never really written for
children.
I took a creative writing masters at the
University of Glasgow and that was when I
started writing specifically for this age group.
I came out of that course with a series of
interconnected short stories which were all
set on a Scottish island and one of the stories
was about a girl who lost her shadow and
that was the one that came playing around
my head and I felt like there was lots of
questions tied up with that character that I
hadn’t figured out yet. I was intrigued by why
she’d lost her shadow, where it had gone
and it kept buzzing around until I decided I
was going to try and write something much
longer. Partly for the experiment to see if
I could do it. It was quite nice to have no
expectation and just try and get to the end.
The protagonist, Gail, is worried about
her older sister Kay’s forlorn, withdrawn
state. Gail also seems very hard on herself
throughout her journey, questioning her
own abilities and strength of character.
Do you feel depression amongst young
adults is something we need to be talking
about more as well as how we support it?
Yes, I do. I think it’s really awful but it’s a
reality that a number of children struggling
with depression and anxiety and mental
health issues is increasing dramatically while
support services are being cut dramatically.
For me, it was really important to write a
story about depression. Kay (the sister of the
protagonist, Gail) has depression and the
story is also about the impact that this has
on her family. Gail is trying to come to terms
with the fact that she was really close to her
sister – they’ve done everything together;
they have the same dreams of becoming
marine biologists – and suddenly Kay is
just so withdrawn. She is irritable, snappy,
not swimming – which she loved to do –
and I was interested in exploring the idea of
a young person supporting another young
person with depression, because it’s not
necessarily the most instinctive thing to reach
out and be there for someone who seems,
from their perspective, to be purposefully
distancing themselves. The story is about
Gail learning what it means to reach out and
the courage that it takes to do that.
There’s a sense of magical realism to the
setting for the story: the fictional setting
of wild Ben Fiadhaich, surrounded by the
deep and mysterious oceans, hosts to
imposing, chaotic storms. Do you think we
can all take lessons from nature? And did
you grow up by the sea?
I didn’t grow up by the sea! I would have
loved it! It’s funny, actually; my editors asked
me if I was a swimmer and if I grew up by
the sea too. When I was younger we used
to go to Cornwall and I think spending time
by that rolling grey ocean really got inside
my subconscious and so it was really lovely
to step inside that world. The island itself is
fictional and based on elements of both Mull
and Skye. A lot of Gail’s learning comes from
the natural world and, in particular, her friend
Mhirran, who talks about the way different
creatures communicate with each other
and that helps her think about connection.
There’s a lot we can learn about the natural
world, especially in terms of perspective and
if we can take ourselves out of our own world
that we have created.
First impressions are not always
maintained; there’s lessons around
kindness, patience and compassion. In a
current climate of casual name calling in
politics and the media, how important do
you think it is for us to be more considered
with how we treat each other?
Children and young people are growing
up in a world where there are anti-bullying
campaigns and they are taught that bullying
is wrong and yet they see bullying all over
the newspapers and in the media and
proliferated by people in power, so I think it’s
really important we hold up and celebrate
compassion and kindness. Especially in
relation to climate change. We are in a
climate crisis and it’s such a divisive time of