Monique Roffey

Monique Roffey is a Trinidadian-born writer and memoirist. Her novels have been much acclaimed, winning awards including the 2013 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, for Archipelago, and the Costa Book of the Year award, for The Mermaid of Black Conch in 2021.

If reading this piece has made you want to read more of Monique's work we have unlimited copies of The Mermaid of Black Conch as an eAudiobook on our OverDrive service. You can also find Monique's books on our catalogue.

Who were your literary heroes as you were growing up and when did you first realise that you wanted to write?

I have been writing since childhood, but I didn’t have a 'big realisation' that I wanted to do it and had it in me till my mid 30s. Childhood lit heroes were Nancy Drew (female agency) and my father's library which was stuffed with ‘men’s books’ (male agency) like The End of the Affair by Graham Greene and On the Beach by Nevil Shute. I read Hemingway and Steinbeck when I was in my teens. Jane Eyre too.

In an interview you mentioned your cork board above your desk, your 'garbage patch' and how it sparks your ideas. Can you give us an idea of how it contributes to your creative process? What does a typical writing day look like?

My garbage patch has become essential to my work…it sits there, above my desk, all day and it's hard not to gaze at it….so it seems to permeate my unconscious too…

I don’t write every day. I tend to be stricter on word count etc when I know I'm settling to a 1st draft. I write a book every few years or so….so that strict writing x amount of words or pages happens only every few years…like a mammoth push.

You started writing The Mermaid of Black Conch in 2016. How did it come together and were some sections or characters more difficult to write than others?

The book stared with a dream, but evolved over time, via ideas and images and poems and stories, until I started experimenting with POV and narrators. This all took about 3 years…when I finally sat to start the 1st draft it just seemed to fall out easily and was done in 6 months, while I was doing other jobs.

The voice of the mermaid was the hardest to decide on; what is in the book re her voice on the page is the result of lots of paring down and experimenting.

Here in Suffolk The Mermaid is one of our unlimited eAudiobooks and it is being picked up by reading groups (albeit socially distanced). What is the message you would like them to take away when they read and discuss it?

I’d just like them to be left feeling thoughtful, that they might think about and even miss Reggie, Miss Rain, David and the mermaid long after they have closed the book. No big messages.

Is there anything you can share with us about your latest project?

Sorry, no. It's completely under wraps!

Is there a book you have read that has changed your life?

Not changed. I've read so many books, they have all merged, over time, into many big jolts and loves…..reading has changed my life, generally.

And a book or writer that has been criminally overlooked and deserves a bigger audience?

Yes, The Devil’s Highway by Gregory Norminton, published in 2017. Norminton is a fabulous writer..this book weaves together three time zones and is set in Surrey….it's about so many things…it is a kind of eco-prophecy book crossed with speculative fiction, crossed with fine literary fiction.

Can you tell us one thing about yourself that your readers may not know?

I’m a Buddhist.