Click here to browse our fantastic gallery of FREE or hugely discounted novels

Interview with Polly Courtney, author of Feral Youth

image

image image

It’s a novel set in the build-up to the (fictionalised) 2011 London summer riots, as seen through the eyes of an angry 15-year-old girl on the fringes of society. It tackles some serious subjects, like the rich-poor divide, but mainly it’s a personal story about the decisions facing Alesha as her eyes are opened to a new world – the world of Miss Merfield, a middle-class 30-year-old piano teacher.

What genre is it?
Ah. Well, I’ve been told by readers it’s literary fiction. It’s definitely not ‘chick lit’, that’s for sure.

Not chick lit? Ah, we know what you’re talking about. We’ll ask you about that in a moment. But first, tell us a bit about Alesha.
If you met her on the street, you’d be scared. You’d worry she might hurt you – and she might. But her snarl is a front to hide her vulnerabilities. Her hood is for protection, not intimidation. Terrible things have happened to her before the book starts. She’s effectively been left on her own in the world, pushed away by everyone who should have been there through her childhood and the result is a very hard shell that takes most of the book to crack.

We love all the slang in the book. Do people actually talk like that?
In South London, yes! One New York reader recently commented that it sounded like a made-up language, like something Lewis Carroll might write(!) but I tried really hard to make sure it’s authentic South London slang. Lots of young people helped with my research and a few of them read the first few drafts. It was a challenge, getting into Alesha’s head, but after a while it just flowed. I felt her frustration and I heard her angry words.

“Feral Youth” is one of those phrases that UK politicians throw about pejoratively. Who are you standing up for by drawing attention to it – the working class, the young, or maybe even immigrants?
All the above. You’re right; the term gets used by our politicians and media to imply there’s a mass of untamed, mindless criminals wreaking havoc in our society. The reality is that these are people. They are people who are products of their environments and if they commit criminal acts, they have reasons for doing so – justified or unjustified, but they are animals. It’s easy to dismiss the problematic parts of our society by labelling them as ‘feral’, but why do they behave as they do? What would it be like to be in their shoes? Those are questions I wanted to answer with Feral Youth.

Anyone who has seen you on TV would know that you are a vocal social commentator. Should they be worried that Feral Youth might be one long diatribe against injustice, or is it a cracking good story too?
Ha… I promise it’s a cracking good story! You can take or leave the social issues and bigger moral dilemmas; I never actually intended to get political. I guess this book opens up a world that most of us don’t usually think about, so if you’re left thinking about it after you’ve read the last page, you might find yourself wondering what are the answers? But that’s not a prerequisite for enjoying the book!

Going back to your comment about chick lit, can you tell us why you famously dumped your publisher, HarperCollins, to go indie?
I had no control over the titles or cover designs assigned to my books and I was finding that each novel I wrote got packaged in line the latest trend in publishing, with little regard for the actual contents of the book. Not only were my books being misrepresented (e.g. as chick lit) but they were also coming out differently every time. ‘Brand Polly Courtney’ was a mess and I knew that readers wouldn’t know what I stood for. I needed to take back control.

That’s really brave. Tell us which of your other books we should read next.
It’s worlds apart from Feral Youth, but I’d say my first novel, Golden Handcuffs. It’s set in the City and follows two young, ambitious graduates through their first year in investment banking – unearthing the dirty underbelly of an industry we all once admired. (I used to be a banker – briefly!)

Did you? Tell us a bit more about yourself.
I’m a science geek really. I got an engineering degree from Cambridge and that’s what sucked me into the City. But once I started writing my first novel, I knew I’d discovered my passion. Since then I’ve written six books, all loosely based on a ‘real life’ theme, like the treatment of Polish migrants, fame culture, lads’ mags and sexism. They’re all page-turners, but they also give you something to think about. (I hope.)

Do you have a website where we can keep up with your work?
I do indeed! www.pollycourtney.com.

How can we follow you on social media?
I’m in all the usual places:  @PollyCourtney, www.facebook.com/pollycourtneybooks, www.youtube.com/pollycourtney and Google+. See you there!

What’s next?
Feral Youth the movie! No, really. It’s actually happening and I can’t wait. I made a movie-style trailer for this book (http://youtu.be/LCoTHjC4r88) and It’s all kicked off from there. Watch… this… space!

Leave a Facebook, Google+ or Wordpress Comment

Loading Facebook Comments ...

Leave a Reply