Polly Crosby is the author of the new novel The Book of Hidden Wonders. She lives in Norfolk, UK.
Q: How did you come up with the idea for The Book of Hidden
Wonders, and for your character Romilly?
A: There were two distinct things that happened quite close
to one another: I rescued an Oriental cat (which is similar to a Siamese). I’d
never had a pure breed cat before, and I loved how chatty and animated he was.
I wondered if I could write a story about him, but a fictional cat needs a
fictional owner, and it was then that I decided he needed a little girl
playmate with whom to explore the world.
I also listened to a documentary on BBC Radio 4 about a book
called Masquerade which was written in the 1970s. It was an
“armchair treasure hunt” – a picture book that contained clues to an actual prize buried in England. This set my mind whirling, and I decided not to read the book itself until I had written my novel, so that I wasn’t too influenced!
“armchair treasure hunt” – a picture book that contained clues to an actual prize buried in England. This set my mind whirling, and I decided not to read the book itself until I had written my novel, so that I wasn’t too influenced!
Q: How would you describe the relationship between Romilly
and her father?
A: Romilly and her father are very close, and in many ways
he is able to give her the perfect free-range childhood. But there is a fine
line between letting your child run free, and putting her at risk…
Q: Did you know how the book would end before you started
writing it, or did you make many changes along the way?
A: Ooo, good question! I knew the sort of feeling I wanted
for the ending, but it wasn’t until I had been on the journey through the story
with Romilly that I knew exactly what would happen.
I don’t know about other writers, but once I start writing,
characters sometimes do things that you don’t quite expect, and if I’d known
exactly what the ending would be, I would have had to manipulate Romilly in
ways that wouldn’t have felt authentic.
Q: What do you hope readers take away from the story?
A: I think the key message in the book is one of hope. I
think it’s also quite a visual novel: I love drawing and painting, and the
story is about a set of picture books. I hope that I’ve painted the pictures
with words so that they are easy to visualise for the reader.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I’m currently editing my second novel. It’s about a young
woman who is trying to escape her life, and takes a job on a tiny island in the
North Sea. What she discovers there – from the stories told to her by the
troubled lepidopterist she works for, and in the wildness of the island itself
– is a mystery more compelling than she could have imagined.
With a backdrop of opulent silk and pearl cultivation, and a
story spanning nearly 100 years, it is, I hope, a haunting, magical story full
of intrigue.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: When my brain is too frazzled to write, I like to paint
and sketch the characters and themes from my stories. It gives me a different
insight into them, and lets my mind relax for a bit!
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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