People often ask me how I think up the ideas for my books and my answer is a dull one – I read a lot and keep my ear to the ground in conversations – but the truth is I never know where the idea for the next book is going to come from; equally, once it’s written, it can be hard to think back and dissemble the events and remember how it spun into shape from nothing. But the genesis of this particular book will always stay with me. It was a Saturday morning and I was prepping food for a dinner party that night, with Radio 4 on in the background. An astronaut called Dr Helen Sharman was being interviewed ahead of Major Tim Peake’s launch into space the following week (in fact, Sharman was the first Briton to go into space, back in 1991; but that’s another story) and Sharman mentioned in passing that she had been granted a ham radio license just for the duration of her expedition to the Mir Space Station; she went on to say that some astronauts had been known to strike up friendships with the ham radio enthusiasts who contacted them regularly. Well . . . if ever there was a ‘Eureka’ moment! Could there be a more perfect way to have two characters meet? My mind went into overdrive and within the hour I had sketched out a plot. I wasn’t sure if I was completely mad to try to write a love story when one of the characters wasn’t even on the planet, but I was excited about the challenge from the offset and knew I had to give it my best shot.
I also didn’t know, when I sat in the audience of the Banff Mountain Film Festival Tour, that the films I saw that night would become another well of inspiration for this story. Some of the films prompted scenes for the characters, such as The Ridge by Danny MacAskill, which inspired the mountain biking scene with Tuck in the woods, Afterglow, which is used as the backdrop film in the Toronto Snow Show scene, and the film made by Tuck of Mitch and Badger is directly based on the stunning short Sun Dog by The Shadow Campaign. You can find them all on YouTube and I really highly recommend checking them out – I have watched them numerous times since the festival; they are achingly beautiful and always leave me damp-eyed (and wishing I could ski better).
You’ll be happy to hear that Badger, the dog, is real and living the good life in Cornwall with my great friends Sally, Ian, Mhairi and Muirne. His eyebrows really are a thing to behold.
My brother Andrew (whose eyebrows are also notable) was fantastic at giving me local colour – he worked in Banff as a ski lift operator during his gap year – and was particularly helpful with details of what Banff Avenue looks like after midnight when you’re rolling out of a bar: it’s all true about the elks wandering down the middle of the street in the moonlight too.
I’d like to thank Dan Wagstaff and all the team at PGC for taking this book to their hearts and doing such a fantastic job of getting it out to my Canadian readers. I hope my love for your beautiful country sings from the pages.
For everyone at Pan Macmillan: this is our eleventh book together and I am so proud of everything we’ve achieved. At the time of writing this, you are Publishers of the Year and you deserve to be: not only do you have the best staff – fresh, innovative, professional – but your support, enthusiasm and nurturing of emerging talent separates you from the pack. It’s little wonder you are rewarded not just with chart-topping titles but loyalty too. My hearty thanks to Jeremy Trevathan, Wayne Brookes, James Annal, Jodie Mullish, Katie James, Anna Bond, Daniel Jenkins, Claire Gatzen, Phoebe Taylor; and to my copy-editor Mary Chamberlain and proofreader Camilla Rockwood, thank you – you should probably be paid danger money when it comes to untangling my manuscripts!
To my agent Amanda Preston and my editor Caroline Hogg, I’d like to thank you both for not freaking out when I first mentioned the words ‘astronaut’ and ‘space’ and ‘ISS’. That you remained calm and trusted me to take those elements and turn them into a Karen Swan book was hugely appreciated. I think we pulled it off, don’t you?
Finally, to my lovely big, noisy, slightly mad family –if we’re going to name names, then here’s a shout-out to Anders, Ollie, Will, Plum, Mum and Dad – I love you all. Over and out.