We chat to UEA grad and bestselling author Emma Healey

We met up with Emma Healey, former UEA student and author of bestselling novel Elizabeth is Missing.

We all know what a great reputation UEA has for creative writing, and the success of Emma Healey proves it. Emma graduated with an MA in Creative Writing: Prose in 2011 and has since gone on to publish a bestseller.

Her debut novel has hit the ground running. Published in June 2014, it has already been translated to over twenty different languages and been shortlisted for Best First Novel at the Costa Book Awards 2014.

The book tells the story of Maud, an elderly woman who suffers from dementia. She can’t remember what happened to her friend Elizabeth and her notes to herself and forgetfulness make for an engaging investigation into her past.

Following her hardback tour, we caught up with Emma to find out more about the novel and her time at UEA.

Who was the book inspired by and dedicated to?

The book is dedicated to both my grandmothers and is an amalgamation of both sides of the family. My dad’s mum has multi-infarct dementia and she was really the reason I was interested in dementia and thinking about what it might be like to be on the inside.

She would often say things that were confused and didn’t really add up, and I began to think that there must be some kind of logic there. She is the one who gave me the trigger for the novel when on a drive with me and my dad she said, “My friend is missing” (it turned out her friend wasn’t missing).

This led me to think, well, what if her friend had been missing? What would my grandmother have done? Would anyone have listened to her?

Once you get to a certain age you are more isolated and less able to use technology and get through to people. I thought it would be interesting to explore that.

Then my other grandmother went into hospital and she didn’t have very long left. My mum told me to get a train to come and say goodbye and on the train I didn’t know what to do so I wrote down all the stories I could remember her telling me about her early life. This gave me the confidence to depict the character’s back story and to develop a voice for the narrator.

Had you already developed the idea before you did the MA at UEA?

Before I had begun my course at UEA I had already written about 40,000 words. I then finished the first draft in the first term and continued to work on it after that.

Have you always written creatively?

I was always writing but I didn’t really tell anyone, it was kind of my dirty little secret. It was kind of embarrassing. You know you meet those people who announce they are “writing a novel” and they are usually insufferable and I was desperate not to be that person.

So I would never have said I was a writer or anything like that. I often found it hard to write in my own voice, and it became cringe-worthy and identifiable, and this really inhibited me.

What encouraged you to apply for an MA in Creative Writing?

I wanted to figure out whether my idea was a serious one or not, or whether I was just doing it because it was something I enjoyed. That would have been fine but I needed to work out if I was going to go anywhere with it.

I thought, if I get into UEA then it is kind of proving to myself that I mean business. Or at least that I was giving it a proper shot rather than just doing it as a hobby. I think if I hadn’t have come to UEA I never would have done it, and I always would have just picked at it.

What made you choose UEA?

Well, it had the best reputation and it was the one that everyone seemed to know about. I really liked it when I came here so it wasn’t really much of a decision.

What did you do your BA in?

Bookbinding, actually.

So you don’t want to be a bookbinder then?

I was really bad at it. I loved the sewing but there was a lot of glue involved and I could never get it looking pristine.

Who would you say has had the biggest influence on your life and writing?

I guess my parents. My mum writes poetry and has always very much encouraged me to follow my artistic dreams. My dad has worked in editing for a long time, and he was very also very encouraging about my writing.

What is the best lesson that you learnt while at UEA?

I think the main thing was that I learnt was to take my work more seriously. Obviously there is a certain seriousness you should apply in any work you are doing but I think I learnt that this was something I would have to properly craft.

Also how much the right people can influence your work in the right way, and how you are able to pick the people that will help you creatively and who won’t.

What did you do for your final project at UEA?

I sent in a section of 15,000 words of this book for my dissertation.

Did you do well?

Yes! I got a first for that bit so that was good!

Did any of the UEA staff members especially help you or inspire your work?

Andrew Cowan! He was my supervisor for my dissertation and he was brilliant. He made me think a lot about my language and was incredibly supportive. But all the tutors I had were amazing.

I had Trezza Azzopardi and she was fantastic – so kind and really interested in her students’ work.

I had Amit Chaudhuri and he was great. He gave me so many insights into different ways of writing and making a connection between my writing and other people’s writing.

I am so grateful that I got in, because it really was amazing.

What was the main idea you wanted to convey with your book?

I wanted my reader to think about a bit more about old people. That sounds really ridiculous but when I was going to publishers one of the things they said was that if they had seen an elderly person that day that because of reading the book they had noticed them a little bit more, and that seems important to me. I think there is a real problem with loneliness and I wanted to give a little window into that.

I have been amazed with the responses I have had – messages, emails, letters – people saying that they really felt the book had given them more of an insight into family members with dementia. That was really incredible and the bit that has been the most amazing.

Who is your favourite author and why?

I really love Penelope Fitzgerald – I think she is so clever and so surprising. She has this amazing ability to create what is effectively a domestic setting but with a real threat of violence around it. She has an interest in the idea of people being innately bad, but at the same time they are laugh out loud funny. I wish I could do that.

What’s your ultimate goal?

I would like to continue writing but I would like to branch away from this idea for a bit. I still think there is loads more to be done, and that I have only scratched the surface. But I feel that I couldn’t get far enough away from Maud to be able to do something interesting.

And I would like to write another character who can remember what they were doing ten minutes ago.

If you could tell your university self one thing, what would it be?

I think the main thing would be don’t be so impatient. Because actually if you have an idea about what you want to do and you are prepared to just work at it, it’s no less likely to happen if you take a bit longer, and actually it’s probably more likely to happen if you work at it and take a bit more time.

I think it feels like, well I’ve learnt all this stuff! Let me at the world and it doesn’t necessarily immediately happen… although I have never really followed that advice!

What do you think of the LCR and pubs at UEA?

I have to admit I never got to the LCR. I kind of felt like it wasn’t really for postgrad students. Like it looked really fun but I felt it might be slightly odd for me to try to join in my pyjamas.

I’ve heard the grad bar has been refurbished! I’ll have to go and have a look.

If you could describe UEA in three words what would they be?

Oh wow! Oh god! This is the kind of thing I would normally spend hours on. Ummm… it’s really bad because I love UEA, and I think it’s beautiful but it’s all square and grey and now that’s all I can think of!

It feels like a little concrete bowl of safety in the middle of this open green space, do you know what I mean?

That sounds really bizarre…

Like I always think of the Square as being like cupped hands.