When Tolkien began The Hobbit (according to his own letter to W.H. Auden), the legend goes that he was sitting in 'that everlasting weariness' correcting exam papers when he suddenly scrawled on on a blank leaf those immortal words of the opening chapter: 'In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit'. He claimed not to know where those words came from.
Gill Lewis wrote Moonflight during the 2020 Lockdown. While the outside, public world was denied us all, she turned inwards to a story of rats, cats and cursed gemstones, and the creative process burrowed its way deep inside. By comparing the births of Tolkein's Hobbit and Lewis' latest novel, I do not mean to claim that creativity is born from 'restriction' of a kind - physical or mental - though it interesting to note that these two books of High Fantasy both began in this way. Both books derive their main plots from an underdog (or should that be under-rat?!) learning to find himself only by digging deep inside to mine previously unacknowledged resourcefulness, strength and bravery to carry out a quest that only they could undertake. If there is anything that Covid-19 has showed the world, it is the hope that exists in human nature - to pull through together, to weather the storm, to show our initiative to overcome a formidable terror.
Some say that Tolkien's novel derived in part from his experiences of the First World War, and the incredible force of communal will to beat the darkness being concentrated into the figure of Bilbo Baggins is a tremendously powerful image to offer to children. Indeed, the longevity of The Hobbit's power to enchant and inspire each new generation shows no sign of dwindling. But Lewis' new novel draws on a similar source - in the days of Lockdown, today's children have had to deal with a rocking of their worlds on social and emotional scales not seen for decades.
I am delighted to have been given the opportunity to interview Gill about her writing, process and Moonflight in particular. Listening to what she has to say about her work and thinking is an inspiring experience - and we are so fortunate to have her books at the forefront of children's literature, guiding, teaching and entertaining the young people of today's world.
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After so many books rooted in the ‘real world’ of humans and animals, what attracted you to an anthropomorphic approach to your storytelling? Were there any surprises for you along the way writing in this style?
Nearly all of my books for 8–12-year-olds have been set in the real world with human protagonists. Having a scientific training, I had veered away from giving my animal characters a voice, as I felt it was more realistic and truer to the story not to project human thoughts and emotions on the animal. My first foray into anthropomorphism was in A Street Dog Named Pup, where I have given a voice to the dog characters. They are dogs in a dog and human world. But in Moonflight, the Dockland Rats wear clothes, hold markets and have their own ceremonies. They are anthropomorphised to the degree that they are more human, thinly veiled as rats. And I suppose that’s how I wanted to write the story, because the rats’ lives essentially reflect our own humanity.
It was great fun and liberating to create the rat world. I could free myself from my usual highly detailed research for my other books and I could quite literally just make things up and explore the infinite possibilities of world-building stories. This changed my writing process too.
Usually, after months of research, I already know my ending and key events along the way. But with this story, I just began to write and had no idea where it was going which it made quite an exciting way of writing. Every twist and turn of the story were as new to me as they were to Tilbury. However, the first draft became a sprawling beast, and it took just as long to edit the story as to write it. But overall, I think this book has been the most fun to write.
What have you learned about your craft and potential future writing by writing about animals as talking human characters?
When writing about animals talking like humans, I think a writer must think about what level of anthropomorphism they are going to give to that creature. Is that animal going to be as close to the behaviour of the animal in the real world or are they going to portray it essentially as a human?
There is a sliding scale of anthropomorphism from an animal which isn’t given a human voice, eg; the osprey in my book Sky Hawk, to the rabbits in Watership Down where they show behaviour of rabbits, to Toad of Toad Hall who is essentially a human dressed as a toad. I don’t think there’s any wrong or right answer, but I think the world building and the rules need to remain consistent.
(Which is why Toad’s size change from human washer woman to small toad always annoys me – but don’t get me started on The Wind in the Willows!)
Maybe in the future, I will explore giving animals human voices, or maybe I will give humans the language of animals. The magic of storytelling is that any story is possible. Maybe writing Moonflight has freed me up to experiment with writing in different forms. As writers, we need an excuse to play and discover new challenges. After Moonflight, who knows where the next adventure will take me!
Why rats? What do these animals ‘do’ that made you choose them as your main protagonists.
Firstly, I love rats. I know they can be hugely unpopular. But they are highly intelligent, fierce, funny and rather cute. They also show empathy within their social groups. They are excellent problem solvers, food finders, hoarders and agile climbers. Because I have anthropomorphised them to the extent of being humans thinly veiled as rats, it’s advantageous that they can walk on their hind legs, hold things in their paws like human hands and have the sort of physique of a human - they are ideal to send on an adventure with the bonus of rather long and useful tails. Pippa Curnick has illustrated the rats in the story perfectly - it’s as if she could see inside my head.
Was Moonflight particularly easier or harder to write than your other stories for this age group?
There were aspects of Moonflight that were both easier and harder to write than my other books. It was easier because I didn’t have to do the huge amount of research required for my novels that are based on facts. Some of my other novels cover some quite difficult and dark topics and I sometimes struggle to find the right tone to ensure the story is realistic without making it too dark.The peril in Moonflight is so removed from reality that I didn’t have to worry too much about its impact.
In some ways, the story was harder to write because I had so many ideas in the first draft. I had created other groups of rats including the City Rats who live at the top of the Shard, who are domestic fancy rats that love a bit of bling. The first draft was a sprawling mass of over 150,000 words. Half of those words had to go, and it was hard losing some of the richness of the story. Pulling threads out of the story sometimes seems to make the whole plot unravel and I learned much more about my editing process.
Which animal fantasy stories/authors influenced you most when writing Moonflight?
It’s hard to say. There are many adventure stories where the protagonist is small, but a brave hero. I think this appeals to young readers who feel small in an adult world, where their voices can go unheard. I really love Kate Di Camillo’s portrayal of Edward Tulane in The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane and also Despereaux in The tale of the Mouse, Despereaux. She creates such believable characters and worlds. Kieran Larwood’s Podkin One-Ear is a great animal fantasy adventure. The Disney films of The Rescuers are fun adventures of Bernard and Bianca, and I have a huge fondness for the film Ratatouille. Watership Down is a classic favourite.
Moonflight is in many ways a traditional swashbuckler of an adventure. Indeed Moonfleet is echoed strongly in the title, yet you’ve captured the flavour and still made the novel seem modern. Was that one of your aims and if so, how did you go about doing this?
Thank you. I did want to present this story in the modern day and I’m glad it has come across this way. I remember sitting near the Southbank, eating a sandwich and watching rats scurrying along the mud at low tide, and I thought of all the rat lives that have lived parallel to our own as the City of London has grown over the centuries. The Dockland Rats’ story is bound to the rat, the Great Bartholomew who lived in Victorian times, and I suppose that’s why I wanted to throw in a few steampunk themes of the type of clothes the rats wear, and their mechanical inventions. I became fascinated by the names of the docks of London that refer to the type of cargo or the countries that have been colonised and plundered: West India Docks, Tobacco Docks etc. And I thought of all those rats that once climbed aboard ships and inadvertently travelled across to far-flung shores. Hence the sea-shanty singing Ship-Rats became part of the story. The story grew so organically that I didn’t really know it was going to be a swashbuckler. I just wanted an adventure during lockdown and escape into the infinite possibilities of story. To my shame I had not heard of Moonfleet and had to Google it. The title Moonflight was found relatively late during edits. Publishing folk at David Fickling and I were trying to think of a title. The working title had been The Remarkable Life and Times of Tilbury Twitch-Whiskers, which is a bit long-winded, and there is a trend for shorter snappy titles. The title came to me one night when I was walking by moonlight. The clouds were illuminated by the moon so brightly above a silver sea, that they seemed to shine with their own light. I had an image of Tilbury flying high,silhouetted by the moon, above those bright white clouds, fleeing by moonlight - hence Moonflight was born.
Moonflight by Gill Lewis is published on 2nd March 2023 from David Fickling Books. Do support your local library and bookstores where you can!
