Emerald Fennell
About Author
Emerald Fennell is a young British actor who recently appeared on our screens in Any Human Heart, the adaptation of William Boyds bestselling novel. She has several key projects airing over the Winter period that include both cinema and television. She plays Princess Merkalova alongside Keira Knightley and Jude Law in the film version of Anna Karenina and will be appearing on our television screens in both Blandings and Call The Midwife. Shiverton Hall is her debut novel which began life as a television script and was carefully crafted into a fear-filled read.
Interview
SHIVERTON HALL
PUBLISHED BY BLOOMSBURY CHILDREN'S BOOKS
JANUARY 2013
Shiverton Hall by Emerald Fennell follows what happens when an old house with a dangerous past is turned into a rich kids' boarding school. The spooky story is packed with ghostly happenings, terrifying moments and some very nasty creatures!
Emerald Fennell tells us more about herself and Shiverton Hall.
Q: This is your first book for children and young people - what do you do when you're not writing?
A: I am an actor by trade and at the moment I am working on a television programme called Murder on the Home Front which is set during the Blitz and will show on ITV.
I am part of a crack forensics team, so it's a bit like CSI in 1941. We are the first forensic team to work on murders in a modern sense. There are lots of horrible props and spare limbs that I am quite keen on - people keep trying to make off with the props.
Q: Are you ever squeamish?
A: I am not squeamish although I don't like anything too violent. I don't mind violence if it's an essential part of the story.
Q: What sort of books do you like to read?
A: I read lots of horror stories as I grew up. I was obsessed with RL Stine and Point Horror, also Christopher Pike, which is strange as I am easily scared myself!
There are some terrifying children's stories out there and writers like Chris Priestly who kept me awake at night. I never slept well as a child, so it wasn't good for me to be reading books like this but I enjoyed them.
Q: Is there such as thing as 'too scary' for you?
A: I remember what I enjoyed as a child and those are the kinds of things I write, although I have to remind myself that I was a particularly hard and macabre child....
If I write something now and I feel scared, then I know I am going in the right direction with the book.
Q: Your story covers the past and the present - what do you prefer as a writer?
A: I love delving into the past and I have a natural love of history, I loved it at school and we have a such a rich heritage in this country. I love our folk lore and ghost stories.
But I love modern stories too. I am a Dr Who fanatic and when the series I was watching stopped a few years ago, I realised that there weren't that many stories around for children that are dark and scary and that's when I started writing Shiverton Hall.
Q: Your story is based on a big old house called Shiverton Hall - was that inspired by a real place?
A: I used to live near Highclere Castle in Hampshire, where the drama Downton Abbey is filmed, and I loved all the crenelations and odd gothic structures and so that was a kind of inspiration for Shiverton Hall.
I also read about all our lost country houses that either burned down or fell down between the wars, which was very good for inspiration and for names.
In my story, Shiverton Hall is a boarding school and I went to boarding school as a child although it was nothing like Shiverton Hall! I was very lucky, there were lots of very lovely teachers but it also had quite a rich ghost heritage and a couple of odd things happened there. For example, one boy kicked a ball into a forest and found a body in the stream where it landed.
Q: Your story features some sinister imaginary friends - did you have your own imaginary friends as a child?
A: I had a number of weird imaginary friends and a very real imaginary life which was at times more vivid than my real life. As a child I always thought I saw ghosts - people at windows or sitting at the end of my bed.
I am interested in the idea that things can come back to haunt you and a lot of children have imaginary friends that really frighten them. I think children are very perceptive but they are also so much more attuned to their imagination.
Q: Where do you do your writing?
A: I tend to write in my flat, I try to fit it in to times when I am home but occasionally I will write from my trailer while we are filming. I mostly write at night - I am still not a great sleeper.
Q: Are you an actor or a writer first?
A: I love to do both acting and writing and I feel very lucky to be doing both. Writing is very solitary work and I enjoy that but the team work of acting is also fun, so I don't think I could choose one or the other.
Q: Will there be a sequel to Shiverton Hall?
A: Yes there is! In the next story, which I am writing, we find out more about Arthur himself and the implications of the ending of the first story. I have also invented a new monster that is guaranteed to scare!
