House of Windows
Page 28
For my mother, who has believed in this story since its first (very different) incarnation,
for my Fiercely Wonderful Aunty Pat, always my First Reader, and
for Kate and Luna, who gave me Dragon Treasures just when I needed something to hold on to.
Acknowledgements
Many thanks and very big hugs to Andy Shepherd from whom I have nicked (with permission) The Amazing Pointy Dance™. Thanks for all the thoughts about things to include, especially in terms of pranks. Who’d’ve thought it of you? You were the first person I met at College who made me feel ‘Yes, I’m going to be all right here. This is going to be a place I can belong.’ I’ll always be grateful for that. And for the super-super cool presents! Big thanks to all my wonderful Cambridge friends. Especial thanks to Naz, who didn’t make me get down on one knee to propose we had College Kids together. James Wildman, adopted ‘College Grandfather’. Neil Rickards, who invited me to my first Formal Swap – among other things. Jens Turowski, a true genius. And all the people I met through Rev, including Guy Brandon, fellow Cambridge writer. And Lizl! You are a wonderful, wonderful friend – thank you for being wonderful to me. Hugs to Ian and Phil and Michael Phillips and Ian and Alex and Andrew and all the Gang, especially those there for The Great Bridge Hopping Expedition. And of course Riki, but there’s another book where I’ll thank you properly.
I owe a debt of gratitude to David Good: you taught me so much more than how to write a dissertation – no little gift in itself. Thank you for backing me to study what I was passionate about, whatever Departments or Faculties that took me to. And to Bobbie Wells, Senior Tutor of Clare Hall, for all the support over the years. Massive thanks to the Trinity Hall porters, who are just brilliant. Thanks to Sam and her colleagues at the English Department for providing reading lists and ancillary information. Also Victoria Mills at Trinity Hall, and many Cambridge staff and porters (especially at King’s and Clare) who let me take millions of photos for research, and a very kind lady whose name I forgot to ask at the Old Halls Reception Desk. Thanks to Adrian May of Essex University for thoughts on the first few pages of a much earlier telling of this story. Big thanks to Graham Howes, my Director of Studies at Trinity Hall, and Dr Arno, my Tutor. A special thank you always goes to Jill Shields who made a huge difference. Also to Jem Rashbas for welcoming me into CARET and giving me one of the most amazing opportunities of my life.
Love and thanks to my father (originator of the Zylonation Test for People Suspected of Talking Bollocks) and the Anglo-Italian hordes, my blood family. And to Riki, Fran, Katja and Alexia; Tony and Aoife; Clare and Jenny; and ‘surrogate grandparents’ Katie and Peter Gray: chosen family of the highest order. And to Krysia, for being the most lovely sister-friend, with whom time and distance are immaterial. And Zedie, who is a treasure. And Janet and David Watson, who are wonderful. To Fauzia and Stuart for all the laugher. And to Chris and Carmel for sending lovely cards when I’m down. To my extended ‘theatre family’ at the Adelphi, Aldwych and Dominion (extra big thanks and hugs to Fiona, Conia, David, Liz and Caroline), who’ve read and commented and been so lovely: it is very, very much appreciated. And to Simon and Sue, and Sharonjit, for between them arranging one of the most magical nights of my life and generally being extraordinarily kind and clever: what a combination!
Claire Wilson is a fantastic human being, a superb editor and the most marvellous agent ever – a fact which any and every member of the Coven will attest to. One of these days I’ll find some words that come close to expressing how incredibly grateful I am that you picked me to work with. Big thanks to Lexie Hamblin for contract shepherding – boy, do they go astray! Margaret Halton for being absolutely brilliant: thank you for pushing me and asking All the Hard Questions before I’d cemented anything silly in my head or on the page. It would have been far slower and harder without you. Big hugs to all Claire’s Coven for their friendship and support: how lovely to be surrounded by such fantastic writers in a profession that is famously lonely. Particular hugs to the Coven Members I have had such fun with during the writing of HoW: Alice, Cat, Giancarlo, Helen, Jon, Kate, Kiera, Pearl, Ross, Sally, Sara, Tanya and Tom. Special thanks to Gary Meehan for Maths input and sharing my love of snark, Lauren for listening, and Cerrie for being a darling. And Mel, wonderful Mel, for being absolutely fabulous: I’m so lucky that you’re my friend.
Enormous thanks to Team Faber for all their support and input and for my stunning cover, which I couldn’t love more. Thanks to the hugely talented Helen Crawford-White for her amazing work on both of my books: you made them things of beauty. My editor, Rebecca Lewis-Oakes, bought this book with only a synopsis and a few chapters that were very far from being satisfactory, all on the basis of the promise ‘It’s not right yet, but it’s going to be good, honest!’ Massive thanks to Hannah Love for getting the word out – and all the support and fun at so many events. Big thanks to Lizzie Bishop, Emma Cheshire, Emma Eldridge, Paddy Fox, Grace Gleave, Susan Holmes, Alice Swan, Leah Thaxton, Dave Woodhouse and Clare Yates. And especially to Eleanor Rees: I cannot imagine that there is a better copy-editor out there. Endless thanks for working with me again: it’s been a pleasure and an honour.
Last but by no means least, a massive thank you to the wonderful people who make up the UKYA community. It has been a tremendous joy to meet you on Twitter and in real life – not least at YALC, where we came out in force. Special thanks to Michelle for all the incredible support for The Bone Dragon: I am so grateful. And of course to my bookish ‘little sis’, Luna. And to Sophie for my first physical letter about the Dragon – and for help with slang. And Rhian, who shows me and so many others how it should be done: with excitement, generosity and kindness. And Kelley, for all the talk about cake, books and cats. Jim for all the #QuizYA fun and Lucy for all the #UKYAchats. And the teams at Edinburgh Book Festival and YALC: among the highlights of my life. A special mention here to Tim Bowler: stunningly talented writer and stellar human being. And to fellow Dream-Teamers, Holly Bourne and CJ Daugherty: thank you for all the laughs, support and margaritas. And Sarah, Lucy, Tash, Pip, James, Sally and all the other lovely LCW folks. And Sarah and Marieke for Book Hunting adventures. And Louisa Reid, who made one of those out-of-the-blue and entirely out-of-the-goodness-of-her-heart offers of help that make the hardest writing dilemmas suddenly seem solvable. I am so lucky to have been invited to belong among such brilliant people, who understand the importance of books, tea, chocolate, cake and, most of all, kindness.
Epigraph taken from Time to Be In Earnest © PD James, 2010 and reproduced by permission of Greene & Heaton Ltd.
About the Author
A British-American citizen of Italian heritage, Alexia is an editor, teacher and writing consultant. After studying psychology then educational technology at Cambridge, she moved to New York to work on a Tony award-winning Broadway show before completing a PhD and teaching qualification. In between, she worked as a West End script-critic, box-office manager for a music festival and executive editor of a human rights journal.
Also by Alexia Casale
The Bone Dragon
Ask the Author
How would you say House of Windows is different to The Bone Dragon?
With The Bone Dragon, we are inside Evie’s head: her thoughts and feelings form the core of the book. Places are imbued with interest through being filtered through her eyes and, often, imagination: nothing is ‘fact’ – it is all Evie’s version of the truth. In House of Windows, I couldn’t be inside Nick’s head to tell the story because, unlike Evie, he isn’t emotionally articulate: I could make his inner world clearer to the reader from the outside. Using the third person also let me show how different characters bring their own ‘truth’ to a situation that, viewed objectively by the reader, isn’t quite what any of them think it is.
The Bone Dragon is challenging and demands a lot of readers. House of Windows is a gentler book in many ways. It’s a book where hope and happiness are sometimes simple and heart
-warming: in The Bone Dragon everything is tinged with ifs and buts. I love both types of book as a reader and as a writer: different situations call for different books, as do different issues. There are so many stories in my head and I just want to tell them, whether they’re YA contemporary or adult historical or fantasy or …
Your writing relies on subtext, leaving a lot to the reader’s imagination. Why?
It’s really important to me not to take control of the reader’s imagination, especially regarding moral issues and what the characters look like. When writers dictate to readers, they rob them of the chance to make a book their own by reading creatively. I know that’s not to everyone’s taste, but it’s very much to mine as a reader and writer. Readers bring a lot to the table: I want to leave room for them to do so.
I believe passionately that books should capture the diversity of real people in the real world. In a film, what you see and hear is fixed: if diversity is not built in, the viewer cannot add it. In a book, this is not the case: unless the author specifies that all the characters are white or straight or physically healthy (or makes this evident through implication) then it is up to the reader. I would rather urge readers to make their own inner worlds as diverse as the outer one than dictate how they should people their imagination.
You studied at Cambridge – was the book based on your experiences? Did you play any pranks?
Nick’s story isn’t mine, but his feelings about Cambridge mirror my own, especially in terms of how beautiful it is and how that is always a source of happiness – though not always sufficient for happiness. Cambridge is beautiful in the way that all the best fairytales are: full of wonder, magic, and cruelty. As for pranks … that would be telling – but I have bridge-hopped!
Praise for The Bone Dragon
‘A beautifully crafted narrative that constantly confounds expectation.’
Financial Times
‘A magical story about love, friendship and survival. Absolutely spellbinding.’
Waterstones Piccadilly
‘Intriguing, compulsive and wholly absorbing.’
We Love This Book
‘Absolutely hypnotic.’
Sugarscape
‘Wonderful and hard to put down.’
Wendy Cooling
‘Stands apart from the crowd.’
Book Trust
‘The Bone Dragon is simply a book that you should all read.’
INIS
Copyright
First published in the UK in 2015
by Faber & Faber Limited
Bloomsbury House, 74–77 Great Russell Street
London, WC1B 3DA
This ebook edition first published in 2015
Typeset in Garamond by M Rules
All rights reserved
Text © Alexia Casale, 2015
Cover illustration © studiohelen.co.uk, 2015
Maps illustration © Nathalie Guinamard, 2015
Epigraph taken from Time to Be In Earnest © PD James, 2010 and reproduced by permission of Greene & Heaton Ltd
The right of Alexia Casale to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with Section 77 of the Copyrights, Designs and Patents Act 1988
This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly
978–0–571–32154–4