Gail Aldwin is a novelist, poet, and scriptwriter living in Dorset, England. We had a great time talking to her about the challenges in writing her latest novel, the joys of rediscovering her inner child as part of her research, her collaborative script and sketch writing, her volunteer work with resettlement communities in Uganda, and so much more.
Welcome to Occhi, Gail. Please tell us what your new novel This Much Huxley Knows is about.
The novel is contemporary fiction and uses a young narrator to shine a light on community tensions following the Brexit referendum. Huxley is seven years old and knows a lot about life but is particularly concerned with friendships. Ben is only his friend outside school because he likes football and Huxley doesn’t. Samira is friendly, but she’s a girl. When Leonard, an elderly newcomer chats with Huxley at the barber’s shop, his parents are suspicious. This Much Huxley Knows is an exploration of intergenerational friendship.
How difficult was it to get into the head of a seven-year-old narrator?
Huxley is at the other end of the scale from me, young and of the opposite sex, so it was a huge leap to enter his mind. That said, it was easier to develop a consistent voice as I wasn’t tempted to use my own at any point. To get into Huxley’s head, I drew upon memories from childhood, such as playing in the park with my siblings. Experiences from my children’s lives also went into the mix (although outcomes were different as Huxley is an imagined character). By connecting with my inner child, I began to experience again the joys, worries, interests, and curiosity of a child. I remembered how I used to spend time sitting in the airing cupboard at my parent’s home. Alone in the warmth and the darkness, all sorts of thoughts would drift through my mind. I recreated this experience by clearing out the cupboard under the stairs where I sat and hugged my knees. It was by getting in tune with my inner child that enabled me to find a key to Huxley’s heart and head.
Did you encounter problems regarding word choice, given that Huxley doesn’t share your vocabulary?
Language use was a real challenge. I wanted to develop a voice that was consistent with the age and stage of development of the narrator, but had to keep in mind I was writing for an adult audience. As Huxley is a lonely child, he makes jokes by corrupting words in order to win friends. Not everyone finds his jokes funny and they positively annoy his teacher, but Leonard gets them. Huxley does his coat up in cold weather to avoid catching pneumonia but transcribes it new-moan-ear. He’s taught to read in school by breaking down words into syllables but he calls them silly-balls. These corrupted words are peppered throughout the text to enliven the young narrator’s voice. Many readers have found this to be an appealing quality and have chuckled as they turned the pages. Figurative language is also needed to relate to a child’s experience. When Huxley’s teacher asks the class a question, Huxley observes, ‘loads of other hands wave in the air. My arm is the stem of a daisy with fingers for petals. She chooses a girl at the front to answer and my flower dies.’
What range of issues were you able to examine while working from a child’s point of view?
By writing from a child’s viewpoint, I was able to tackle a number of issues without finger-wagging. Brexit is obviously a contentious issue which unleased xenophobic and racist attitudes which Huxley overhears. He understands that picking on in any form is wrong and seeks to address issues. To increase the jeopardy in the novel, youth crime and child endangerment also form part of the plot. By exploring these subjects in a sensitive way, readers are able to see things anew from a child’s perspective.
How important is “place” in this book?
The novel is set in a south London suburb which has the usual community facilities such as a park, a leisure center, some shops and a station for getting into the city. Nevern is based upon the community where my children grew up. Although the story could have been set in almost any town around the UK, it was an absolute delight to dip into memories of places that were important to my family during that phase of our lives. Although it is a British novel, readers in the US are still enchanted by Huxley because themes such as belonging are universal.
Your first novel, The String Games (finalist in the People’s Book Prize), is also about children, but the plot is much darker, yes?
My aim with The String Games was to write a novel about fresh starts and new beginnings but to do this, I had to visit some dark places. The novel captures the protagonist at three stages in her life. In the beginning, Nim is ten years old when her younger brother disappears during a family holiday in France. We meet her later at fifteen as a vulnerable young person due to this loss and again at twenty-three when she’s able to address issues of unresolved grief. It was a tough novel to write even though it has a positive ending. I so enjoyed writing the cameo role for the young boy who goes missing in The String Games that I decided to write entirely from a young child’s perspective for my second novel. I still wanted to address some big issues, but it was possible to do this with a light touch from the viewpoint of Huxley.
Which of your novels would make a better film and why?
Moonlight has a completely different premise and context but bears similarities with The String Games in its structure. It’s a three-part film that works like a triptych to show how circumstances impact a young black boy growing up. The String Games, therefore, has a model of how a three-part story can be effectively told through film. Having said that, Room is a film that tells the story of a young boy with a unique take on life, so I think similarly, This Much Huxley Knows could make a good film. Please don’t expect me to choose!
Tell us about your work with 3-She.
With two other women writers based in Dorset, UK, I write collaboratively as part of 3-She. We develop short plays and comedy sketches for shows that are staged in theatres across the county.
My co-writers and I share common experiences. We are mothers, we’ve worked for the same local authority, we moved to Dorset from elsewhere and we’re all ambitious to have our writing reach an audience. It’s great having co-writers to spark ideas and generate new work. Our comedy brand gives voice to the inanimate. For example, the comedy sketch Big Heads considers what the monolithic figures on Easter Island would say if they could talk. I’ve learned so much about developing comedy from my co-writers. I don’t think I would have attempted to include humor in This Much Huxley Knows without that experience.
Please tell readers about your work in Uganda and if/how it has impacted your writing life.
I am proud of my experiences as a VSO volunteer in Uganda during 2020. It was something I had always wanted to do but my husband wasn’t keen on accompanying me. He supported my application for a role working with refugee families fleeing turmoil in South Sudan. It was a wonderful experience to work with people who showed such resilience, but I found the living conditions very tough. I was repatriated early due to Covid-19 and had to leave without saying goodbye to the children and families I had got to know and respect, but I was very pleased to return to my husband and my home. I’m conscious to avoid accusations of cultural appropriation when I write about characters with a different cultural background to my own. I am therefore selective in using overseas experiences in my writing. However, as 2022 is the fiftieth anniversary of the expulsion of Asians from Uganda by Idi Amin, it seemed timely to include a character with Ugandan heritage in my current work in progress.
What can we expect next?
Extra Lessons is a dual timeline novel initially told from the viewpoint of a menopausal, redundant journalist in 2010. Stephanie decides to create a podcast that looks into the disappearance of sixteen-year-old Carolyn in 1978. Through the alternating structure of the two viewpoints, readers engage with Stephanie’s investigation and also connect with Carolyn’s experience of infatuation for a teacher and exploitation. This is a new venture for me, into the realms of crime fiction.
Where can readers learn more about you and your work?
I’m active on social media and love making connections with readers and writers. Please get in touch using the following channels:
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/gailaldwin
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gailfaldwin/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gailaldwinwriter/
- Blog: https://gailaldwin.com
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