Congratulations on winning the Polari Prize for LGBTQ+ literature for the second year running. What does that mean to you?
These things are always unexpected. I feel fortunate to have been recognised two years consecutively by Polari. It remains important to champion underrepresented writers. At the same time, I look forward to a future where all our voices are much more mainstream.
Tell me about your two winning novels. Firstly, The Whale Tattoo, which you have also adapted for the screen
The Whale Tattoo is essentially a tale about how we navigate grief; the bewilderment that remains when someone suddenly ceases to exist in our world. The tidal landscape lends itself perfectly to Joe Gunner’s internal confusion, a young queer man adrift, unwelcome within the local fishing community, populated by hyper-masculine men with rules he doesn’t understand. Unable to unravel his predicament, Joe turns to the water that speaks to him.
And The Gallopers?
Moving away from the river, though with water still saturating the world these characters populate, The Gallopers finds Eli Stone living alongside a cursed field in 1953 after the North Sea flood. Disturbed by his sissy-sounding voice, and his inability to correlate language with emotion, Eli becomes entangled with a mysterious showman who teaches him where words really come from.
Tell me about your prose style, which one reviewer described as ‘fractured and distinctive’
Writing to me seems almost filmic. I find a point of focus and write what I see. As with image, language can be surprising. How a word might sound, taste. There’s a real joy in playing with words without worrying too much about rules.
You included a playscript in the text of The Gallopers. Did that feel like a risk?
Not so much. I didn’t set out with the intention to disrupt what a novel can be. Though I feel taking chances with what’s on the page, whether successful or not, is perhaps one of the greatest joys of writing. I can’t expect to grow as a writer without challenging myself, without taking risks.
You are gay, working-class and from a rural background. How did those various parts of your identity influence your writing and its reception?
Although works of fiction, both novels are illustrative of my own life experience. Without walking a similar path to Joe and Eli, it would be hard to bring them to life or give their stories the authenticity they deserve.
Norfolk and its landscape and history are central to your work. Describe it to me and explain how it has inspired your writing
Landscape is perhaps the central character in each of my novels. Both familiar and at times mysterious, the Norfolk I grew up in, with huge skies that dominate the people who reside beneath, command a sort of restlessness you must endure.
Both novels are set in a hypermasculine world but in different eras, The Gallopers spanning from the 1950s to the 1980s. How have masculinity and homophobia evolved?
I believe this very much depends on where in the world we live, what eyes we’re gazing out of. The privilege I experience in one place doesn’t always extend 50 miles down the road.
Which projects are you working on?
After adapting The Whale Tattoo for screen, I’m keen to submerge myself in a new novel, The Madman and the Lover.
Have you ever made a literary pilgrimage?
No. But I’d love to tread the tarmac of Christopher Street, New York.
What is the best writing advice you have heard?
Focus on what’s on the page. The rest doesn’t matter so much.
Who do you admire the most?
My mother. She was remarkable and gave me a passion to tell stories.
You are supreme ruler for a day. Which law do you pass or abolish?
A law that decrees no society is governed by a single supreme ruler.
Which current book, film and podcast would you recommend?
Ripcord by Nate Lippens. Conclave. Griefcast.
Which public event affected you most?
The repeal of section 28 [which stated that local authorities in England, Scotland and Wales “shall not intentionally promote homosexuality or publish material with the intention of promoting homosexuality”].
Your most treasured possession?
I’m not big on stuff. Though I am fond of my Rollei 35. I love shooting with film.
What is the most beautiful book that you own?
A first edition of Tom Spanbauer’s The Man Who Fell in Love with the Moon.
Which writers, living or dead, would you invite to your dream dinner party?
James Baldwin. Annie Proulx. Tracy Letts. George Whitmore.
The best and worst things about where you live?
Busting out to the fields to figure things out. Waiting for the bus to town.
What is your favourite quotation?
“I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don’t notice it.” The Color Purple, Alice Walker.
Who is your favourite fictional character?
Antoine De Saint-Exupéry’s Little Prince.
A book to make me laugh?
The Boys on the Rock by John Fox.
A book that might move me to tears?
Pedro Lemebel’s My Tender Matador.
The Gallopers is out in paperback form Muswell Press on January 23rd
