Maggie Brookes
Author Interview - Maggie Brookes
Author I draw inspiration from: I was a huge admirer of the novelist and poet Helen Dunmore who died much too young in 2017. She had a poet’s eye and a deep understanding of the way a huge historical event can be brought alive through one character’s story, for example in her masterpiece (mistress-piece?) The Seige. I’d also cite Thomas Hardy and Boris Pasternak as writers who produced expansive, epic novels about love and death and time, and were also wonderful poets. I think it’s about being able to encompass the big picture but also pay attention to a grain of sand.
Author Interview - Maggie Brookes
Favorite place to read a book: On the beach in Whitstable in Kent, England, with the sea dragging the pebbles in and out.
Book character I’d like to be stuck in an elevator with: I thought about funny characters, then realised that we are laughing at most funny characters, and they’d probably get really annoying if we were stuck for any length of time. Then I thought of Scheherazade from The Arabian Nights because she could keep me entertained with stories for as long as it took to get rescued. And she’d probably be understanding if we both had to pee in a corner.
Author Interview - Maggie Brookes
The moment I knew I wanted to become an author: I’ve been writing poems and stories since I learned to read and write, so it’s too far back to remember. I think it’s woven into my DNA.
Hardback, paperback, ebook or audiobook: Hardbacks look good on the shelf, but are far too heavy to read in bed, so it has to be paperbacks for me, unless I’m travelling when I’ll read on my Kindle. But I find I don’t remember books so well that I’ve read on Kindle, and never remember who they are by, which makes me sad.
The last book I read: All Among the Barley by Melissa Harrison – and I have serious author envy. I wish I’d written it.
Author Interview - Maggie Brookes
Pen & paper or computer: It depends what I’m writing. Little snippety ideas can come anywhere, so get scribbled down on any handy scrap of paper, or in Notes in my phone. But for the real writing: for fiction, always the computer; for poetry, the notebook I keep by my bed. Incidentally, I’m really fussy about my notebooks – my poetry notebooks have to be A5 blank paper (good thick paper) , my fiction research notebooks have to be B5 size with 8mm wide ruled lines, and they are hard to find. I haven’t yet found one with a Moleskine type cover. Thank goodness I’m not fussy about pens and pencils.
Book character I think I’d be best friends with: It definitely has to be Dorothea from Middlemarch – she would be so loyal and true, though I would have to criticise her taste in men. Other strong contenders: Jo March from Little Women and Anne Shirley from Anne of Green Gables. And wouldn’t we make a great team? We’d be unstoppable.
Author Interview - Maggie Brookes
Favorite decade in fashion history: I think I’d have to say now, because if I want to wear jeans I can, if I want to wear a floaty skirt I can, if I want to power-dress I can, if I wanted to go out in wellington boots, a tu-tu and a straw hat, everyone would politely ignore me.
Place I’d most like to travel: It’s a toss-up between Petra in Jordan (which I wanted to visit long before Raiders of the Lost Ark), and the Aurora Sky Station in Abisko National Park in Sweden – the place in Europe where you are most likely to see the Northern Lights.
My signature drink: A cup of decaff tea during the day (with milk.) In a pub: Hendricks gin with Fevertree light tonic and cucumber slices. When you reach a certain age, you know what you like!
Favorite artist: This is so difficult. Living in London I am spoiled to see so much wonderful art. Ravillious, maybe? Anthony Gormley? Hockney’s video art? I like land art. I like to buy wood engravings. And I have a poster of Raymond Wintz’s The Blue Door at the end of my bed. My parents had a print of this when I was growing up, and I love the fact that it has a writer’s table, but she has got up and gone out of the blue door to look at the sea.
Number one on my bucket list: Before I pop my clogs I’d like to know I’ve done what ever little I can to raise awareness of the climate crisis, so governments are forced to take action. This year I’ve been running events for the UK organisation Poets for the Planet. I so don’t want to leave the planet in a worse state than when I arrived.
Author Interview - Maggie Brookes
