From C16th England, to First World War France, to a dystopian near-future UK, the INTERESTING TIMES tour spans countries and centuries. Black Snow Falling by Liz MacWhirter, The Goose Road by Rowena House and my own Night of the Party are diverse and different novels. At first glance about the only thing they have in common is that they’re all UK debuts published this year!
But when we came together with the idea of doing a bookshop tour, and started to discuss our books in more depth we found a common thread running through all of them.
These are all stories where big histories have an impact on individual lives: where cultural, social and political forces create constraints and challenges for the people caught up in them. In these three different worlds, our teen protagonists have to struggle to survive, to carve out a space for action, to pursue their various visions of a good future – dilemmas which, surely, resonate for us all in our own interesting times of 2018.
We were delighted to start the tour this weekend, with events at Waterstones, Argyle Street, Glasgow, and Blackwell’s, Edinburgh. Our huge thanks go to the shops for hosting us, and to Elizabeth Frattaroli and Sarah Broadley of SCBWI for chairing our discussions and for their penetrating and challenging questions!
We’re looking forward to being on the road again in 2019!
Tracey Mathias 