EL Norry

Fablehouse
EL Norry

About Author

Emma Norry has a BA (Hons) in Film and an MA in Screenwriting. She grew up in the care system in Cardiff, but now lives and works in Bournemouth with her husband and family. Emma's previous books include Son of the Circus, which was shortlisted for the Diverse Book Awards, and Amber Under Cover. Her short stories have been published in anthologies including The Very Merry Murder Club, Happy Here: 10 stories from Black British authors & illustrators and The Place for Me: Stories about the Windrush Generation.

 

 

Interview

Fablehouse   (Bloomsbury Children's Books)

June 2023

In Fablehouse, looked-after children accidentally discover an Arthurian knight and a world of magic, closely entwined with their own everyday world.   Author Emma Norry tells us how her experience of being a child in the care system helped inspire her when writing Fablehouse, and how she drew on the history of a real orphanage for mixed race children when creating her own care home in Fablehouse.  

Read a Chapter from Fablehouse

Review:  "Fablehouse is a very thought provoking and exciting adventure, told with experience that E L Norry herself had whilst growing up in care, never fitting into one world or another."

Q&A with Emma Norry

1.   Can you tell us a little about yourself, and what brought you into writing for children and young people? What kinds of books do you like reading, and writing?

I live in Bournemouth, Dorset with my husband and two teenage children. I've always wanted to be a writer since I was about ten, mainly because I loved to read. I wrote stories all through my teens and twenties, studied Film at University, and then had a gap of six years where I didn't write at all when my children were young.

After I found my agent in 2018, I was invited to contribute to the Voices series by Scholastic and that was my first experience of writing for 8-12 year olds. At the time my own children were this age and so I became very interested in writing for young people.

I enjoy reading a wide variety of books. I love short story collections. Favourite books include The Remains of the Day, Dandelion Wine, The Secret History. At the moment, I'm pretty much exclusively reading children's books but I do have a huge pile of TBR.


2.   What happens in your new book, Fablehouse? What can readers expect to find?

Fablehouse is magical adventure story set in the 1950s. Fablehouse is based on a real orphanage in Somerset called Holnicote House, which was home to the 'brown babies' of the Second World War. This was when white women and Back America GIs had children together and afterwards thousands of babies were shipped off to orphanages.

In my story, Heather has recently moved to Fablehouse. When we first meet her, she is guarded and defensive because she has been in other homes before and has grown mistrustful. However, when she and three others find an injured and confused man called Pal at the cairn, a pile of mysterious stones where they all like to play, they soon become united.

Readers can expect to find friendship and adventure and lots of heart in this story. The children discover that Pal is actually an Arthurian knight who has been reawakened. He tells them the fae have a deadly plot to take over their world and they must be the ones to save Fablehouse!


3.   What inspired this story of a big old house full of looked-after children and Arthurian knights?

The idea belongs to Jasmine Richards' company, Storymix, which focuses on telling inclusive and diverse stories with black and brown children at the centre. Jasmine is a fan of myths and legends and the idea behind a Black knight is based on the Saracen knight, Palamedes. Fablehouse is special because Jasmine knew about my background, growing up in care, which is why she approached me.


4.   Did you know much about the Arthurian myths before you started to write this story? What did you want to draw on from the myths?

When I started this project, I didn't know much about Arthurian legends at all! As a child, I wasn't familiar with much fantasy, apart from the Disney film The Black Cauldron which is based on Welsh mythology. I've written historical fiction before and enjoy research so I researched quite a lot. I'm also interested in retellings, so I watched films and Merlin, the TV series.

I found the notion of honour and valour interesting and used my research to inform how I wanted to develop Pal, as a character. As someone who has experienced discrimination and micro-aggressions, it wasn't difficult to imagine how Pal might have felt being the only Black knight in King Arthur's court.


5.   As you've mentioned, Fablehouse, where the children live, is based on a care home that looked after children from mixed-race relationships during the war. How did you find out about this?

When Jasmine told me about Lucy Bland's book, Brown Babies, I ordered myself a copy. The picture on the front cover is heartbreaking and so evocative. I couldn't believe that I had no idea about this period of history. The online Mixed Museum is also another place which has opened my eyes to aspects of that time in history. Lucy's book is a fascinating factual account of the children who lived there and the systems in place at the time all set against historical context.


6.   Can you tell us about the four children at the heart of your novel? How did this group develop, and how connected did you feel to them as your wrote their adventures?

The story centres around four children: Heather (11), Lloyd (12), Arlene (10) and Nat (9). As I wrote these characters, they changed and developed. I created backstories by using many of my own experiences and also incorporated characteristics of children that I knew and met throughout the children's and foster homes I'd lived in.

Storymix had asked for my sample chapters to be in the third person (before the book got sold, I'd written three sample chapters for Jasmine), but the second I began writing, Heather's voice came out loud and clear as I had a memory of being chased round the garden with an afro comb!

Lloyd is, on the surface, the opposite of Heather. I love an odd couple dynamic, and he is wise and steady and sensible; but they both, as they get closer, learn from each other and appreciate each other too. I gave Arlene my 1940s/50s obsession with musicals and films and old-style glamour and thought about how all of these children, at their heart, just really want to 'be seen'. For Arlene, this manifests itself in quite an obvious way - with her desire to act and sing (being heard). This is also why Nat likes to entertain and dazzle with magic tricks. Lloyd wants to be seen as doing the right thing.

Focusing on their personalities really helped when I developed their powers too. I wanted to play with the idea of 'power' being something that is an enhancement of a natural quality they already have.


7.   How far have you drawn on your personal journey in the children's quest? Did you find it a hard novel to write?

I didn't even realise, until I was sobbing my way through a chapter that wasn't in the original outline, just how much of myself and my past I'd written into this novel. Sometimes with writing, we aren't consciously aware of what we're doing until we look back over the project as a whole. But I can tell, thematically, that I was pouring much of my childhood into this.

I gave Heather the close friendships and role models I wished I'd had when I when her age. Being fostered in cities, towns and villages, I drew on my love of the countryside and the ten-mile bike rides I used to go on by myself. I remembered all the magical places I discovered, the treehouses and dens I made - when you don't have a 'home', it's easy to create magical spaces outside.

It wasn't a hard novel to write. The fantasy world was tricky, but the characters always felt real to me.


8.   Did you plan the children's adventures, or did their quest take you by surprise? Do you have a favourite moment, or personal discovery, during their journey?

I was working from Jasmine's idea, but there were many opportunities for discovery and invention. Some chapters which worked in an outline just didn't work when I wrote them out. Then there were instances which weren't written in the outline - that's the beauty of collaboration.

I had freedom to respond to the characters I'd created. For example, when they all head off on a picnic came out of the blue when we realised that they ought to have a bit of fun. As I started writing that scene, I discovered what a brilliant place that would be for Pal to begin to get his memory back.


9.   How did you approach building the world of Fablehouse, and the Fae world? What are your favourite parts in each setting?

This was a real challenge. Although I read The Dark is Rising and The Whispering Knights and Arthurian myths, apart from one Terry Brooks novel that I read when I was a teen, and Narnia, I'm not familiar with fantasy worlds. For some time I panicked, wondering if I could create a different enough, and believable, other world. But it was an exciting challenge to attempt something I hadn't done before and after a reassuring talk with my brilliant editor, Zoe, I realised that 'magical other world' didn't have to mean trolls and high fantasy, which I'd assumed.

I began to consider what a world directly underneath ours might look like. What would be similar and what might be different. What would the light be like? I looked at imagery of jungles and swamps because I knew I wanted to create an oppressive and cloying world. I also drew inspiration from the Upside down in Stranger Things. I knew focusing on one or two key details would help me - smell is an effective one for me - and I knew that as long as I could imagine it, I might be able to communicate this to readers too.


10.   The four friends learn so much about their own 'magic' during their adventures. Other than a great story, what would you like your readers to take from their journeys and discoveries about themselves?

I'd love readers of all ages to really know that they are magic. There is magic inside of all of us! Whether that's doing a brave thing that previously you haven't done before - approaching a friend, doing a piece of work, trying something new, asking for help… We could all benefit from hearing that the qualities we already have can be enhanced and worked on so that they become the very best of us.


11.   You have mentioned that there will be a follow-up to Fablehouse - can you tell us why you wanted to continue the children's story, and what readers can expect?

I'd happily write a book from all these characters point of view! I've been living and breathing these characters for so long now that they fully feel like real people to me. As for book two… well, I can tell you that the roamers will once again face a threat although this time it won't be from the fae… there are forces much closer to home that they must battle. Their very friendship will be tested to the limits!


12.   What kinds of things do you enjoy doing to relax, when you're away from your desk?

I love watching films, especially with my family - nothing better than a takeaway and popcorn on a Friday or Saturday night. I also really enjoy reading, although I can't read in bed at night because it keeps me awake! I love trees and forests and enjoy being in nature too, if the weather is good. Every now and then I enjoy fully immersing myself in a PlayStation game, but the game needs to be very special to really engage me.

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