I reviewed Miranda Richmond's amazing A Fifty-Year Silence. Read this post as I ask questions concerning characters, scenes and everything the book. You should also enter the giveaway below to stand a chance of winning a paperback copy to sun-bathe with this summer.
I wonder what part your parents played in the story, could you say a little about this?
I have an unconventional family. My mother and father
divorced when I was a small child and both remarried, and I have always
considered myself as having four parents – all of whom I watched pursuing their
own unusual careers and passions as I grew up. With this book, I guess I’d say
they were supportive from afar: they taught me to read and research and follow
my dreams from a young age, and then they sat back and let me do it. Many
people have asked me about my mother, Anna and Armand’s daughter, and what role
she played in the story. She helped me puzzle out as much as she could, but one
of the reasons I ended up writing A
Fifty-Year Silence was my curiosity about
the fog of mystery in which she had grown up. She never even knew what year her
parents had married!
How did your research into
your family’s past affect your family life? Did your husband help in the
process, or did he leave you to undergo this personal journey alone?
It certainly coloured every aspect of my life. My
husband was very supportive throughout the process. He was a real rock to me in
caring for my grandfather. But this was very much my story, and he is totally
respectful of my creative process. I never show him my work, which he leaves me
alone to do in the privacy of the office he built for me beneath our house.
Your grandmother’s strength
(taking yoga to her old age) was inspiring to me. What do you think readers
would love most about her which would have an impact on their lives (or at
least in their old age)?
Well, if I had to impart just one lesson my
grandmother taught me (and it’s hard to pick!) I would choose, “You just have
to talk to people.” I learned from my grandmother that reaching out to others,
asking them questions, offering them your friendship – it can change the course
of your life, and theirs, in ways you could never even imagine. My
grandmother’s ability to do that gave her a network of lifelong friends who
loved her, and love, in the end, is all that matters. Love, hard work on
something you’re passionate about, and plenty of garlic.
If your grandmother were to
be alive what would she have loved and what would she dislike about the world
now?
The same things she always loved – compassion and
creativity (and coffee); and the same things she always disliked – cruelty and
injustice. She was very open to change, loved to follow current events, and
always had an opinion to offer about everything. I think she’d be delighted by
the advance of marriage equality across Europe, and very concerned about the
political shift to the extreme right.
Are you writing again? I’m
eager to find out what you are working on next?
I certainly am! I am working on a book about
brilliance, femininity, and why it’s so unseemly for an intellectual to pursue
true love. I am also translating The
Kites, the last and greatest novel of one
of France’s most beloved 20th century writers, Romain Gary.
To Purchase A Fifty-Year Silence, click here.
