Come and chat to Ian McEwan about his exceptional career and acclaimed novels, including his latest, The Children Act on MONDAY 1 JUNE, 9-10pm

[TillyMumsnetBookClub]

Our May author Ian McEwan is one of Britain's most outstanding, successful and acclaimed novelists, winning multiple awards over his long career. His subtle, unshowy and precise style is perfectly suited to his meticulously researched subjects - from brain surgery in Saturday to MI5 in Sweet Tooth.

In his pacy, gripping new novel, The Children Act, McEwan deftly investigates the legal system through his protagonist Fiona Maye, a High Court judge. When her husband Jack asks for her permission to have an affair, Fiona buries herself in her work in the family courts as a counterbalance to her crumbling personal life. But when an emergency case involving a young Jehovah's Witness boy comes up, Fiona's emotional involvement with him leads to disturbance but also self-knowledge, across both her public and private life.

You can find out more on our book of the month page, and find information covering McEwan's stellar career on his website.

Vintage have 50 copies of THE CHILDREN ACT to give to Mumsnetters: to claim your copy please go to the book of the month page. If you're not lucky enough to bag one of those, you can always get a Kindle version here or paperback here.

We are absolutely thrilled and honoured that Ian will be joining us on Monday 1st June, 9-10pm to discuss THE CHILDREN ACT, his writing life, his many award-winning novels plus much more. Please feel free to discuss the book here throughout the month and then come and meet Ian on the night, ask him a question about any of his novels or simply tell him what you thought of his latest book. Look forward to seeing you on the 1st.

Thanks very much for the copy of the Children Act and for introducing me to the writing of Ian McEwan, as I had not previously read any of his books.

I am unable to join in the chat tonight unfortunately.

I did enjoy reading the Children Act but thought it was almost too condensed. Wouldn't have minded a few more chapters at all.

Others above have already outlined any questions I wanted to ask (writing from a female perspective; law and religion; public versus personal duty) and I look forward to visiting this thread later this week to read all the interesting questions, answers and viewpoints.

Hi Ian,

You highlight some cases that point out ways in which the justice system is unfair ie with Mark Berner, is this something that interests you?

Were there any real life cases or legal practices that surprised you during your research?

Hi there Mr McEwan. I love your books but they do leave me a little disturbed after reading. I'm thinking that's a good thing. One slight question though which has always bothered me. We read Atonement for an English course at college which was a fabulous choice in my opinion ;-) However, we argued and argued but never seemed to convince ourselves an answer. Only you can tell us I'm thinking. Did Paul Marshall rape Lola? I mean to say. We know it was him and Lola but we could never decide if she was a willing participant or not, what with her bruised arms and scratches from earlier (was that him too?) but then the wedding...

I am afraid I am one of those readers who likes everything tied up with a neat bow at the end, conveniently handed all the answers to questions, which is why your books, yes, leave me disturbed but in a good way I guess. Atonement, with Briony as narrator, I loved, but it really made my head hurt trying to get it, particularly as, can we trust a word Briony said? Then of course. It was all dreamed up by you. Can we trust you?

Love you xxx

Bought the book before and read it almost in one sitting. Fantastic. Thought provoking and very human.

Hello Ian McEwan. Do you feel that literary novelists are at risk of making art too important? Fiona's love of making music is beautifully conveyed in 'The Children Act.' But it seems to be implied that the child/young man she becomes (over) involved with is only interesting because he too is interested in high culture. The novel can be seen as a criticism of religion - but perhaps you could be seen as wanting to put art on a pedestal in its stead....

I can see that art must be important for a writer, but does that mean it also has to be important for her/his characters?

Hello Ian - I really enjoyed The Children Act and I'm particularly intrigued by your portrayal of Fiona. I noticed that you showed her dealing with stress in her personal life by playing Bach on the piano, and in an earlier work (The Imitation Game, I think) I remember that you had a character trying to master a Mozart piano sonata. Do you listen to or play music when you're working, and if so, does it have an effect or influence on your work?
Thanks!

Hello
I have read this book and also 'Saturday' and the other books, I think Mr Mc Ewan writes really well and the subjects are thought provoking and topical.
A friend thinks the books are rather 'dark' and on reflection, I think this is true: for example 'the Children Act' could have had another ending.

Also, while I cannot speak for the lawyer in 'the Children Act' I felt that the neurosurgeon's life in 'Saturday' was a bit of a Hollywood caricature, living up to a popular notion that consultants are somehow more wealthy than the rest of the universe, which simply isn't true anymore.

So, why are your books so dark Mr McEwan?

Good evening.
Thank you to Mumsnet for sending me 'The Children Act' and to you Ian for writing it. Unfortunately, I have not quite finished it yet. So far I am enjoying the book. I find the main character very interesting but not someone that I can relate to easily. I do not see this as a negative thing as the joy of fiction is seeing the world from another perspective. I am also enjoying getting an insight into the courts system which I have never experienced and know very little about. I have been reading through the thread and am most intrigued by some of the questions being asked. I will be interested to read your answer to a question posed earlier: was there one case in particular that inspired you to write this book? I'd also like to know if there was a particular woman that inspired you also for the main character?

Thanks.

I really enjoyed my copy of The Children's Act and despite having a newborn managed to read it all in a few days! It reminded me in atmosphere of Saturday which is one of my favourite of your books, though that may also be related to the London setting. I really enjoy the precision in your writing.
My question is, when you are writing about a subject which requires significant amounts, of research, how do you find a balance between using that research in the novel without the novel becoming too dry? How do you balance research with the rest of the creative process?

Good evening and thank you for coming on Mumsnet.

Every work day I am lucky enough to see the entire stretch of Chesil Beach as I leave work.

Which do you find the most challenging to write, novels set in one day or spread over time.

Can I also say that I find the ending of Atonement very open ended, did you intend it to be that way?

Hello and thank you to Mumsnet and Ian McEwan for this book which I very much enjoyed.

From the opening I was outraged on Fiona's behalf because of her husband's selfish behaviour, and though I found the legal issues of the book fascinating, I felt I wanted more about this crisis in her personal life. So my question for Ian is, when you are planning a new novel, is it the situation or the main character which comes to you first? And which do you most challenging or interesting to write about, professional dilemmas or emotional ones?
Thanks!

Thanks for my copy of the book, I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Ian, you are one of my favourite novelists, I especially enjoyed Enduring Love, Atonement and Saturday. (And my son is not called Theo because I was reading 'Saturday' at the time - well maybe!)

I loved the contrast between Fiona being highly organised and precise in her work yet her personal life was more chaotic.
The court cases were all interesting too, was the Jehovah Witness case always going to be the main focus or did it come to the forefront as you wrote?

Dear Ian McEwan
I was introduced to your work back in the late seventies when I was at university and I have read every book you have written since then and enjoyed them all - though some more than others.
I'm intrigued to know whether or not the character of Thomas Haley in 'Sweet Tooth' is based on yourself - there seem to be several parallels!

Book was great, do you have a new book in the pipeline and can i ask what will it be about? Also my Uncle is VS Naipaul do you intent to keep writing for as long as possible?
Thanks and looking forward to reading some more of your work.

Evening everyone

Firstly, thank you to all those who have posted their reviews and opinions so far - you have already led the discussion in all sorts of different directions.

I am delighted and immensely honoured to welcome Ian McEwan, one of Britain’s most acclaimed writers and winner of an extraordinary amount of awards, to Bookclub this evening. Ian's intelligent and perfectly crafted novels have been at the forefront of our literary culture for decades, and I can't wait to discuss them all this evening.

Ian, thank you very, very much indeed for giving us your time tonight and congratulations on THE CHILDREN ACT, a superbly written and deeply thought-provoking story.

We've already got a fair few questions to get through so I'll just add the standard Mumsnet ones that we like to ask all our authors...

What childhood book most inspired you?

What would be the first piece of advice you would give to anyone attempting to write fiction?

What would be the first piece of advice you would give to anyone attempting to write fiction?

And the best you’ve received?

Over to you...

Many thanks to Mumsnet / Vintage Books for a copy of 'The Children Act' by Ian McEwan. After the excellent 'Atonement, which I first saw the film version of, I must admit, I opened 'The Children Act' with real anticipation. Considering this new book was totally different to 'Atonement', I was curious to see the way the story was executed. What I've found is a precisely written, well-crafted tale. The prose exacting, and the author does well in incorporating authentic legal vernacular.

I'd like to ask Ian a couple of general questions to begin with, if I may ......

QUESTION ONE:- Do you have a personal favourite out of the books you've had published?

QUESTION TWO:- I read somewhere that the rights to one of your other books, 'Sweet Tooth', have been snapped up by Working Film Titles, the company responsible for bringing 'Atonement' to the big screen. Is that correct, and, if so, are there any updates relating to that? Additionally, is there any other of your books being optioned for film or television?

Good evening Ian and thank you for giving up your time to come and chat to us and answer our questions. I really enjoyed reading The Children Act. I especially enjoyed learning more about the Family Court and The Children Act itself. It was very interesting to think about judges who work in Family Law as I hadn't really given them much consideration before so your book has really opened my eyes (obviously I know they are not all like Fiona!). The only part of the book I did not enjoy was her husband announcing he was planning an affair, which seemed weird and unrealistic in my experience.

I enjoyed the way you wrote- I found the book was indepth yet easy to read- but struggled a bit with the lack of chapters. As I like to read a chapter a night normally when reading books, The Children Act made me quite tired! Is there a reason why you used so few chapters?

I did not find Fiona hard or cold at all. She was deeply affected by the cases- ie the Siamese Twins one making her not want to touch her husband or her husband to touch her and also the affect that Adam had on her. I felt she was repressing her feelings on the cases and not releasing her emotions at all which was causing her problems. She almost sounded as if she (and any judge making such life or death decisions) needed debriefing couselling after each case. Is this what you were trying to suggest with the book or have I totally misunderstood her?

@TillyMumsnetBookClub

Evening everyone

Firstly, thank you to all those who have posted their reviews and opinions so far - you have already led the discussion in all sorts of different directions.

I am delighted and immensely honoured to welcome Ian McEwan, one of Britain?s most acclaimed writers and winner of an extraordinary amount of awards, to Bookclub this evening. Ian's intelligent and perfectly crafted novels have been at the forefront of our literary culture for decades, and I can't wait to discuss them all this evening.

Ian, thank you very, very much indeed for giving us your time tonight and congratulations on THE CHILDREN ACT, a superbly written and deeply thought-provoking story.

We've already got a fair few questions to get through so I'll just add the standard Mumsnet ones that we like to ask all our authors...

What childhood book most inspired you?

What would be the first piece of advice you would give to anyone attempting to write fiction?

What would be the first piece of advice you would give to anyone attempting to write fiction?

And the best you?ve received?

Over to you...

Hello Tilly and everyone. Thanks for having me. I'm delighted to be able to chat with you directly about my novels.

As for your first four questions -

What childhood book most inspired you?

The Gauntlet by Ronald Welch, published in 1951. I was eight, recovering from an operation in a British military hospital in Tripoli, Libya. (Even as I type these words I can summon that dread medical odour of antisepsis and the sound of the high ceiling fans). A boy on holiday in Wales finds a rusting gauntlet, slips it on and is transported back to 1326. The end, as I remember it, is wonderfully ambiguous.
I reached the last page in tears (not of sorrow but of admiration) and knowing that no other book would do, started again from the beginning.

What would be the first piece of advice you would give to anyone attempting to write fiction?

I always advise would-be young writers to start with short stories. Work your way through your influences, try out different voices, allow for the necessary failures - they'll take weeks rather than months or years.

What was the best book you've given recently?

I recently gave a friend Robert Tombs' The English and their History. A magnificent overview, full of persuasive, unorthodox conclusions. It reads almost like a novel.

And the best you've received?

I was recently given Leonard Michaels' novella Sylvia. It's a compelling account of an addictive, destructive love-affair. Set in the Village, New York in 1960. Michaels was a superb American writer (he died in 2003) whose work is not very well known here. It should be - I'm sure it will be.

Hello Ian, I'm a huge admirer of your work, and really pleased you've come on for a web chat. I really enjoyed The Children Act. I know it was based on a real case, and the story in your novel is very close to how the real events played out (characters different of course), so I wanted to ask if you had to do anything in the way of seeking permission to use the case as the basis of your novel?

@butterflyballs

Thanks so much for a copy of this book. I finally had some free time at the weekend to get round to reading it and it was a page turner.

I'd love to know where the I aspiration for the story line came from. We hear about courts making orders on cases where parents are at loggerheads either with each other or with the medical system itself and I wonder if there was one particular case that inspired this or whether the dilemma became the main storyline amongst the other cases mentioned in the plot?

I derived my fictional cases from real ones - though I changed a great deal. The case of the Jehovah's Witness teenager as well as that of the Siamese Twins were presided over by Sir Alan Ward, who retired a couple of years ago from the Court of Appeal. His judgments are beautifully composed and profoundly humane. He was my main source for procedure and detail in the Family Courts and I'm very grateful to him.

You've written three screenplays. How does the process of writing these differ from writing novels?

I love how you described women's clothing in Atonement.

@FernieB

Thanks so much for my copy of this book. I was just glad it was quite short as I became so involved in it, I couldn't put it down and spent the weekend with my nose buried firmly inside the pages.

I found the subject of the main case interesting and was also intrigued by the other cases mentioned. I was also wondering about the inspiration for this book. Did it come from a real case?

Unfortunately I won't be able to make the Webchat but will catch up later.

See my reply to 'Butterflyballs' (Am I the only person in this conversation writing under a real name? The posts are intelligent and engaged - what's to hide?) I should also add that Jehovah's Witness transfusion cases involving children or minors come before courts around the world on a regular basis. Judges will always rule in favour of the hospital, granting permission to transfuse against the parents' (or the minor's) wishes. The interest lies in the manner in which the judges reach their decisions.

It's interesting what you say about short stories. I first discovered your writing through a rather battered copy of 'First Love, Last Rites' (now even more battered, sitting on my bookshelves 25 years later. I'm going to crack it open for another read after tonight's discussion.