Orange Futures

Interview with Susy Boyt by Lisa Gee

What sparked The Last Hope of Girls?

The Last Hope of Girls has existed in three quite different versions. It started off as a novel about a princely young man, a playboy, conceptual artist who was the heir to a huge chocolate fortune, and his complicated, hopeless love affairs. Through some bizarre process, a character from this book - one of the hero's casual girlfriends - became a stronger and stronger character until it emerged that the novel was actually her story. She took over.

How does this compare with how your other work has started?

My other books were ten times easier to write. My first book, The Normal Man - a novel about food and love - grew out of an idea I had for a short story which just seemed to expand into a full length work. With my second book The Characters of Love I made a huge plan on nine pieces of A4 taped together spelling out almost every paragraph for a book about marriage, but I felt so controlled and bossed about by this plan that I wrote something entirely different, a novel about how we sometimes allow the disappointments of childhood to be repeated in our adult choices, although not necessarily in the ways we might imagine.

When did you first realise you wanted to write fiction?

I've always written fiction for work and pleasure ever since I learned to write.

Why did you start writing?

I began my first novel while I was at university and was waiting for a friend to come and visit me, a friend who was always late. At this time I was quite anxious generally, I hated being kept waiting, it used to make me feel sick, and so in order not to notice the time, I started writing a story.

What kinds of work did you do before your first novel was published?

My first novel was published when I was quite young and at that time I was working on Fridays and Saturdays in a book shop, on Tuesday and Thursday mornings I was helping out a literary agent, I did an hour's typing every day for an MP who was trying to coordinate charities working on behalf of parenting issues and I also looked in at the office of a friend's father to see if there was any mail or any messages and there never ever were. I had my weekends on a Friday and the rest of the time I wrote.

Are you now able to write full-time?

Yes.

What helps with your writing?

I find having other kinds of pressure in my life helps me to focus and concentrate. I like doing some kind of academic work or reading while I am in the middle of a book. I find it keeps my brain sharp. I did research into an American poet I particularly admire while I was writing my second novel and got a lot from the experience. I always read a lot of poetry when I am writing. I also like to reread books I think are great - Hangover Square by Patrick Hamilton, Henry James's The Golden Bowl and John Berryman's The Dream Songs.

What hinders it?

Worrying about my friends and family and talking on the telephone. Writing journalism which is very distracting if you do it properly, although quite irresistible at times.

What do you enjoy most about writing?

The privacy and solitude, not having to answer to anyone, being able to explore extreme situations and emotions without actually having to live them. Working in my nightie.

And what do you like least?

It's lonely at times and when I get stuck I feel very depressed.

And what do you feel about the extraneous stuff - readings, signings, interviews like - that's all part of being a writer these days?

I like doing readings and I love talking about my work to genuinely interested parties. I find it stimulating and I enjoy the attention. But I am quite a private person and some of the press interest around this book I found incredibly painful and intrusive. I was quite outraged by things I was asked by journalists when this book came out - things that were insulting, unprofessional, stupid, threatening or actually nasty - it made me resolve to approach things differently next time in order to protect myself a bit better.