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The Last Hope of Girls
Two thirds of the way through The Last Hope of Girls the heroine,
Martha Brazil is shown as a child asking her father a complicated
question about human development. 'If you take an unhappy person
and take away all the circumstances and facts of their unhappy
life and transport them to a happy person's life with all the...the
trimmings that a happy person's life would have, do you think
they could just settle down and be...be happy, or not? Would that
sad person's insides remain with them, d'you think? Could they
go through with it?'
This is a theme that lies at the heart of the novel. If you have
had difficult beginnings that have caused you to be extremely
cautious and wary of the world, as Martha has, is it possible
through self discipline and will power go on to enjoy life fully?
I wanted to explore a character who had trained herself not to
have too many feelings as a response to severe disappointments
in the past. We meet Martha at the point when she begins to realise
that refusing to have feelings is no real protection against life,
and may be the most dangerous course of action that there is.
I admire Martha very much. Her ability to be cheered by the tiniest
physical detail of her life, although a bit heart breaking in
its modesty, seems to me a very saving characteristic to possess.
Nothing that cant hurt her escapes her notice. One reviewer quotes
Martha gazing at the hairs on a boyfriend's chest, 'She peered
across at them, tried to read them like tea leaves. All she could
make out was a few giddy villagers processing towards a small
thatched hut.' The reviewer then commented, 'Yes, there has never
been such a heroine for making her own entertainment.'
Because of Martha's obsession with her physical world I allowed
myself, through her eyes, to use a huge amount of description
in this book, something I had always shied away from before. I
always like writing that says a lot using the fewest possible
words but in this book, because of Martha's character, it seemed
essential to invest fully in everything Martha sees. I wanted
the minutiae of her surroundings to be as fully realised as she
herself is. I enjoyed writing in this way; it felt luxurious and
playful to be dwelling on the emotional facets of physical things
all the time, from bales of towels in a department store to the
abandoned children's swimming certificates in the family appartment
next door to Martha's.
This book was a huge pig to write. It took everything out of
me and I experienced violent highs and lows as I wrote it over
four or five years. It went through four quite different versions
and for a while the central character was a man! Earlier on the
book was called THE LATE DEVELOPERS a title I rather wish I had
kept. To read more about the different stages the book went through
please go to the
interview with Lisa Gee where it is examined in more detail.
A Note on the father character in the book
and attendant publicity nightmare
When THE The Last Hope of Girls came out there was a lot of press
interest in the central relationship between Martha and her father
because it was assumed to be a mirror of my own relationship with
mine. One interviewer turned up with a list of (so called) similarities
between the father character in my book and my own father and
proceeded to go through them with me. 'Writing novels,' (which
Anthony Brazil in the novel does), 'is a bit of a flimsy disguise
for painting pictures,' she said. I thought this was very lazy
and I told her the many differences between my father and the
father in the book which are largely of temperament, behaviour
and personality.
Another interviewer was so incensed that I was unwilling to spill
all the beans about family secrets she'd heard of and rumours
that were doing the rounds that after the (4 hour) interview she
telephoned and said 'Unless you tell me more about your father
we wont run the piece.' I didn't and they didn't. I accept people
are interested in my family and am prepared to speak about it
to a certain extent, but like everyone else, I have my limits.
I can only do what I can do. I would rather be eaten by a shark
than give away another's confidence and consequently, once or
twice I have been.
The most ridiculous incident of all occurred when a journalist
started asking me a lot of details about the background of my
father's then girlfriend and apologised for not having had a chance
to read any of my books yet. When I said, gently, that I thought
that this was rather unprofessional and a bit cheap and asked
what she a seemingly nice, intelligent girl thought she was doing,
she then burst into tears and poured out a lot of misgivings she
had about the direction her career was going and I had to talk
her round, I even said I'd keep my ears open for a better job
for her and then I found her tissues and a drink and mopped her
up into a taxi.
A note on my father and me
My father and I have a fine relationship. I didn't see a huge
amount of him when I was growing up but I did see him regularly
and he started painting me when I was seventeen. A lot of my best
ideas I have had when in his company. Although we are very different
in character we have a lot of things in common, similar literary
tastes, a love of jokes and songs and food, herringbone coats
and gossip. He's not the easiest of fathers to have but I am not
the easiest daughter either and can come over a bit Cordelia-ish
at times, but we have a good understanding.
I have always felt very protective towards him and also wanted
nothing but the best for him. He has always encouraged my career
sending me enormous bouquets when I had a book out with cards
saying things like 'You are of the highest calibre.'
His being in the public eye can make me feel a little vulnerable
at times. If I hear he has been to Kate Moss's birthday party
I think what if he doesn't come to mine (our birthdays are near
eachother), but he always does so that's OK.
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