MA Bennett introduces The Ship of Doom

In this video, author MA Bennett tells us what inspired her new book The Ship of Doom - a time-slip adventure set aboard the doomed Titanic - and gives us a short reading from the book.

MA Bennett's The Ship of Doom is a gripping time-travel adventure story that takes us back to the last century and onto the Titanic, giving us a glimpse into life on board the ship and the unfolding disaster, as well as the special invention that helped save many lives.

Chapter Extract from The Ship of Doom

Discussion Notes

Find out more in this Q&A with MA Bennett

1. Can you tell us a bit about what brought you into writing for children and teenagers?

I started writing for teenagers when my own kids got to that age. When they were really little I wrote historical novels and of course they couldn't care less about that, because unless books had farm animals or dinosaurs they weren't interested. But I couldn't wait for the day when they could read my stuff so I met them halfway.

2. What is your latest book, The Ship of Doom (The Butterfly Club), about?

It's about three Victorian children who are time thieves. On behalf of a shadowy organisation called the Butterfly Club, who meet once a week at the Greenwich Observatory, they travel forward in time to steal artefacts from the future, in order to accelerate progress. In THE SHIP OF DOOM they travel to 1912 to steal a Marconi radio from the communications room of a great ship. But when the ship turns out to be the RMS Titanic, things go wrong very quickly…

3. What inspired the story?

I like the idea of 'Sliding Doors' moments, moments in time when things go one way but they could so easily have gone another. One of those moments that I kept coming back to was the fate of Guglielmo Marconi, the inventor of the wireless radio. The legend is that he missed the Titanic because his kid was sick, and he travelled to New York on the Lusitania four days later.

Of course, his child's illness saved his life. But what made his story even more interesting was that one of his first wireless radios had been installed in the Titanic's communications room. At the inquest into the ship's sinking, Marconi's invention was credited with saving the life of every single survivor. So you have two things going on - Marconi missing the boat, and Marconi's radio saving all the survivors by calling a rescue ship to their aid.

4. What draws you to an idea for a book or series, and what keeps you going with the writing?

With the Butterfly Club series the idea is that the time travellers use the Butterfly Effect. That's the theory that states that if you change one tiny thing, you can change time. Once I had that concept I knew there were almost endless possibilities for moments in history that hinged on one tiny element. What keeps the story going, however, is the characters. I hope I've been able to establish three interesting but quite distinct characters, and it's the interactions and growing relationships between them that will hopefully keep readers coming back for more.

5. Can you tell us about your main characters, Luna, Konstantin and Aidan, and how they developed?

I wanted to come at the concept of gender from three different angles. Konstantin is a 'boyish' boy - he is very martial, he dresses as a soldier, he comes from a long line of military brothers, and is ostensibly very brave. But undercutting that is the fact that he's been an invalid for the whole of his childhood, and his 'tin soldier' act is 99% bravado. Luna is a 'girly' girl - she likes pretty frocks in butterfly-coloured silks, and is highly emotionally intelligent. But she also a rationalist, raised in the sciences, and she has a generous slice of logic in her character. And Aidan, who is superficially the most masculine of the three - he is strong and brave and has been working as a 'navvy' on the railways since he was ten - has the most interesting relationship with gender of all…

6. How much research did you need to do into the Titanic, which is the main setting for this story?

I've always been drawn to the story of the Titanic, as my Granny was born on the day it sank. She wasn't exactly of the vintage where people did that thing of saving the newspaper from the day you were born, but I do remember growing up seeing the front page of the The Times from that fateful day in a frame, and it made quite horrific reading.

I think we're all fascinated by the hubris of Titanic; the sheer Imperial cockiness of stating that this was a ship that couldn't sink almost invited disaster. So I came from a standpoint of knowing quite a bit about it, but I still had to do a lot of research, which was great fun. Two highlights were visiting the Titanic Museum in Southampton, and also revisiting the 1997 film, which perfectly recreates shipboard life.

7. The Ship of Doom is a time travel adventure - what challenges did this add to planning and writing the story, especially around the historic facts of the Titanic?

Time travel can be a bit of a headwreck, particularly as in SHIP OF DOOM I flip back to 14th April 1912 three times. I had to write out the timeline very carefully to keep all the events of the sinking in order! Some things I've streamlined, and some events I've telescoped, just to make things simpler for younger readers (and me!) But I've tried to be true to the events as they happened.

8. Did you enjoy bringing real historic characters to life, such as the inventor Marconi? Who else makes an appearance?

I'm half-Italian and I felt that Marconi was a type I know very well - not the handwaving, voluble Italian stereotype of the Italian male, but a small, quiet, unassuming but fiercely intelligent type that you find in university towns like Bologna. My own father was a little like that, so I enjoyed using some of him to bring Marconi to life. I also include a very interesting character called Arthur John Priest, a stoker who survived not only this shipwreck, but three more, plus a world war!

I always kept in mind, though, that this was a true story, and many people died on that night. I tried to be respectful of that, and also truthfully reflect the great heroism and bravery of real characters like Officer Harold Lowe, and, ultimately, Captain Edward Smith.

9. You also tackle issues around women and sexism, and class bias of the time - and the life and death challenges this could bring. Would contemporary readers struggle to engage with a book that didn't question those attitudes?

I think so. While it's risky to shoehorn in too many modern sensibilities, we can't (and shouldn't) avoid the fact that there is a huge conversation going on about gender at the moment, and of course children are a really important part of that.

I hope that the three children I've invented here help them to think about that modern conversation about gender, while still maintaining an authentic Victorian voice. In fact, Aidan is based on a real person, a navigational engineer who lived life just as Aidan does. Class was an extremely relevant factor in this tragedy as it literally meant the difference between life and death. You were far more likely to survive if you were on the upper decks (First or Second class) than if you were in Steerage (Third class).

Famously, there were not enough lifeboats to go around, so you can guess who got most of them. The Titanic was a reflection of society - life expectancy was so much greater for the upper classes, and that was horribly expressed on one fateful night.

10. What do you have planned next for the Butterfly Club?

The time thieves travel to Egypt in 1922 for THE MUMMY'S CURSE. The children find themselves in the Valley of the Kings, where they attempt to find the tomb of the mythical king Tutankhamun and secure his sarcophagus and treasure for the Butterfly Club. I swear this wasn't planned, but THE MUMMY'S CURSE will be coming out almost 100 years to the day since Tutankhamun's tomb was opened!

11. Where would you go on the time train, if you could travel on it to any time?

Oo good question! I've always been a bit of a Shakespeare nut, so I think it would be Tudor England for me. First night of Much Ado About Nothing, or something like that.

12. What do you enjoy doing when you're away from your desk?

Going to movies is my big thing. Also - COVID permitting - travelling to Italy and eating out.

13. For our teen readers, any updates on the STAGS filming??

Yes! I can't say too much at the moment but I can say that I've just had a meeting with our wonderful screenwriter and the producers. Hoping to have some exciting news that I can share really soon on Reading Zone, so watch this space!

From ReadingZone:  We can't wait to hear more!