Rebecca Wait is the author of the new novel Cry Havoc. Her other books include I'm Sorry You Feel That Way. She lives in Buckinghamshire, UK.
Q: What inspired you to write Cry Havoc, and how did you create your characters Ida and Eleanor?
A: I think the first seeds of the book came after I developed an obsession with this insane public information campaign the UK government ran during the late stages of the cold war called “Protect and Survive.”
They issued these leaflets to UK households instructing people what to do if a nuclear bomb was dropped (including handy tips on how to create a fallout shelter out of odds and ends in your own home).
I found copies of these leaflets online, and spent ages reading and re-reading them; they’re hilarious and disturbing in equal measure, and there seemed to me something peculiarly British about the “make do and mend” attitude, the sheer silliness of suggesting people protect themselves from radioactive fallout using old cardboard and stacks of books. I started thinking about how to use this kind of fusion of comedy and fear as the backdrop for a novel.
Then in addition to that, I’d been teaching English in London secondary schools (our high schools) for over a decade by then, and knew I had good material there!
With Ida, I wanted someone whose character would be slowly revealed: someone quite reserved and self-contained, not just where other characters are concerned, but also the reader.
I find it more of a challenge to write a character like that than someone more immediately “open” or accessible, because if you withhold too much from the reader, you risk making the character a blank.
Eleanor was easier to write; she’s reserved in her interactions with other characters, but emotionally honest and self-aware, so more accessible to the reader as a viewpoint character. And I gave her a lot of my own anxieties. The contrast between these two characters kept things interesting for me while I was writing.
Q: The Publishers Weekly review of the novel says, “Wait crafts an intriguing and mordantly funny glimpse of life in closed communities where groupthink and gossip thrive.” What do you think of that description?
A: I quite like it! I’m particularly interested in the impact of closed environments – I set one previous novel on a remote Scottish island, and another in an isolated cult on the Yorkshire moors.
I’m fascinated by the way our behaviour can be altered/ heightened when we find ourselves in particular group settings, especially ones that are to some extent sealed or self-contained. Humans are a social, cooperative species, and we’re vulnerable to social contagion.
It’s best if we recognise this about ourselves, rather than considering ourselves to be independent, rational beings; our brains are very susceptible to peer influence. I was interested in the possibilities a boarding school might offer for exploring these ideas.
Q: How did you research the book, and what did you learn that especially surprised you?
A: I read a lot of books and medical papers on various aspects of neurology, and neurotropic viruses. Fortunately, these are areas I find interesting, so it was a joy rather than a chore.
I also spent a long time reading the minutes of various health authority meetings from the early ‘80s (which was incredibly boring, but weirdly I also quite enjoyed).
And I spoke a lot to my dad, who was working as a hospital doctor in the time period the book is set, and to another consultant neurologist I know. My brother – another doctor, can’t get away from them – was helpful in suggesting a particular virus that ended up being important to the plot.
I also read a lot about psychogenic illness and functional neurological disorder, illnesses that would once have been characterised as “hysteria.”
It was my research here that surprised me the most. It blew my mind that someone can be experiencing really dramatic and debilitating physical symptoms – tics, or seizures, or even paralysis – without there being any underlying organic or structural abnormality in the brain. Amazing the way our brains can betray us.
Q: Did you know how the novel would end before you started writing it, or did you make many changes along the way?
A: No, I never really know at the start. I usually have a clear(ish) premise in my mind when I begin writing, and a couple of vague navigational points in mind that I’m heading towards, but then the plot works itself out properly along the way.
I’ve tried planning in more detail in the past, but it doesn’t work for me – I always go off in an unexpected direction. But that’s half the fun, anyway.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I’m working on a book set in Gloucester, England, in 1994, which was during the investigation into Fred and Rose West (their names might not be as familiar to American readers as they are to English readers, but they’re a touchstone of horror over here). A girl is looking for her mother, who went missing years before.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: There’s a small, low-budget British film called Threads that came out in 1984, the year Cry Havoc is set. It’s a nightmarish vision of the aftermath of a nuclear attack on Britain, and it’s the single most terrifying film I’ve ever seen.
I watched it several times while writing Cry Havoc, whenever I wanted to bring the idea of nuclear attack more vividly to life for myself.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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