by Nuala Casey
But before she leaves she takes one last look at the park and the forlorn trio walking back towards the gallery. She watches as the figures get smaller and smaller; as they dissolve into the rain; tiny specks against the wide expanse of green; twinkling like dots of moonlight across the surface of a lake.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank the following people for their support and encouragement in writing this novel:
My agent Madeleine Milburn at Madeleine Milburn Literary, TV & Film Agency the best agent a writer could have; Jo Dickinson for her vision and enthusiasm for this book; Stefanie Bierwerth, Kathryn Taussig and the excellent team at Quercus; Mike I’Anson at Helmsley Walled Garden for sharing his knowledge of horticultural therapy; Jessica Jones for her meticulous Spanish translation; Kevin Hanley for his masterly instruction in Chaos Theory and Power Laws; my parents Luke and Mavis Casey for their love, support and faith in me; Nick Ellwood, whose beautiful drawings inspired The Lake, for sharing his artistic expertise and that wonderful quote from Matisse. Finally, my beautiful little boy Luke for reminding me on a daily basis to never, ever, doubt the fairies.
MORE ABOUT NUALA CASEY
WHAT INSPIRES YOU TO WRITE?
People first and foremost. I am a great people watcher, something that stems, I think, from being the youngest of five children. I spent most of my childhood listening in to conversations and trying to build up stories and characters around the snippets of gossip I overheard. I love developing a character, fleshing it out and working out how they will react to a set of circumstances. I am also fascinated by the past; how people deal with their own personal history and how certain decisions can change the course of your life.
WHO IS YOUR LITERARY HERO?
Virginia Woolf for her use of language and her boldness in creating a whole new literary form. I love the sombre beauty of her sentences and the way she uses words like scattered petals, throwing them up into the air and seeing where they will land. Whenever I read Woolf it feels like coming home. Like me, she liked to walk across London and once dedicated an entire essay, ‘Street Haunting: A London Adventure’, to her journey across town in search of a pencil. Woolf captures both the beauty and the brutality of life; moment by moment, breath by breath.
HAVE YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO BE A WRITER?
Yes. When I was a little girl I spent all my spare time writing plays and stories and ploughing my way through the books in my dad’s study. My parents introduced me to literature and the power of the written word at an early age. Dad was a journalist and I grew up listening to the sound of the typewriter bashing out scripts to deadline. The house was full of singing and storytelling and music too, and being the youngest of five I had a wealth of material to draw on from the comings and goings and dramas of my elder siblings. To me writing is as normal and necessary as breathing.
DO YOU HAVE A WRITING ROUTINE?
Yes, and I have to stick to it as I write when my little boy is at school. I am usually at my desk by 9 a.m., coffee in one hand, pen in the other. If I’m writing something from scratch I like to write in longhand first. There’s something about the hand-to-brain connection that gets the words flowing. If I’m editing, I will be typing away furiously to a soundtrack that differs depending on what kind of scene I’m writing. Death scenes are usually accompanied by Mozart’s ‘Requiem’; psychological scenes by Einaudi. I also try to read before I start writing each morning; something to get me into the mood of the piece, usually a poem or a short story. A particular favourite is Alice Oswald’s Dart for her hauntingly precise interweaving of voice and landscape.
WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO WRITE THIS BOOK?
The idea for Summer Lies Bleeding came after reading of the death of an overworked young city trader and the comments of her colleague who remarked that ‘this city sucks the life out of you’. Through this novel, I wanted to look at the coping mechanisms many of us employ to survive the pressure of city living and how, if left unchecked, these survival tactics can turn into dangerous obsessions. I also wanted to explore the effects of the economic crisis and the isolation and loneliness of urban living; how seemingly unrelated lives can impinge on each other and how, in a city of eight million souls, a stranger can dictate your fate.
ALSO AVAILABLE
‘Thought-provoking and intelligent, Nuala Casey’s
debut is one to savour’ Elizabeth Haynes
‘Quite the page-turner – an enthralling read’
Londoneer
‘Casey is the latest and no less valid a chronicler
than Colin MacInnes, Jake Arnott or
Zadie Smith’ Huffington Post
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