This month, two reading groups asked our Author of the Month, Meg Rosoff, some questions about her book , Just in Case now out in paperback.

Questions to Meg Rosoff from The Thorns Literature for Fun Group

1. What experience have you had of teenage boys, and do you think the scenario would apply equally to a teenage girl?  

I haven’t had much experience of teenage boys since I was a teenager, though I have teenage nephews – I write about teenagers more from my own brain, and sometimes the issues aren’t necessary specific to them.  For instance, the paranoia about Fate in some ways I think is the kind of affliction that hits little kids (7-8) really badly, where they start worrying about mortality and the bigger issues of the universe, and also older people, 50+, who have more experience with death and dying.  But sometimes putting scenarios in the characters of teenagers makes them more vivid and more exciting  - adolescence is a time at which people feel everything incredibly deeply, so as a writer, you can make your characters a little bit crazy without making them clinically  insane.  Justin isn’t a very macho boy, but I never thought he’d be equally right as a girl.  There’s something about his complete lack of emotional intelligence that feels a little more male than female to me, though I hate to generalise.   His concerns aren’t particularly gender specific, though – at least I don’t think they are…

2. Was there any particular reason for using Luton as the scene of the disaster? 

My husband has an old friend who lived in Luton for years, and when we visited it reminded me of the American-style suburbs I grew up in – there’s something (to me, at least) terribly grim and empty about suburban life, as if there’s a big neon sign over it screaming “WE’RE ALL NORMAL HERE”, though of course often the opposite is true.   I always hated the suburbs growing up, but now they interest me a lot.  And of course Luton has its own escape route – an airport, so is a perfect place to set a book about adolescent suburban angst and the desire to escape one’s fate.
3. Do you think a teenager might relate to this book and how might it influence them?  I hope so – I’ve had a lot of boys, especially, tell me they’ve really liked it.  As an author you can’t get too involved in whether people are going to like your books, you just have to write what interests you and hope for the best.  If Just In Case influences anyone, I would hope it might be to think about some of the big issues that Justin grapples with – love, sex, responsibility, friendship, etc. 

4. Did you have any imaginary ‘friends’ (human or animal) in your teenage years? 

Not exactly, though I always desperately wanted a dog and a horse and I always had china horses and dogs, and elaborate stables made out of shoeboxes.  When I was 12 we finally got a dog, an Airedale, and she was my best friend for years.  The place I grew up was very insular, and (as I was telling my daughter recently) I didn’t have a real ‘soul mate’ best friend until I was 15. 

5. How much do you feel fate has influenced your life? 

I believe completely in fate, though not as a controlling force.  What I do believe is that whether you turn left or right as you leave your house in the morning could change the direction of your entire life.  I guess that’s what Just in Case is all about – a single moment that pushes you off course, a meeting, an event, an incident that makes the rest of your life change direction

6. Have you studied psychology or philosophy? 

A little bit of each at university.  But mostly I studied literature, which is (in my opinion) the much easier way to absorb both subjects! And of course I’m very interested in people, strange news stories about the guy who goes out to get cigarettes and never comes back, identical twins separated at birth.

Questions for Meg Rosoff from Prior Park College 'The Gleaners' Reading Group

1. Was writing as a teenage boy what you thought was best suited to teenage angst, not a later age woman?

The idea of being paranoid about fate isn’t a particularly teenage idea, but it starts to feel all “mid-life crisis-y” in a middle-aged woman, or brings to mind a certain kind of traditional woman’s novel where the woman gets on a bus and keeps going.  Also, by the time you’re 30 or 40, it’s less easy to spin off into space with philosophical/psychic crises than it is at 16.  I wanted a character who was disturbed and unbalanced but not crazy — thinking fate is out to get you at 45 makes you pretty much certifiable, whereas a sixteen year old can bounce back without raising too many eyebrows.

2. I gather that a real life incident of letting a pram go prompted the whole philosophical musing which underpins the book 

I’d been thinking about fate all my life, but on that day I turned around to lock the front door of my London flat and let go of the pushchair with my eight month old daughter in it, and she bumped down the stairs and smashed onto the pavement head first.  It was too horrible even to think about now — the realization that I could so easily have killed her — a moment of inattention leading to all those ruined lives. 

3. The fascination with the invisible dog you so memorably create for your eponymous hero has apparently spilled over into your own 'real' life.

I’ve always been an ‘animal person’, in that I think and live through animals, and my most important relationship as a young teenager was probably with my Airedale, whom I adored.   I fell in love with the Greyhound I invented for Justin, having made him wise, serene, omniscient in the book, I pretended to give in to my daughter’s desire for a dog, and acquired two Lurcher puppies.  They’re not wise or serene, but they’re magic dogs anyway and I love them much too much.  I’d like a dozen more, but two are already two more than I require.