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Meet the Author

Meet the Author: Kit De Waal

Photo (c) Sarah Lee

Kit de Waal was born in Birmingham to an Irish mother, who was a childminder and foster carer and a Caribbean father. She worked for fifteen years in criminal and family law, was a magistrate for several years and sits on adoption panels. She used to advise Social Services on the care of foster children, and has written training manuals on adoption, foster care and judgecraft for members of the judiciary.

Her writing has received numerous awards including the Bridport Flash Fiction Prize 2014 and 2015 and the SI Leeds Literary Reader's Choice Prize 2014 and the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year.

My Name is Leon, her first novel was published in 2016 and shortlisted for the Costa Book Award. Kit's latest book is the recently published Supporting Cast which is also available through Suffolk Libraries.

We usually ask about literary heroes growing up but you had very little access to books as you were growing up?

We had no books in our house growing up but I do remember being fascinated by Great Expectations which is the only book I ever connected with at school. I memorised whole chunks of it for my O levels. ‘What larks, Pip!’

When did you first start writing and when did you think you may have the talent to take it further?

I first started writing in my 40’s and definitely thought I had talent at first. I soon realised that it’s a great deal harder than it looks. I was really bad. I had to work hard at the craft, reading and dissecting loads of books until I could find out what made them work, why a sentence could evoke such a response, why endings worked and which endings didn’t. They say it takes 10,000 hours to master something and I think I did most of those hours in the first five years!

My Name is Leon was fantastically successful. The characters and Leon's point of view feel very authentic and well observed. How did you achieve that?

For My Name is Leon I was able to call on many years experience of working with children, with foster parents and with social services as well as the relationships I had with many of my friends and of course of having an allotment. I also have two adopted children and that helped.

Following the success of My Name is Leon you set up a creative writing fellowship. Can you tell us a little about that and its aims?

I set up a scholarship for a disadvantaged writer to do a two year Creative Writing Masters at Birkbeck College. I chose Birkbeck mainly because Julia Bell who runs the programme is a good friend of mine and I knew how committed she is to bringing out the best in her students. I also wanted someone from my background to have the chance to go to University and follow their dreams. I actually wanted to call it the Fat Chance Scholarship because whenever I told someone to do a Creative Writing MA they said 'Fat chance, they’re too expensive.’ So this was my way of giving back, extending a hand to those coming behind me who don’t always get the breaks.

Your latest book is Supporting Cast. Can you give us a flavour of that?

Supporting Cast is a collection of short stories that follows the lives of some of the B characters from my first two novels. Some of the stories precede them being in the book, some are told from many years later. All of them give centre stage to someone minor, someone who didn’t get the attention in the novels. I wrote it because I felt I had finished telling their story and I wanted to give them a bit of time in the limelight.

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

My latest novel is coming on SLOWLY. I have three characters that I’m working with, all of them just great people that very much have their own lives. Those lives intersect in minor and major ways and as always, the story is at the intersection.

As I write this we're emerging out of lockdown. How did this affect you and your work?

Fortunately I was really busy during the lockdown. Myself and Molly Flatt put on a virtual book festival called the Big Book Weekend. We were funded by the BBC and the Arts Council and we had 24,000 people come along and listen to some of the best and well-known writers along with debuts and lesser known writers. It was a great success but it was a real feat to pull it together in only 7 weeks.

Do you have a message for your many Suffolk readers?

I always say the same to thing to any reader and that is I hope you enjoy my books! I am always thankful for readers that get in touch and for the great loyalty and insight that keen readers show to their favourite authors. I have been asked some questions that are so deep and insightful that it’s amazing to think of the minds that I have engaged with. So it’s a big thank you to all the readers out there whatever they are reading. We authors could not do it without you!

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

Readers may not know that I write all my books during the hours of darkness. I find it really, really hard to write during the day time and usually start around 9 and work until 3 or 4 a.m. Obviously I can’t do this every day but I can do it for a couple of days on the trot. I find I do my best work then although I can edit during the day which uses a different part of the brain.