Emma Donoghue
About Author
Best known as an author of fiction for adults, Emma also writes for the stage and radio. The Lotterys Plus One is her first book for children.
Born in Dublin, Ireland, in October 1969, she's the youngest of eight children. She went to school in Ireland, apart from one eye-opening year in New York aged ten. She read English and French at University College, Dublin, and then gained a PhD from Cambridge.
She's earned her living as a writer since the age of 23, and considers herself lucky enough to have never had an 'honest job' since she was sacked after a single summer month as a chambermaid.
She now lives in London, Ontario in Canada with her partner and their son and daughter. Emma's novel Room was made into an Oscar-winning film. She has also adapted the story for the stage, and the play of Room will open in May at the Theatre Royal, Stratford London.
Interview
THE LOTTERYS PLUS ONE
MACMILLAN CHILDREN'S BOOKS
APRIL 2017
Bestselling adult novelist EMMA DONOGHUE (The Room, The Wonder) has written her first book for children, THE LOTTERYS PLUS ONE, and here she talks about her latest novel.
The Lotterys, a warm and diverse family, are named after a lottery win that bought them a sprawling house (Camelottery) that oozes idiosyncracies and charm. However, the family's slightly chaotic way of life is challenged when their irascible grandfather reluctantly moves in with them.
The family includes four adults and seven children and it is the fifth child, the quiet observer Sumac, who guides the story and describes how the family copes with the presence of the grandfather, and her own struggles with the changes he brings.
EMMA DONOGHUE tells us more about THE LOTTERYS PLUS ONE.
Q: Why did you decide to write a book for children?
A: I was reading so many, to and with my kids, I wanted to get in on the fun.
Q: How did writing a book for children differ from writing for adults?
A: It's harder, because you have to fit in just as much subtlety without as many words and without assuming much about what your readers will know of the world. And you mustn't bore these readers or they'll drop the book and walk away!
Q: Why is the story set in Toronto?
A: It could have been any big city, but multi-cultural, liberal Toronto is the perfect example of the kind of place the Lotterys would feel at home.
Q: The Lotterys are a diverse and large family, why did you want this kind of family to be the centre of this story?
A: For literary purposes (because it raises such interesting questions about the way a family can be its own little world) first, and then obviously political ones as well.
Q: How did each of the family members develop and how hard was it, as the writer, to keep track of all of them?
A: I'm a big planner, who keeps endless files on every aspect of every character in my Scrivener folder for that project, so that helped. Mostly I observed my family and friends and borrowed anything funny or weird.
Q: ....and to describe them to the reader without a big 'information dump'?
A: Ah yes, my editors were useful to me (as a newbie children's author) on that issue: one of them made the wonderfully pragmatic suggestion that I should keep some of the older kids away at summer camp for a few chapters.
Q: Often the grandparent figure in children's books is one that a grandchild warms to, so why did you decide this grandfather would struggle to fit in to the family?
A: The reason so many stories begin with 'a stranger comes to town' is that it's hard to show what a town is like without a stranger who'll notice its peculiarities.
Grumps solves the technical problem of how to show the Lotterys as outsiders would see them, as opposed to the way they see themselves. I found him easy to write because his curmudgeonly Scots dialogue amuses me no end.
Q: You also give him dementia, why did you decide to explore that?
A: My mum has been living with it for seven years. These days, nearly everyone's losing a loved one slowly to the fog of dementia. To avoid the sad/sappy narrative of most kids' books about this subject, I decided to make Grumps not only a stranger to the Lottery kids but an initially obnoxious one.
Q: We see the grandfather largely through Sumac's perceptions, why did you decide she would be the one to struggle the most with him being there?
A: I'd chosen her as my point-of-view character, because I liked the idea of an introverted, law-abiding, observant witness at the centre of all this chaos. So I had to give her skin in the game. I decided that she'd not only have to give up her beloved bedroom to her grandfather, but that she'd be outraged by his attack on her family's values.
Q: The children are home schooled, was that something you needed to research for this story?
A: Yes indeed - and again, I had to show it as a real, every-minute-of-the-day process, without putting in wodges of 'now let's do our arithmetic'. I find that most children's novels that include home education either preach for or against it, so I decided to leave out all tedious discussions of the pros and cons, and just show it in action.
Q: There is lots of incidental information in the story about the day to day happenings of the family - from Brian making a fire engine to the family exploring plants in the Wild, going on scavenges, daily quotations etc. How hard was it to develop these details?
A: It all takes a lot of research, but it's so enjoyable and varied: one minute I'm googling 'native plants of South-Western Ontario', the next 'yarn-bombing'.
Q: The family is also culturally diverse, how did you decide which customs - like the Rakhi celebrations - to include in the story?
A: Mostly research. I often read Toronto's freesheet, NOW magazine, and I circle anything in the listings that looks intriguing.
Q: Why did you want the story to be illustrated and what do you feel the images bring to your text?
A: That was never negotiable, for me: I told the publishers that this book had to be heavily illustrated, not only to help distinguish the many characters from each other, but to add an extra layer of humour and charm.
Q: Are you planning more adventures for the Lotterys?
A: Yes, I've drafted the next - THE LOTTERYS MORE OR LESS - and planned a few more.
Q: If you won as much as the Lotterys, what would you do with it?
A: Certainly not give up my job and homeschool my kids! I enjoy writing too much.
Q: Where is your favourite place to write?
A: My favourite place to write is: in my own head. I can go there from any room, bus, or cafe. Right now I'm sitting in the rehearsals for ROOM the play (opening in London, U.K., on 10 May, and moving on to Dublin).
Q: How would your favourite (non-writing) day go?
A: My favourite day would have to include writing, for at least a few hours, but after that I'd throw in an easy hike with my beloved, a film, a lot of laughs with our kids, and a pot-luck dinner party.
