Emma Healey

Professions :

I loved 'A Lion in the Meadow' by Margaret Mahy.

margaret meadow lion loved

A boyfriend made me a hammock in Richmond Park once. That was lovely - although I ended up getting a tick on my stomach from the deer.

me deer stomach lovely

There are lots of things going on for teenagers, with exam stress, changing friendship groups, becoming independent, and all those hormone changes affecting you.

things you stress friendship

Mark Haddon's 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time' was published while I was trying to work out how to write 'Elizabeth Is Missing,' and reading the story of that impaired amateur detective gave me the licence I needed to attempt one of my own.

me reading dog work

Sometimes people ask, 'If you'd never had a reader, would you carry on writing?' No.

never you sometimes people

It's a slow process rewriting your own life in your head. I think that's a writerly thing.

slow your think life

Reading about what a digital native thinks of the Internet is like reading about what it's like to blink: it's kind of boring.

digital internet boring reading

If you work hard at something, you can forget everything else.

work-hard you work forget

I have a study at the back of the house, overlooking our garden. It's tiny, just wide enough to fit my desk in. The walls are covered with pin boards and art postcards from galleries all over the world, including Tate, MoMA, and Lenbachhaus.

garden house world art

I really admire Ana Mendieta. She was a Cuban American artist who died the year I was born and whose work examines violence, feminism, and belonging. Her art is always brave and visually arresting and vibrates with meaning.

violence brave work art

With novels, you're representing things. You're not explaining.

novels things you representing

I had tried to write about young women in London who had jobs and boyfriends, and it was so tedious.

tried women london young

I think I'm too scatty.

i-think too think

I had so many people in my family with dementia that it felt like it belonged to me in a way. I feel like the same with teenage depression because I went through it. I feel like I'm allowed to write about it; it's mine.

me family depression people

I feel like Mills and Boon saved my life. It was a way of not living. I read a lot of other books as well, but they were definitely the best for just switching my brain off, not having to deal with reality.

my-life best brain life

People always want to give you advice about parenting. People who you've never met before will tell you you're doing something wrong. And it's quite similar in writing. People forget that you're a human; they just want to give you their advice.

you parenting forget people

I used to go to the gym with one of my best friends, and we seemed to have the same conversation over and over again. I was always saying, 'I'm still not pregnant, and I still haven't worked out what I'm writing,' and her answer to both was always, 'Just relax!'

best gym friends relax

I was very worried about whether I could do it or not. I mean, how arrogant - here I am in my 20s trying to write from the point of view of a woman in her 80s.

woman i-am view trying

Several members of my family have, or have had, one form of dementia or another. I really wanted to explore what it might like in fiction, but I didn't know how to start.

start like know family

I can trace my interest in modern classics to the summer before art college.

i-can college summer art

Adam Johnson

Ivan Goncharov

Binnie Kirshenbaum

Bruce Jay Friedman

Buchi Emecheta

Bryce Courtenay