Come and chat to prizewinning author Sarah Hall about her brilliant new novel THE WOLF BORDER, our March Book of the Month, on 23 March, 9-10pm

[TillyMumsnetBookClub]

Our March Author of the Month is likely to be your best literary discovery of 2016. Sarah Hall has already been nominated for the Booker Prize (twice) and won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, BBC National Short Story Award, Portico Prize for Fiction, John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and the EM Forster Award. With the outstanding reviews for her fifth novel, THE WOLF BORDER, Sarah has definitely become, as the Mail agreed, ‘one of our finest fiction writers’. THE WOLF BORDER is set in Cumbria, on a private moorland estate owned by an eccentric Earl who is determined to reintroduce the Grey Wolf to England. Rachel Caine is the dynamic expert in charge of the project, recently returned home after a decade in Idaho. Both the wolves and Rachel share an untamed and solitary nature, and while Rachel contends with the public outrage, the political arguments and the complex demands of the regeneration project, she must also grapple with her impending motherhood and a reconciliation with her estranged family. Dealing with wildness, inheritance, hierarchies, sex and love, this is an absorbing, richly constructed novel combining political engagement and natural beauty. Read Sarah's books, and congratulate yourself on finding a particularly rare talent.

Faber have 50 copies of The Wolf Border to give to Mumsnetters: to claim your copy please fill in your details on our book of the month page. We’ll post on the thread when all the copies have gone. If you’re not lucky enough to bag one of those, you can always get a Kindle edition or paperback copy here

We are delighted that Sarah will be joining us to answer your questions about The Wolf Border, her previous award-winning novels and her writing career on Wednesday 23 March, 9-10pm. Please feel free to discuss the book here throughout the month and then come and meet Sarah on the night, and ask her a question or simply tell her what you thought of the book. It’ll be a fascinating chat, very much hope you can make it…

@k8vincent

I really enjoyed reading this book and found Rachel's character actually quite compelling. I didn't find her unrealistic, yes she could be described as 'cold' , but perhaps detached is better - it seemed appropriate for her role and her link to the wolves.

It was interesting seeing her try to balance her desire to keep looking after the wolves with the new experiences of motherhood.

Some of the description is really beautiful - "September's russet fading in the trees, wet, glistening light on the hills . . ."

Q. Was there a particular reason why you chose not to use speech marks in this text?

Q. What came first - Rachel's character or the wolves?

Thank you! I was – and am - really interested in the experience of new mothers in terms of balancing this role and work. I began the book before I got pregnant, edited it during pregnancy, and finished it up just after my daughter was born. You know big changes are coming when you are going to have kids but until you get to it you REALLY have no idea how extensive and intense they can be! The scenario later in the book, where Rachel hunts the wolves while juggling her son – it’s an extreme scenario of course, and in a way metaphoric, but something many mothers have to contend with, the marrying of their professional and personal lives, and their sense of identities, and it can be very challenging. One finds out that our society, while it tries to be accommodating and progressive, still bears the scars of sexism, discrimination, expectation, and judgment. I think Rachels’ life and her experiences bring these things to the fore, so that we can think and talk about them. I’m a feminist. Rachel was always going to be a character operating in the crucible of gender politics.

Speech marks can often seem interruptive and like apparatus or clutter and in this book I wanted a kind of seamlessness between everything, a lean-ness of text.

When I start a book there is no plan, just ideas and current interests, so while the wolves were the primary candidates for inspiration, the characters and the politics and the landscapes were all swirling round in my mind too. I don’t think novels are very linear things in composition even though they can appear that way after writing. They are collections of ideas and collections of stories, and preoccupations on the part of the writer. I’m always rather suspicious of books with a single driving deliberate storyline. A novel is an artifice, yes, and some readers want a straight artificial run of things, but life doesn’t entirely work that way. For example, the section of the novel after Rachel has given birth – the plot sort of halts and everything is baby-focused for a while. That’s not sustainable narratively, but I did want to realistically echo that strange fugue state after giving birth.

Yes, Tilly and Mitch, agree with you about the sex scenes. I've actually started skimming over most of these in other books but these were real, natural (borders again)...lovely.

@BearAusten

I didn't find it a particularly easy novel to get into, it was a slog at times. However, it was worth persevering. There were some wonderfully descriptive and observant details, in particular about the wolves themselves. It was interesting that the Scottish Referendum was used as a background.

What was the fundamental inspiration for your novel? Wolves or Scottish Referendum or something else?

Do you agree with the reintroduction of now extinction species to the UK, such as wild boar, wolf, lynx, bear? Where do you stop?

Hope the previous answer covers inspiration. I do believe in reintroduction, yes, especially as we now understand scientifically that it is better for the environment to have diversity and trophic cascade can help some denuded environments recover. And there are financial benefits too. Britain does feel a little ‘bald’ of animals at the moment. I’m not sure I’d go as far as George Monbiot, who I respect enormously – with dreams of elephants in Europe etc – but I’d go pretty far! What do you think?

@Dunlurking

I notice the kindle edition is 99p today. Zooming through as much as I can before tonight but I wanted to ask Sarah if she had researched farmers' attitudes to rewilding in Cumbria at all for the book?

Zoom! Zoom! Yes, during the research I read some reports and statistics about farmers responses to questionnaires about re-wilding, though mostly in relation to Scotland, as this is where the reintroduction proposals have largely been. It is a contentious issue – I recently had a big discussion with my best friend – also Cumbrian – about it all. Even with electric fencing, subsidies and compensation payouts sheep farmers are rightly nervous and largely against, it seems. The deer estates are a little different. It’s proposed that wolf reintroduction could actually save money here, as wolves naturally hunt down the slower and sicker stock and culling (which can be expensive) after booms in population and at other times wouldn't be necessary. It’s all quite complicated as the current debates about British farming are far wider, including EU subsidies, sustainability, nostalgia and various other things… HOT POTATO!

@gazzalw

Hi Sarah

Now that you live in Norfolk, will you consider using it as a backdrop to a future novel, as you have done with Cumbria and 'The Wolf Border'? Hugely different landscapes might drive totally different types of plot?

If 'The Wolf Border' were to be made into a film who could you envisage playing Rachel?

Thanks.

I have a short story in my forthcoming collection set in Norfolk, a dystopian ruined Norwich… It is a tremendously different landscape here, with its own deep heritage, and amazing scenery,big sky, which does make me a little nervous... The relationship I have with Cumbria is so intimate it’s easy to reach for, but I’m really interested in creating different landscapes and examining the characters within them – thinking about how place shapes people. Interesting to wonder about how place shapes possible plot too. Or history, for that matter. Or local philosophy! I have a theory about why people from Norfolk say 'That' instead of 'It.' 'That's over there…' But that's another conversation!
Who would play Rachel! Good question! Well the film and TV rights have sold so we’ll have to wait and see... I feel like there’s a raft of brilliant northern female actors with edge and complexity at the moment, so we’d be spoiled for choice. Who would play Ra and Merle? Difficult casting...

@addingtothenoise

Hi Sarah, I really enjoyed this book, I found the ideas of the wildness in the UK versus America really fascinating...I wanted to ask you about your own experiences of wildness...Have their been any personal experiences in wild nature that shaped your writing? Do you think it's important for people to experience a sense of the wildness in nature? And do you think that's really possible without leaving the UK?

Thanks!

Really good and difficult questions. Growing up in the Lake District was so formative for me, I can’t believe I’d be writing the kind of fiction I am without that experience. Nature was such a companionable thing, though not always friendly. It isn’t strictly or relatively ‘wild’ in Cumbria, well, some places are, but it certainly felt that way to me as a child, proportionally and perceptually (wait, is that a word!?). I have had experiences in life that suddenly made me feel very moral and vulnerable – like in Finland, a sinking boat on a lake scenario, which made it’s way into a short story, lightening storms and ice storm while I living in the USA, extreme weather. We do have grand landscapes in the UK of course, and maybe they are dwarfed by others abroad, but they are beautiful and dramatic, and moving, they’ve shaped who we are as a nation, and one’s frame of mind very much influences whether or not we find a wilderness quality to them. My daughter (nearly two) finds the local park hugely exciting and scary! It’s very exciting that we have such a strong movement in landscape writing at the moment – Robert McFarlane, Kathleen Jamie, and many others – I wonder if this is because we feel our wilder places are under threat – from urbanization, from climate change, from many things? Suddenly they are meaningful and significant.

On a personal note, I'm longing to hear answer about Norfolk: I am West Dorset-born and bred and now live in East Suffolk and I get overpoweringly homesick for my hilly, pastoral landscape amid the arable, estuary flatlands. Does the East coast wildness hold as much power for you?

@LocalEditorSutton

Hi Sarah

What authors inspired you to become one? What are your favourite novels and why?

Thanks .

This will sound odd but I’m not sure writers inspired me to become a writer. It was something internal I always felt – and I don’t know where it came from really. A way of thinking or being, or finding writing was the best for of communication for me perhaps – the way some people are verbal or can sing or dance to express themselves. These days I’m a fussy reader, but when I come across writers I love I find it’s because they have a different quality to me. For example Ali Smith and George Saunders and both much more innovative and funny, but I find that makes me want to write better, not as they do, but as I could.

sorry, crossed posts there - I like your answer very much.

@redalertalpha

Hi Sarah, I really loved discovering more about wolves and rewilding after reading the book; in general wolves are portrayed as dangerous, savage creatures in popular film/fiction genres yet in this book it explored more the raw/primal aspects of human behaviour and habits which I found really gripping throughout. Do you find it challenging when you're writing characters that have a lot of complex emotional and personal issues?

Thank you

Yes! And I'm really glad of your analysis as it's definitely something I was trying for. Wolves are often given a bad rap. And we all know humans are the most dangerous animals around. Emotionally complex characters are very hard to achieve on the page, and especially darker women characters as there are still areas of personality or traits that people find very uncomfortable to read or think about. Much of my work explores this. But you’ve got to challenge yourself and be honest about these things.

@hareinthemoon

Hi Sarah,

my mum died the day I found out I was pregnant - I loved the "one in, one out" (as my mum's nurse put it) aspect of Rachel's story fascinating. The nurse said it was pretty common - did you research this?

I also thought there were aspects of the story that I felt were acting like characters, like the landscape and the weather - did you have a feeling that you were kind of curating a set of influences (if that makes sense)? Also with the weather, how much were you tempted to play with the pathetic fallacy, or afraid of seeming to?

I'm sorry about your mum. I didn't research it, but you know, my mum died last November - she was diagnosed with cancer 4 months after my daughter was born and she lasted a year, so I now do understand, first hand, the difficulty of managing these large life events when they come close together...

Curating a set of influences is a lovely way of putting it. There are things that you write about that can seem as vital as the human characters, aspects of nature for example. I am aware of the old Jane Eyre weather/mood device and have to watch myself on that, but passages of say, rain description, are as important for me to get right as character interaction. Terminal Cumbrian!

I have just started The Wolf Border and am really enjoying it! I have actually just finished The Carhullan Army and I noticed how Jackie Nixon comments 'You know what else I'd like to see back here? Wolves. We're still missing a big predator in the chain.' Perhaps TWB was in the works even then?!

So instead of talking about wolves, my question is- how do think your style has changed or evolved since some of your earlier work?

@blogmumjd

Sarah, Welcome to the web chat. My first question tonight is did you ever plan to reveal who the man in the wolf mask is, or was it always to remain a mystery?

I think I maybe thought about it and then decided not too. The Earl is one candidate but I reckon it's best not knowing. I like the mystery! x

My final question tonight, seeing as it is after the ending of the story, how do you imagine Kyle's reaction to Charlie?

@SallySwann

This seems an unusual subject matter for a novel, though Cumbria is obviously close to your heart, Sarah, so what is your link to wolves or what drew you to them. I also have to ask whether the character of Rachel is in any way based upon yourself?

Wolves. They are perfect. I wanted to try and get them onto the page. Rachel. Ouch, good question. She sort of looks like me, in a way. She's tougher and probably more resilient, and she's definitely more disturbed. I wonder if I'm prone to writing characters that are amplified versions of what I might quite like to be, some days, or would be afraid of being if I went too far... Does that make sense?

I dearly wish we had more time, but our hour is nearly up...

I have particularly enjoyed tonight's chat - thank you to everyone for coming and for such observant and thoughtful questions.

Most of all, Sarah: thank you very very much for answering everything with such speed and humour and intelligence. As someone pointed out earlier, you are a dream to listen to. Good luck with the next project and we can't wait to see what you do next - whatever it is, we know it will be remarkable.

Many thanks once more, and do come back again one day.

Yes, thank you Sarah - a great treat to have you tell us more about your writing.

Yes thank you Sarah for chatting to us tonight.

@hareinthemoon

I also wanted to ask if you were at all influenced by poets who write about landscape, since your writing is similarly dense and sensitive.

Thank you! Definitely. Probably more influenced by poets initially than fiction writers. I was especially - as a young writer - drawn to the twentieth century Welsh poets, and the notion of politics being tied into landscape. There is a linguistic challenge to novel writing too. Every sentence counts even though there are so many. I yearn for the skill of poetry in terms of accuracy and sensory control and depiction. Favourite poet just now is Kathleen Jamie. She's amazing. She can nail a whole philosophy and landscape in 4 lines. Wow.

@TillyMumsnetBookClub

I dearly wish we had more time, but our hour is nearly up...

I have particularly enjoyed tonight's chat - thank you to everyone for coming and for such observant and thoughtful questions.

Most of all, Sarah: thank you very very much for answering everything with such speed and humour and intelligence. As someone pointed out earlier, you are a dream to listen to. Good luck with the next project and we can't wait to see what you do next - whatever it is, we know it will be remarkable.

Many thanks once more, and do come back again one day.

Yes, time's up - sorry I couldn't get to every comment! Thank you all so much for reading with such enthusiasm and insight and it's been a real pleasure. Now - goodnight all - and please don't let the baby wake up! xx

Thank you Sarah and mumsnet for a great webchat and for answering my question about farmers' attitudes. I'm no longer zooming through the book, it's way too good to speed through.

Thanks again.

Hi Sarah

What an enjoyable webchat. Thank you for answering our questions. I look forward to your new collection of short stories and also to hearing more about the filming of The Wolf Border (Maxine Peake for Rachel, anyone?).

Happy Easter!

Kate

Thank you for the copy of The Wolf Border by Sarah Hall.
I initially didn't warm to Rachel, the main character in the book as she seems very cold-hearted, but as the book moves on I came to appreciate her more, especially with her passion for the wolves.
This wasn't a book I would normally read, and I found it a little hard going, but over all, the writing kept me going to the end.

I haven't finished this book yet but i'm loving it and finding it hard to put down. I love the description and can really imagine the scenes. The themes are really interesting to me, having a degree in Zoology and being a new mum. I like the way that Rachel's character softens throughout the story. I'm intrigued by how it's going to end!