An evening with authors: The Man Booker Prize 2018 winner Anna Burns in conversation with Tom Gatti20/10/2018 The judges unanimously announced “Milkman”, a novel set in Northern Ireland during the Troubles and written by Anna Burns, as the winner of The Man Booker Prize 2018 on 16th of October.
Foyles (Charing Cross) hosted the author’s first public appearance after the important award. Tom Gatti, Culture Editor from The New Statesman, moderated the conversation as to how Anna Burns got the inspiration for her novel and what motivated her to write. People quietly queued out of the Foyles auditorium on the sixth floor of the massive building in Charing Cross, waiting for the doors to get open. A member of the staff glanced at the watch and nodded at his colleague; he then began to check the tickets and let the attendees in. As usual, I looked for a seat on the front, the second row precisely, next to the central aisle and directly opposite the stage, arranged for the guests. When a tall, bearded man stepped on the platform, it was clear that the event was about to start. After a short introduction, Tom Gatti announced Anna Burns; a small woman hesitantly walked towards the journalist, smiling, shyly looking around, and eyes shining. “It’s not easy to explain how a story comes to an author,” Burns replied Gatti’s first question, “I’ve always had these three sisters, the main characters of my book, in my mind. They used to pop out unexpectedly and make me laugh.” Burns explained that the story had been in her mind for months, she didn’t plan anything. She used to write bits and pieces, then put her writings together. “I don’t write constantly,” she carried on explaining. “When I write, I write what crosses my mind, then, finally, I put the pieces together and see if they work.” Anna Burns was borne and grew up in Belfast during the Troubles, a historical moment that strongly influenced her life and writing career. She moved to London at the end of the Eighties. “The Troubles have always shaped my scenarios,” Burns said. “In this book, I just wanted something different. I wanted to write something in a domestic environment. I wanted to describe the life of a family.” Gatti and the audience nodded and smiled in unison. The author’s energy was involving and entertaining. The decision to write about the Troubles was conscious and instinctive. “When I finished the book, a lot of political and social things hadn’t yet happened,” Burns said. “When I realised that the reality was matching what I had written, I felt terrified and shocked.” The novel is about a young girl who is pursued by a man much older than her – the author finished the book in 2014, and the sexual scandals which shook the political world and film industry hadn’t been brought to light. “Independent thinking is a dangerous thing,” Burns went on. “My characters have to be careful as to what they do.” Anna Burns claimed she often thought to leave Northern Ireland. She didn’t like what was happening around her. “I read my first book about Ireland when I moved to London. I felt completely awful. The reality I used to live in started coming back to me.” Gatti swiftly brought the attention to when Anna Burns began to write. “I started writing in my early Thirties,” Burns replied. “It wasn’t easy, and I had fifty-seven or fifty-nine rejections before being able to find somebody interested in publishing my stories. It took a while.” An interesting dispute went on the social networks and media as to how to consider Anna Burns: a Northern Irish writer, Irish, British, or an author from the UK. “National feeling is quite strong in Northern Ireland,” the author said. “During my career, only a person has defined me as a British author. People identify me as Irish. In the beginning, it was difficult for me to define my nationality, but, nowadays, I don’t care anymore.” As the conversation slowly came to its end, Gatti couldn’t help to bring up Brexit and asked the author what consequences it could have in Northern Ireland. “I think that the consequences will be awful,” the author sadly admitted. “It will be totally disastrous.”
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