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.

@bellabina1965

I have experienced the Family Court first hand, and felt that they dealt with our case in a fair and respectful manner, despite what they must have secretly thought about our situation. I say they, as we saw about five judges by the end of the process.

After my divorce I studied family law and fully understand the reasoning behind their decisions. I guess I was fascinated to know what a judge
really thinks rather than their official take on the matter.

I would like to ask how Ian McEwan can put himself in the mind set of a woman? How did he carry out his research for this book?

It's one of the main concerns of the novelist to put him/herself into the minds of others. I've been asked this question before and I've never really found a satisfactory answer. I draw on all I know about human nature, about all the women I've ever known (as well as all relevant aspects of all the men), and of all I've managed to understand about myself - and (I hope) a plausible woman begins to emerge on the page.

Hi, I really enjoyed this book with its concise legal argument that anyone could follow. I would just like to ask with regards to Fiona & Jack - did you have a clear idea of why their relationship broke down. You alluded to a case that Fiona had worked on - teased us ..... and nothing!! So, will there be any more cases which feature this pair. I could have read another 200 pages, so thank you.

@toothlessoldhag

I hope to join the chat on the day, but just in case I can't, I'm posting my comments and question now:

I was immediately drawn in to the story of The Children Act by the writing of the opening scenes. The description of the main protagonist engaged with a legal case while sitting in her study sets the scene of the conflict between her apparent professional success and the problems in her home life. I won?t describe the way in which the moral dilemma of a Family Court case is played out, but for me this is one of the most memorable of the many books I?ve read by the Ian McEwan. I especially enjoyed the way in which he uses the setting of Gray?s Inn Road. A handful of streets in a single area of London is portrayed as a distinctive - even unique - world set apart from the bustling city around it. Given the legal setting, the contrast between the cloistered Inns of Court and the prosaic streets nearby, helps focus the reader?s mind on the story. The urban scene-setting reminded me of my favourite McEwan book, Saturday, in which Fitzrovia forms an essential backdrop to the unfolding story.

My question to Mr McEwan is: to what extent does the choice of the urban setting of his books come at the start of the writing?

London was there right from the start of The Children Act. I was thinking of that special quality of a huge city in continuous summer rain - the air of disappointment, the unnatural cleanness of the streets, the endless summer's dusk under leaden skies, the brief moments of beauty of the light, the way the trees seem larger (perhaps they are!). All this suited the mood tone of this novel.

Hi Ian

Some more questions from SW London (they keep on coming):

We get the sense that at the end of the novel there is a kind of catharsis - that although the outcome appeared to be the worst possible, the boy's death represents for Fiona both a release of pent-up emotion and a potential new beginning with her husband. But it is very harsh. Were you always writing the novel towards this ending? or did you have other options in mind

Referring to The Children Act, how could Fiona be so heartless towards Adam? What lies behind it psychologically?

Out of all your novels' protagonists, which character is your favourite and why?

Did you make Fiona childless on purpose? During your research did you observe that only women who hadn't had children get to Fiona's level in the legal profession? Do you have any opinion about this, and does it matter?

Thank you (again).

@StickChildNumberTwo

Not sure whether I'll make the chat, so posting ahead of time in case I don't. Thank you for the opportunity to read something I wouldn't have otherwise (confession - I read On Chesil Beach and hated it so haven't picked up any McEwan since) - I thoroughly enjoyed it. One irritation for the publisher if they're reading: telling me it's 'heartbreaking' on the front cover so I'll see it every time I pick it up was maddening - I was anticipating the 'heartbreak' and therefore guessed what was coming which kind of ruined the suspense.

Anyway, my question is to what extent McEwan felt constrained by the realities of the legal system, and to what extent he felt able to apply artistic license. I have no involvement in the legal system but was pretty sure I recognised the Siamese twins case (albeit with some details changed) as a real one - were they all?

I kept as close as I could to the realities of the family courts. I never thought of this as a constraint, any more than I would think the nets and lines on a tennis court are. Plausible re-enacting a shared world seems to me like an exciting and exacting task.

Hmm... I see what you mean about 'heartbreaking' - I'll pass on your response to my publisher.

"The posts are intelligent and engaged - what's to hide?"

Oh, all the rest of my life, warts and all, written out across the many varied topics on offer across this forum!

Ian, nobody writes under their real name online, particularly on Mumsnet!

@Spockster

I agree. His female characters, particularly the professional ones are often quite unsympathetic; hard even. Is that intentional?

Not sure about this 'hard'. Fiona is devastated by her husband's desertion, makes the 'warm' decision to go to Adam's bedside, makes the even warmer and softer risk of singing while he plays the violin, speaks up in her judgment for 'all the life and love that lie ahead of him', lets her emotions take charge when she unprofessionally kisses him, weeps inconsolably at the news of his death...

I'm a little suspicious when people describe women as 'hard' - usually a disguise for 'ambitious', 'professional', or worse, 'rational'. Beware of handing these qualities over uniquely to men!

Ian - I very much enjoyed The Childrens Act.
Can I ask a question.
Firstly, the central kernel concerns a marriage is difficulty.
But we really only get Fiona's side of things.
As a lawyer - is that fair? was that deliberate?
Thanks
mark

Thanks so much for answering my question so lyrically. I'd say that London today was much of what you've described.

@cathisherwood

Hope to be here in time for the web chat but in case I miss it here are my comments/questions Fiona has been very single minded in her career choice and therefore chosen not to become a mother. This is a decision men do not make - presumably this is why the main character is a woman. I think it is difficult for a male author to write authentically about how women feel. Are there other reasons you have chosen to do this? Judges spend alot of time considering their cases with objectivity. Once they have made and justified their decisions I would assume they feel they have done their job and move on to the next case. How often do you believe they revisit their decision or question their judgment or even follow up on the consequences? Many of us have been touched by what we see as unnecessary deaths of Jehovah Witness believers. Was this book prompted by a personal experience of this kind?

Fiona has not exactly 'chosen' not to be a mother. See pp 44 & 45. Pressures of work, decisions deferred, changes of mind etc. Then suddenly, it's too late. A common experience, I think, and a difficult one.

What struck me about the work of judges is how relentless it is. Case after case, human tragedy, misunderstanding, hatreds, fates of children contested - all in a morning. So judges have to move on. A parallel would be the medical profession. You have to care - but not too much. But it was clear to me during my research that certain cases can haunt a judge, while others are forgotten.

No personal experience lay behind this novel. What struck me about the JW cases is the strength of belief, deep and sincere, powerful enough to break what I would think of as the strongest human bond, that between a parent and a child.

I once asked a JW about why he would let his child die rather than let it have a transfusion. He said -"Your concept of death is all wrong. You think of it as an end. We think of it as a beginning."

@hackmum

Apologies to Ian McEwan for these slightly negative questions - I have loved so many of your books, but two things really niggle away at me:

1. Most of your books feature highly educated, intelligent, professionally successful characters (often with a very deep knowledge and love of music). Have you ever thought of challenging yourself by creating protagonists who are a bit more ordinary?

1. Why-oh-why do you torment your readers with such frustrating endings? I adored Sweet Tooth all the way through, but I was so cross at the ending that I wanted to throw the book against the wall (but couldn't, because I was reading it on a Kindle). Couldn't you write a book where the ending is neither tricksy nor depressing?

Not sure I believe in the idea of ordinary people. I suppose I like playing with ideas - a fairly ordinary pursuit, I should think. So my characters reflect my interests. But even when they're successful, they are usually troubled too.

As for the end of Sweet Tooth, thanks for not actually throwing the book against the wall. You may have missed the point: the whole idea of spying here is to decide who is in charge of the narrative. Secondly, the fact that the book exists means that the couple have not only married (she's said 'yes!' to his proposal), but they have remained together for forty years or more. What you have read is their collaboration, published only after the Official Secrets Act has allowed it.

@TheCommoner

Very honoured to be able to take part in this webchat with Ian McEwan.

I agree so much with the previous poster who commented on the wonderful portrayal of the tiny London community in Gray's Inn.

Do you feel at all that you were punishing Fiona for her career success and for her glittering, enviable life, by making her childless? Had her heart been turned to stone (so that she failed to respond to Adam) by her childlessness - or by her career?

I'd love to ask more questions, but I've already gone over the limit!

I found the book profoundly moving.

See my reply to Spockster. She does respond to Adam - she goes to his bedside and can hardly admit to herself that this is the son she might have had. In the end she feels she has to keep him at bay. That's why his death penetrates her so deeply - the suspicion is that he died for love of her.

I finished the book today and thought it very well written. I thought the difficulties of true impartiality was well suggested and explored, for aren't we all shaped and formed by our own experiences, to some degree? I really felt for Fiona, having to make life and death decisions, against such a backdrop of her feckless husband's threatened infidelity.

As a Dr who has seen literally 1000s of patients over the past decade, I was struck by the truth of the observation that sometimes a case resonates with you long beyond when it is finished. Sometime an action or inaction can haunt you for years.

@Emmajp1973

Was wondering if, when you start writing a book, whether had an expectation of how you want the reader to respond to the different characters?

As these posts elegantly demonstrate, readers' responses are impossible to anticipate. So I feel when I'm peopling a novel with characters that I have to try and get things right - by my own terms. And then hope that these terms mean something to someone else. Generally, they do and they don't. Every writer has the experience of having a book praised by one reader, damned to hell by another.

Ian - Fiona gets devastating news as she is about to go on stage - was that realistic do you think? Would her colleague be so insensitive?
Thanks
mark

@MNMertonWimbledonbookclub

Hi Ian

Hello from SW London. We were interested by your fictitious high-rise Edith Cavell Wandsworth Hospital located somewhere on Wandsworth Common - that would indeed be a blot on the landscape!

We were somewhat affronted by Fiona's 'north Londoner's ignorance of and disdain for the boundless shabby tangle of London south of the river...' a fair description of how it used to be some thirty years ago, but not now fiercely proud of our corner of London!

We have some questions for you (and there may well be more as the webchat gathers momentum) - hope that's okay?

I've heard that you describe yourself as an English novelist. Failure to act, failure to communicate and self-deception seem to be strong themes in your work. Are these defining English characteristics in your view?

For Mumsnetters who may have missed out on reading some of your seminal works, which three would you recommend as 'must reads' and why?

One of our Mumsnetter book group members comments "I have noticed you often write about the well-educated middle classes (which your readers like to think they are, presumably?). But often about how they are paralysed by their own well-behaved/polite upbringings and end up making disastrous emotional decisions. I'm thinking of Atonement as well as The Children Act and On Chesil Beach. Also...that they often leave the reader deeply depressed. Or is that just my experience? You create these fantastically charming and realistic characters only for tragic denouement." Anything you'd like to add to these observations, Ian?

Thank you .

Yes, sorry about the hospital ruining your beautiful common.

I lived in south London (Stockwell and Clapham) for ten years and I know too well the north London disdain for the south. I decided to give it in rather heightened form to Fiona.

"Failure to act, failure to communicate and self-deception" - yes, these are all there in my work, but I don't think they are qualities confined to the English, who can be perfectly over-active, noisily communicative and painfully self-critical when it suits.

What I intended by that remark came up in discussions of Scottish independence. I think the Act of Union never extended to the imagination. There are no British poets, only Scots, Welsh, Irish and English ones. I was suggesting that this might be one over-looked success of the Union. My father was a Glaswegian, but I consider myself an English novelist simply by accident of fate - this is where I've lived and this is where I've mostly set my novels.

~Following on from your previous q&a, your female character was more than plausible.

Being in such a position, one could imagine her to be as she was. Did you ever consider writing the part as a male? As this is a story that could have been written from many different perspectives, so why did you choose hers?

Hi
I enjoyed so much about this, but I did come away with a funny taste in my mouth - I felt that as a reader I was being led to think Fiona was really responsible for her own pickle - after all, she let herself get thick around the middle (while her husband was busy growing his virile chest hair), focussed on her career, and worst of all failed to meet her marital obligations, for seven whole weeks....I felt the husband got off the hook somewhat. This sort of message that a middle aged woman whose husband strays is probably to blame because of insufficient grooming and ideas above her station is a little depressing, and it bothered me that Fiona herself seemed to have internalised it.
Do you think it would have been possible/interesting to write the whole book with the genders all flipped around (so, male judge with cheating wife, female JW patient)?

Just a quick thank you for answering our questions, Ian.
It's a privilege to be here, even if only sitting at the back quietly.
Your answers are very illuminating.

Hi, sorry I'm coming late to the post, wifi problems. I enjoyed the book, but didn't really like the main characer... not sure how others felt about her?

@snice

Thank you for my copy of the book. I've read nearly all of Ian MacEwan's novels ever since I read 'The Child in Time' on the recommendation of a friend and was blown away by it.

My question for Ian is-you have a very recognisable writing style in my opinion. Have you ever had a secret desire to write something completely different-in a different genre or style perhaps? And if you did would you have to use a nom de plume in order for it to be judged 'fairly'?

Funny you should ask that. I'm writing something very different now. But (I think) I'll publish under my own name and take the consequences.

Firstly I must say how much I enjoyed the children act and indeed I have enjoyed every book of your I have read. I love how you document in great detail the world of work, the judgements of Fiona in the children act so considered and wise and I was very struck by the description of the precision and skill of the neurosurgeon in Saturday. Bus this a deliberate theme of yours - to leave to future generations accurate descriptions of skilled workers in the 21st century and if so are there any jobs you want to write about next?

@redredread

I would like to ask Ian McEwan which female authors he thinks write well in the male voice, particularly as his stories so often revolve around a female protagonist.

I like Virginia Woolf in To the Lighthouse. Elizabeth Bowen, Olivia Manning, Rose Tremain, Patricia Highsmith.

Oh I just saw Sarah3kids asked the same as I did about writing this story with a male protagonist. For me, Fiona wasn't quite believable - I think she was too intelligent and sensitive to be so meek with allowing him back, letting everything carry on as before, with the implication that she deserves nothing better.