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BIO
Elizabeth McGregor lives with her family in Dorset, England.
INTERVIEW
June 1, 2001
The nuanced and dramatic marriage of a thrilling, detail rich adventure and an epic
love story, THE ICE CHILD marks Elizabeth McGregor's critically acclaimed U.S. debut. Join
Bookreporter.com writer Delilah Hill's discussion with McGregor to learn more about the
impetus behind THE ICE CHILD, the evolution of the seeming admixture of Victorian arctic
exploration and modern medicine and much more.
TBR: How were you first introduced to the Franklin expedition and why did you feel
compelled to write about it?
EM: I first found mention of Franklin on a web site;
later I visited the Scott Polar Research Institute, which holds Jane Franklin's diaries.
In Cambridge, I found a letter written by Crozier that suggested that he had some
misgivings about the expedition. It struck me as immensely poignant. Once I had read
accounts of Leopold McClintock's discoveries of the death march from the ships, I felt an
absolute compulsion to write the story.
TBR: Did your research make you want to visit this part of the world?
EM: Yes. It has to be one of the most beautiful places
on earth.
TBR: For a culture trapped in creature comforts, what is appealing in these kinds of
books?
EM: The challenge of something far more powerful than
man.
TBR: How did the story lines evolve? Did the expedition come first?
EM: Yes. Linking the expedition to a modern-day bone
marrow transplant was pure chance. While the Franklin idea was growing, I saw an interview
on BBC TV with a family appealing for a donor for their very sick daughter. The
desperation of their plight struck an echo of Franklin and the crews. I thought, here are
two sets of people facing hell together…and, without wishing to reveal too much of
the story, bone marrow is a crucial link.
TBR: Do you enjoy researching? Do you write while researching?
EM: I do like researching; but there's always a danger
to keep on researching rather than start writing! I was lucky in finding people who
were more than willing to help me, like John MacDonald and John Harrington from the
Franklin Trail website, Paul Veys at Great Ormond Street Hospital, and two families whose
children had survived bone marrow transplants --- the Heatons, and the Burrowes. I
researched about half before I began writing, and the remainder as the book developed.
TBR: I have read that your 20 year marriage ended shortly before you wrote this
book…what did you feel when you finished?
EM: My husband and I parted in December; we moved out
of the house four days before Christmas. By Boxing Day I was in the hospital with
pneumonia. A week later my mother was admitted with the same thing, followed by a series
of minor strokes. She died in the first week of February. I developed chronic insomnia,
because I couldn't get any of it out of my head.
I started writing THE ICE CHILD in March, and finished it by August.
I sometimes wonder who wrote that book. While I was writing it, I concentrated on nothing
else. But it was like sleepwalking. I dreaded the ending, because I knew I'd have to look
at what had happened in my personal life. Nothing was the same. All those familiar little
things that we all use as touchstones every day had gone. It took some adjustments.
TBR: Why was a child's perspective important to you in the Gus story?
EM: Many of the sailors who travelled with Franklin
were hardened to Arctic work and the Navy life. I wanted to see the voyage through fresh,
young eyes. To Gus, the Arctic and the Arctic winter are revelations. His innocence and
optimism make the end result so much more compelling. Crozier and Gus are like father and
son in the story, and they hold out together to the very end.
TBR: Why is Alicia and Jo's reconciliation so important?
EM: Alicia had closed her heart to all but her own
needs. I wanted to show why she had been forced to harden herself, and why it was so
important for her to un-learn this lesson.
TBR: Are there any great national causes for you?
EM: Environmental issues. Future generations will
condemn us, and rightly so.
TBR: What has teaching taught you about writers and writing?
EM: Never underestimate people's passions.
Determination is fifty per cent of success.
TBR: What writers have influenced you?
EM: Katherine Mansfield, D.H.Lawrence and H.E.Bates
when I was younger --- I remember thinking that some of Lawrence's work could never be
surpassed. When I left University I started to read enormous numbers of thrillers, and
horror writers. Stephen King's THE STAND is a masterpiece. And I love Ruth Rendell --- she
is a class apart. Lately, I've bought all Anita Shreve's novels. But I go back to
Katherine Mansfield and H.E.Bates regularly. They remain the greatest short story writers
in the world.
TBR: Do you have a summer reading list?
EM: I'm going to read Joanne Harris - CHOCOLAT and
BLACKBERRY WINE. I just finished IRIS, the biography of Iris Murdoch, and Simon
Winchester's THE RIVER AT THE CENTER OF THE WORLD. I want to read Anne Tyler's latest.
Then I have a number of research books waiting.
TBR: What is next for you?
EM: I lead a double life, as I also write comedies
under the pseudonym Holly Fox. Her first title --- THIS WAY UP --- is published in the UK
this September. I wrote my first Holly Fox book before I started THE ICE CHILD, and I've
just finished the second. I'll be researching throughout June, then I begin writing the
next Elizabeth McGregor. It's called A ROAD THROUGH THE MOUNTAINS, and is already selling
to publishers on the basis of the synopsis. A very happy position to be in, and one that I
never dared envisage in the 15 years I've been working.
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