Helena Duggan
About Author
Helena Duggan is a children's author, graphic designer and illustrator from Kilkenny, a medieval town in Ireland, which was the inspiration for A Place Called Perfect.
Lately, a lot of new things have happened in her life. She got a puppy - he limped out in front of her car one morning and she couldn't leave him behind. She married Robbie in her parents' hay barn, and welcomed baby Jo, born just months before the launch of her book.
She's enjoying settling down with all these things and creating lots of new memories.
Interview
THE BATTLE FOR PERFECT
USBORNE BOOKS
SEPTEMBER 2019
The final book in the TOWN CALLED PERFECT trilogy brings things to a head in Town, as an old enemy looks for revenge and Town faces its gravest dangers yet.
Things in Town, formerly known as Perfect, are peaceful until the day that scientists start to go missing, and Violet is warned that they must all leave Town immediately, before something terrible happens...
Author Helena Duggan tells us more about The Battle for Perfect:
Q: The Battle for Perfect is the fabulous finale to the series - but how did you feel when you sat down to write it, knowing it was the last book about A Place Called Perfect?
A: I felt great actually. Because the other two books lead to this one, all the ideas I had for the series, anything that looked like loose ends in Book 1 and 2, came together in The Battle for Perfect and I was so excited to finally get it all down on paper.
Q: In the last book, Town faces its biggest challenge to date. Did you always know what was going to happen in this book, and how it was going to happen? Or have there been surprises for you along the way?
A: I always knew what was going to happen in the main plot elements, so I knew Boy and Tom and the Archers' story but I didn't know the details of it. For example the huge zombie army just came in when I was writing the end of book 1.
Q: Is there one character who has stood out for you unexpectedly when writing the books?
A: Yes actually, Anna has come into her own. When I was touring Waterstones shops in the north of Ireland for book 1, a little girl said to me that she loved Anna as a character. I think that stuck in my head and so I gave her more in book 2 and then in 3.
Actually the foursome of Boy, Violet, Jack and Anna weren't planned that way, they just came together and I love their team. I also have a soft spot for Tom.
Q: Do you think you will ever return to writing about these characters?
A: I'm not sure, I'll never say never. I can see myself writing a prequel eventually as I'd like to discover more about Edward, George, William and Macula when they were younger and there is already a mystery in their story that I'd like to solve.
Q: The main characters, Boy and Violet, learn lots about friendship, trust and what family means through their adventures. Is there any one thing you would like your readers to take from the stories?
A: I'd like them to take all of those things. I'd also like them to take a belief in themselves and their own abilities from my stories, I grew up in a family where I was told anything was possible and I really do believe it is. I would like the children who come away from my stories to believe that anything is possible for them.
Q: We meet lots of villains by the time we turn the final pages - did any of them stand out for you?
A: Oh yes, Nurse Powick, and she came as a surprise to me as I was writing. I love her and her evilness and I think I could really go anywhere with her. She was good fun to write and interesting too, as I do think she's a product of her own background which I wouldn't mind exploring.
Q: There are also plenty of creepy moments....with zombies, eye plants, and the odd stuffed toy: which of these would you least like to stumble across on a dark night?
A: I think the zombies. I'm not sure I'd like to meet Powick's creations on a dark alley somewhere. The eye plants are pretty creepy too so I'd give them a miss too. I'd take the soft toys though, I love my teddy bears!
Q: The first book in the series, A Place Called Perfect, was your debut. Three published book in, has your life changed as an author?
A: Not as an author. I'm still working two jobs and trying to balance everything. I'd love to get to a place where I could write full time but financially that's not possible right now. It's changed in others ways though, I now have two children!!
Q: Where do you write and how does your writing day go?
A: I write in my office at home, I used to write in a treehouse my husband built at the bottom of our garden but that's a long story! I get up in the morning and bring my daughters to Rose who minds them for me, then I go home, make breakfast and sit down to write. As time is precious I give myself set working hours on my writing days!
Q: What are you working on for your next book?
A: I have an idea in my head since 2011 and I am going to get stuck into that, it's itching to get out. It's a series too but if its plotting the way I think it is, it'll be a longer one!
Q: Are there other children's authors you've been reading that you'd like to recommend to our readers?
A: There's are lots, I love Tamsin Winter's books, I just finished Jemima Small versus the Universe and I thought it was brilliant. I also like Sophie Anderson's book The Girl who Speaks Bear. My all time favourites are Harry Potter and anything by Roald Dahl and Terry Prattchett's Truckers, Diggers and Wings!
Q: What are your favourite escapes from work?
A: My children! I also love to draw, hike, cycle and hang around with my friends (just like when I was twelve, I haven't changed much!!).
Q: If you could like anywhere, where would your 'Perfect' be?
A: Well you see Perfect for me wasn't perfect. Most people thought it was because they had their imaginations stolen, but the No Mans Landers didn't like it at all, so my Perfect wouldn't be a nice place!
I did use my town of Kilkenny in Ireland as the road map for Perfect so when I walk passed the Town Hall here I always look up to see if there's a Watcher at work. So Kilkenny is my Perfect (except it's nice!!).
THE TROUBLE WITH PERFECT
USBORNE BOOKS
SEPTEMBER 2018
THE TROUBLE WITH PERFECT - the sequel to A PLACE CALLED PERFECT - is the story of a town that seems perfect but which has dark secrets to hide.
The follow-up story takes us back to Perfect - now called Town - where the people are still getting used to a very different way of life. But when things start to go missing and Boy is blamed, the town is once again divided.
With its exploration of friendship and division and a pace that never slacks, the Perfect books will hook readers aged nine years plus.
We asked author HELENA DUGGAN to tell us more about THE TROUBLE WITH PERFECT:
Q: The Trouble with Perfect is the follow-up book to A Place Called Perfect. What was it like returning to this world and why did you decide against giving Perfect a 'happy ever after' after book one?
A: It was lovely to return to Perfect and its characters, though to be honest they never properly leave me at the moment so I wasn't really coming back to them.
The ending of book one wasn't a decision as much as something that happened as I wrote. I agonised about changing it for a while but when I stepped back, I realised that it needed to happen for book 3. I won't say anymore than that though!
Q: How did writing The Trouble with Perfect compare with writing the first book?
A: I wrote A Place Called Perfect a long time ago, so I can't fully remember the process. I know though that Trouble was written much more quickly than Perfect, maybe not the first draft but the subsequent ones, as I was working to a deadline which I didn't have on book one.
I knew the story though as the Perfect series has been plotted from the beginning so it wasn't too difficult to get down on paper!
Q: Why did you decide to focus this story on Violet's friend, Boy?
A: The Perfect series has always been about the Archer family and their story, so again that wasn't as much a decision as something that was necessary to tell the story.
Violet for me is the narrator, someone who can tell the story but not be directly involved in its history. She's a good outsider.
Q: Boy and Violet are best friends who, at one point, argue and struggle to speak to each other. Why did you decide to explore this other side of friendship?
A: I want Boy and Violet's friendship to feel real and real relationships aren't always smooth. I also needed Violet to doubt Boy for the story to work and I knew if she doubted him he wouldn't be too happy!
Q: Perfect - now called Town - is an increasingly divided community. Are you reflecting on today's world? What would you like your readers to take away from how the townsfolk behave towards each other?
A: Towards the end of Trouble Macula makes a speech where she says there's no them and us, no No-Man's-Landers and Perfectionists and that they are all just people.
That's how I feel, if we all saw the humanity in each other and realised that everyone really just wants the same thing - a peaceful, happy life - then maybe we'd be a little easier on each other.
Q: You have some fabulous 'nasty' characters in The Trouble with Perfect - who did you enjoy writing the most?
A: I really enjoyed writing Nurse Powick, she's pretty creepy but also a little complicated. She has a certain amount of love to give and she does that by caring for her inanimate dolls and teddies in her toy hospital. She hates children (though she worked in an orphanage) and she puts her medical skills to rather disgusting use. She's pretty good craic to write!
Q: It's great to see the (deeply creepy) 'eye plants' back in book two - why did you decide to keep them in Town?
A: The 'eye plants' are an integral part of the story so they needed to stay. They also add a good creep factor so that's a bonus!
Q: Without giving too much away, you kill off a character in The Trouble With Perfect. Was that a hard thing to do as a writer?
A: Yes it was hard and I did agonise over it but in the end it was the right thing to do for the story.
Q: Will you be returning to Town to write about it again? Can you give us a glimpse into what happens next to Violet and Boy?
A: Yes, the Perfect series is plotted over three books so I'll be returning to Town very soon. There are still a few characters we haven't met and some history that hasn't been revealed.
Q: There are some good things and bad things about living in Town but its people love living there. Would you love Town or loath it?
A: I think Town would be okay to live in, it hasn't found its full balance yet but if William's vision for Town comes through then it'd be a pretty normal, pretty cool place to live.
Q: Can you tell us a bit about your school events for Perfect?
I haven't done many school events for Perfect, I work as a designer three days a week and have a small baby, so between all that and writing I find it hard to fit in many events.
Q: Have you read any children's books recently that you'd also like to recommend to our readers?
A: I just read The Infinite Lives of Maisie Day by Christopher Edge as I did an event with him at the Edinburgh Book Festival and I really loved the story. It's very intricate and clever and left me thinking. I also just finished Sophie Anderson's The House with Chicken Legs and loved that story too.
A PLACE CALLED PERFECT
USBORNE BOOKS
AUGUST 2017
HELENA DUGGAN, our Debut Author of the Month, has written an enticing story full of adventure and tension as well as real heart as it tests the strengths of family and friendship. It is was selected as a Waterstones Children's Book of the Month.
When Violet's father accepts a job in a town called Perfect, she is reluctant to move there but even Violet can't foresee how bad things can get in a town that appears to be perfect; but why must its citizens wear prescribed rose-tinted glasses, and why are its children so reluctant to have fun? Violet soon realises that Perfect has secrets to hide.
We asked HELENA DUGGAN to tell us more about what inspired A PLACE CALLED PERFECT:
Q: You are a graphic designer and illustrator by trade, so what has brought you into writing for children?
A: I've always written stories for myself really, I never thought they'd reach a wider audience. The graphic design and illustrator stuff is how I eat. If I didn't have that work I'd be pretty hungry most of the time!
Q: What are your favourite children's stories - perhaps ones you read as a child or more recently?
A: I love Roald Dahl; I read his stories religiously when I was younger. I also loved Terry Pratchett's kids' book series Truckers, Diggers and Wings. I couldn't get enough of them and always imagined that there were people who lived under the floorboards of my house. I thought they rode around on mice - we had a lot of mice!
As I got older Harry Potter became my favourite read. Now, every Christmas, it's become a tradition to sit down and watch the box set of films! And although not a children's book, I also love Anthony Doerr's novel All the Light We Cannot See, for some reason it has really stuck with me.
Q: Can you describe Kilkenny, the town that inspired A Place Called Perfect?
A: Kilkenny is a medieval town in the south east of Ireland. It used to be the capital of Ireland hundreds of years ago when five main families ruled the town. One of these families was called Archer - a name I borrowed for my baddies.
A lot of the Kilkenny streetscapes have changed over time and locals are fighting to keep what remains of our history - it's still a beautiful place to look at. It's full of old laneways and historical buildings and has a castle that sits proudly at the top of the town. It also has ancient underground passageways that have yet to be officially opened to the public.
Q: On the surface Perfect is indeed a perfect town, but there are parts of the town that are not. Why did you decide to create a town that looks wonderful, but isn't?
A: Everyone in Perfect believes it's a perfect place to live - the glasses they wear blind people to what is going on around them and to how they are being controlled.
This idea is something I think about a lot: the media, politics, our own perspectives, and what and who we listen to can blind us to what's going on in the wider world.
In a sense (not to get too deep) I feel we're all being controlled in one form or another and are blind to it. I wanted to play with this idea in my writing and so created Perfect - a world that exaggerated this notion.
Q: Are there other places that you have visited that have inspired different stories?
A: I have a story in the back of my mind that jumps to the forefront when I pass a graveyard near where I live. I see a man in a long red velvet-lined coat standing beside a boy crying at his father's grave.
I have written a few chapters and I think my home village will feature in this story, should I ever finish it! I also wrote a story before Perfect called A Load of Rubbish which is set in a rubbish dump just up the road from where I lived as a child.
Q: Your two main characters, Violet and Boy, are striving to do the right thing but face a lot of opposition in quite a dark world. Do you think stories like this are important to help children learn about the 'real' world?
A: I'm not sure if I think that way really. When I was growing up I let my imagination go wild in a story, and though there were lessons in the stories I read as a kid, I never saw them.
As I grew up and thought back on those stories, things clicked with me that hadn't at the time of reading. I love a story or a film that can be seen one way by a child and another by an adult, those stories may stay with someone and, as the years go by, they may change that person's perspective on life just a little.
I do think it's important that children are allowed to be children. I think kids are being forced, through technology, to grow up a little too quickly nowadays.
Q: How did your bad guys, the Archer brothers, develop, and do you have any sympathy for them?
A: The Archer brothers are key to the story. I needed my villains to come up with a genius plan and the twins just popped into my head one day. I do have a little sympathy for them; they want to create a perfect world so they can be appreciated.
From childhood Edward and George felt that they never got the love they deserved from their mother, Iris. They worked hard in school and at home, and tried to be perfect all of the time. Their younger brother, William, wasn't perfect, but in the twins's eyes he was their mother's favourite. However, Iris had her reasons for protecting William (which I can't go into now as it will be a spoiler).
The twins decide to create a world where their vision of what is right is respected - and anyone who doesn't obey their rules, or who questions their system, is thrown out.
Q: Is it more fun to develop the bad guys than the good ones?
A: I enjoy developing both, but I do like to try and understand and rationalise why a bad person would do the things they do. In their eyes they don't think they are being bad - it's all about perspective.
I think baddies can be more enjoyable to write because you have to rationalise something that really doesn't make any sense and so have to be creative with it!
Q: You have some great supporting characters in the story - who is your favourite?
A: I have a soft spot for Iris. She comes across as being a bit mad but as Violet finds out she's not. She tells Violet that you can get away with more things in life if people think you are mad - I like that idea!
Q: Will you be revisiting Perfect, or the characters, for another story?
A: Yes. I have a big plot laid out for Perfect so Boy and Violet are not disappearing just yet!
Q: What was the biggest lesson you learned while writing A Place Called Perfect?
A: I learned that you have to enjoy the editing process. I love plotting and writing the first draft, but never had patience for editing. Through writing Perfect, and with Anne, my editor's patience, I discovered that editing is also really creative and should be viewed that way!
Q: What are you writing now and where is your favourite place to write?
A: I am writing the sequel to Perfect. My favourite place to write is in our tree house at the bottom of our garden. My husband and his brother built it two years ago when they were both off work. It's really peaceful and surrounded by birdsong. I can't write in it anymore though as we rent it out on Airbnb. Hopefully someday we will be rich and I'll get my writing space back!
Q: An awful lot of tea gets drunk in Perfect - are you a tea drinker?
A: I do drink tea - not loads though. But my husband drinks buckets of it sometimes, and I do find that a cup of tea and a biscuit at the end of a rough day can be just the cure.
Q: Any bad writing habits?
A: The internet is my worst writing habit, I usually spend hours surfing when I'm supposed to be writing!
Q: What is your favourite escape from writing?
A: I'm not sure I have one. I think writing is my escape. I love finishing a story with the thought that I got it right this time.
I also write pieces for family occasions or for the performance nights that my writing group sometimes puts on and I get a real buzz reading those. There's probably a bit of a performer in me!
I do love exercise too, especially hiking and getting out on the mountains. My husband is an expedition adventure racer. Races last around 5 days and competitors don't sleep during the race so a lot of training is needed. It gets us both outdoors, which I love.
Q: What are you most passionate about in everyday life?
A: It's a short and sweet answer - I'm most passionate about my family!
The Battle for Perfect
The Trouble with Perfect
A Place Called Perfect
