Interview with Gill Arbuthnott

BooksfromScotland.com: Tell us a bit about yourself.

Gill Arbuthnott: I was born and brought up in Edinburgh, so completely failed to appreciate what a wonderful place it was until I'd lived somewhere else! I studied Zoology at St Andrews University, then did a couple of years medical research in Southampton, but I didn't take to the south of England… When I came back to Edinburgh I took up a biology teaching post, and I've been here ever since.
I'm married, have two children, one cat and occasional use of a snake. I live in the Bruntsfield/Morningside area of Edinburgh, where it now seems to be compulsory to live if you write (or perhaps to write if you live...).
I teach Biology part time, though it often feels like full time, and write whenever I get the chance, which isn't nearly often enough.

Your first two books are set in Edinburgh, and your third one in Fife. Why do you like setting books in Scotland?

If you are going to set a book somewhere real, then you need to get the detail right, or your eagle-eyed readers will soon be after you, so it makes sense to set things somewhere you know! Scotland has such a wealth of landscapes, cityscapes, history and legend that I didn't feel the need to look any further. I like to fuse myth and folklore into my stories, and there are so many wonderful local tales for me to choose from that I usually end up with more ideas than I can fit in.
Although I write fantasy, I do like it to be grounded in some sort of reality, and I love to read books set somewhere I know, or could visit, so I assume other people do as well. I took a lot of care with the books to make sure that the real bits were right, so that if, for instance, you go to the museum, you can find all the things that are there in the Chaos Clock: the clock itself, the Duddingston Hoard, even the snowman.

Where do you get the inspiration and ideas for your stories?

Well, there are 'big ideas', like the Millennium Clock in the Royal Scottish Museum which was obviously the major inspiration for Chaos Clock, but most bits of inspiration, for me at least, are much smaller details, and can come from almost anywhere. I'm a great believer in eavesdropping on buses, for instance. Other books, images from newspapers, films, music, almost anything can trigger something in your mind.

Which Scottish books have most influenced you in your life and in your writing?

Probably the biggest influence on how my life has turned out has been D. G. Mackean's Higher Biology! (Bet you weren't expecting that!) I couldn't in all honesty describe it as one of my favourite books, but it certainly shaped my future in a big way. (I got an A, in case anyone's interested).
Muriel Spark's Prime of Miss Jean Brodie was very significant. Spark herself grew up about two minutes walk from where I live now, and we attended the same school (James Gillespie's), though not, of course, at the same time. The book was filmed when I was at Secondary School, and some of my class mates were extras. The exteriors weren't filmed at Gillespie's, but weirdly, at the school where I teach now. The book has always seemed to me a marvellous evocation of a very particular type of Edinburgh character; one that only a native of the city could have written. I had a teacher at primary school who I am still convinced modelled herself on Jean Brodie. She was one of those fabulous eccentrics who don't seem to go in to teaching nowadays.
My third choice would have to be Lewis Grassic Gibbon's Sunset Song. This one also has a bit of a personal link as Grassic Gibbon lived and died in the village of Arbuthnott. I remember being taken on a sort of family pilgrimage to his grave when I was about twelve. I loved the way he gave the landscape a voice, and made it fundamental to his characters' development. I also love the internal monologues he gives his main character, Chris Guthrie, and this has certainly been an influence on how I write. I still find the last few pages of Sunset Song deeply moving.

What are the advantages of being a writer in Scotland (as opposed to, say, in England)? The disadvantages?

I think people are always keen to support something that has a local connection, so there is an audience out there predisposed to give you a chance. Some of the bookshop chains, notably Ottakar's and Blackwell's are also very good supporters of Scottish writers. And of course, it does mean you have easy access to the biggest and best Book Festival in the world, in the Edinburgh International Book Festival! Appearing there has really been one of my big 'dream come true' moments. There is also a huge and intensely loyal ex-pat community all over the world, so being Scottish gives you exposure far beyond Scotland.
If there is a disadvantage, perhaps it's that you tend to be viewed in England as a 'Scottish writer' as opposed to simply a writer, and that there can be an assumption of parochialism in that view.

What do you like best about being a children's writer?

The audience! Children are amazingly open minded, and will accept anything you catapult into a book, as long as it fits the book's own internal logic. They are an enormously discerning audience, for the most part quite unswayed by hype, and terrifyingly honest. If they think your book is boring, they will definitely tell you, which is scary, but the wonderful flip side is that if they tell you they loved it, that's probably true as well. They read books really closely, and display a fantastic memory for detail, unlike us senile 40 year olds.

What questions do children ask you most often? Do you ever fib in your answers?

'Are you rich?' figures quite regularly. (Answer: No.) 'Where do you get your ideas?' (This is one I can drone on about for ages). 'When did you realise you wanted to be a writer? (When I was about eight.) 'What should I do if I want to be a writer?' ( Read lots, and actually write, don't just think about doing it.)
I don't think I fib, but you've got me worried now. When is a fib not a fib? I probably embroider, to make stories and answers more entertaining, but that's not fibbing, is it? After all that's what I do all the time as a writer. Oh dear, I feel a philosophical crisis coming on...

You're still published by a Scottish publisher. Don't you want to join the big boys in London?

There must be advantages on both sides, but of course, I only really know about one side to date. I can certainly say it's lovely to work with people that you can actually go and talk to, instead of them just being voices on the phone. It's also a rare privilege these days to be with a small independent publisher. They are very much an endangered species. (Having said that, Floris is actually the largest children's publisher in Scotland.)
I suppose with the 'big boys' there might be more money, and more exposure in England, but on the other hand, I could go there and languish, underpublicised, on a mid-list. I'd like the best of both worlds please!

What new book are you working on at the moment?

It's another children's fantasy, but not set in Scotland this time. The setting is the fantasy element; there isn't any magic in this one, just people (though some of them are pretty spectacularly nasty). It seems to be emerging in a form suitable for a slightly older readership, but I've just finished the first draft, so it's still at the 'anything could happen' stage.
After that one, I do have an idea fermenting away about a murder mystery set against the background of the building of the Forth Railway Bridge...

Your books usually contain a creepy moment or two. Have you ever had any creepy experiences that you couldn't explain away?

When I started writing Winterbringers I was looking for some Fife legends to put in, but hadn't decided exactly what I wanted. Reading local history books I found that the area had been notorious for witch trials in the 17th century, and this struck a chord because of an experience I'd had when I lived in St Andrews as a student.
I lived in a shared flat in the town, which was either haunted or had very strange electrics: lights would flash on and off in the middle of the night for no apparent reason, and on one occasion, the back door, which had definitely been bolted when everyone went to bed, was wide open the next morning... I found out a few years later that the house was built on the site where the witch ducking pool had been long ago; I'm very glad I didn't know that at the time or I don't think I would ever have slept...