Why I Wrote Breathing Underwater

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The tiny island of St Agnes, the most south-westerly of the inhabited islands of Scilly, has a special place in my heart. It inspired this novel. When I began writing my story about loss and longing and love, I knew this was the perfect setting. ‘My’ island of St Ailla is very like St Agnes; I’ve borrowed some aspects and imagined and invented others. The sound of wind and water, the extraordinary brightness of the stars on a clear night, even some of the names of the beaches, are ‘real’. Like my character, Freya, when I step off the little ferry on to the island jetty I feel as if I have arrived at my ‘favourite place on earth’. Except, for Freya, as her story begins, nothing is that simple any more. This is an island full of memories . . . a place of ghosts and secrets. The story begins with a scene based on another real memory of my own, about a beach, and a drowned boy left on the shore by the retreating tide.

I wanted to write a story about what happens after a loss: about grief but also recovery and healing. I wanted to show the importance of love and friendship. And I wanted to capture the feeling of summer: sand and sea, beach parties, new friend­ships, a sense that anything is possible.

Freya longs to be part of a bigger, happier family than her own. At sixteen, she’s thinking about friendships, and boys, and making important choices of her own about the kind of person she is and the life she wants to lead. She makes some mistakes, too! All these aspects of growing up fascinate me. It’s impor­tant to me that novels deal with real life in a way that allows readers to think – and be challenged, too, by uncomfortable or painful events as well as happier ones. I want my writing to be honest and truthful.

Gradually Freya’s story began to emerge in my notebooks and I was ready to start work on the laptop. A dramatic incident on a train journey gave me a key scene for early in the novel, and led me towards a whole set of new characters: the big family that Freya becomes involved with. I wondered at first whether the incident was too painful, but I decided that I needed to be truthful about these things. ‘Growing up’ isn’t always an easy time of life. And for some people life is unbearably hard, through no fault of their own. I hope I have balanced out the pain with moments of fun, happiness and hope. Ultimately, Freya is a person full of life and love and promise. She’s like the swallows, who bring the summer with them.