History tells us much about the writing of Frankenstein. 1816 was known as ‘The Year Without Summer.’ The weather, unusually cold and wet with frequent thunderstorms, was the result of a huge volcanic eruption in Indonesia. Ash in the atmosphere altered the climate – and yes, there really were reports of red snow.
We know Mary Shelley stayed at the Villa Diodati in June 1816 with Percy Shelley, Lord Byron and Dr John Polidori. There are also accounts of the Shelleys adopting a child whilst in Europe, though the arrangement mysteriously fell through. One night the friends challenged each other to tell ghost stories. Only Mary was stuck for something to write.
History then grows vague: some accounts say Mary came up with the story for Frankenstein the very next day. Others say it was written much later, and was influenced by many things in her life: her own mother who died giving birth to her; scientific advances of the time: society’s prejudices towards women and people of colour. And perhaps even the visit she made to a man named Andrew Crosse, who experimented with electricity at a house called Fyne Court in the Somerset hills.
Where the facts end, fiction begins. I had great fun filling in the gaps of what we know about Mary Shelley’s world. There’s no mention of the Villa Diodati in Frankenstein. There isn’t a comet. No one gets struck by lightning – not directly – and I don’t believe the book contains a single wolf.
Yet I’ve also tried to make my story echo Mary Shelley’s in certain ways. Felix, Agatha, Elizabeth (Lizzie), Mr Walton and Moritz are all names taken from Frankenstein. Strange Star is about scientific ambition: Miss Stine experiments with electricity regardless of the consequences, just as Victor Frankenstein does in Shelley’s original. There is a blind character in Frankenstein who doesn’t judge people by their appearance. Many of the characters in Strange Star face prejudice because of how they look or who they are.
For me, Frankenstein is a great story, and Mary Shelley an inspirational woman. I really hope reading Strange Star will make you want to discover more about both for yourself.