Tea & fillllllliI
thy
ANNE DONOVAN tells Ruth Hedges how she’s following up the extraordinary success of her first novel with a film script, a radio play and a little cafe culture.
ander down (ilasgow's Byres Road of an afternoon
and the likelihood is that you‘ll pass the odd writer
or two. (ilasgow‘s creative and intellectual animals cruising along. stopping for coffee and high-minded chat. It’s just like this. says Anne Donovan. author of Bin/(Ilia l)u over a pot ol’ tea and slice of carrot cake in a West lind cale.
She fills me in on the kind of conversations that the literary world engages in on an ay'erage day. "l‘he other week. I was waiting at a bus stop and Laura Marney came up.‘ she says. "l'hen another writer joined tis and she had a great tan. We complimented her and she said it was take. so we chatted about fake tan until our bus came.‘
l)onoy'an is looking slightly browner than her press shots betray. but it looks like a natural west coast glow. The excitement of Buddha l)u‘s runaway success that took her from teacher to lull-time writer in less than a year is still clear as she tells me about what she's been doing since Jimmy. the painter and decorator. saw the spiritual light last year. An ()range l’ri/e nomination and several awards have opened many doors. with ol'l'ers rolling in from radio work to playwriting. contributions for thinktank l)emos‘ Smiluml 2020 project and — the big one »- a lilm.
Production company Wasted Talent has bought the lilm option for BIN/(Illa Du and asked Anne to write the screenplay. Which is very good news because the Voices are the story. Donoyan describes the moment when she knew she‘d found her voice. It was with a short story called .-lll 'l’liur (i/im'rs which is written from the point of View of a young girl whose father is dying from asbestos poisoning. "l‘o begin with l was writing what I thought I should write which was straight linglish.‘ she says. ‘.-\nd then something happened and l knew that I had to write in character — she was dyslexic and the words came in and all of a sudden it started to work and I just knew. l remember it wasn‘t just the first thing that had worked for me. but the first thing that had worked for anyone else.~
Maybe it's Donovan's years as a teacher spent listening to kids. but she does haye an uncanny ability to get right into the mind of a child — she captures their mice with a feeling for their inner thoughts that transports you into a little bed listening to muffled sounds of parents arguing or crying. or practicing dance routines with friends in the bedroom. ‘(J‘iy'e
16 THE LIST FESTIVAL MAGAZINE 19—26, Aug 3J1):
me an eight—year-old and I'm away.‘ she say s. with echoes of
Muriel ‘giy‘e—incu—girl—at—an—impressitinable-age‘ Spark. She goes on to discuss her obsession. 'l seem to go into the “anywhere between eight and I4" mode yery easily: it's quite scary actually. I'm not bad at old ladies too.‘ But it is the child‘s mind that lascinatcs her. ‘lt‘s a transitional age. It is that kind ol‘ awakening; moying towards adolescence and a clarity of yision. At that age they know st) much inside and they see things really clearly. 'l'hey see it with a different perspectiy'e lrom an adult; eyery'thing‘s totally clearf
Where cyery'thing is less clear is in the l'amily' sphere. Sometimes cy'erything is yery unclear. .-\s 'l'olstoy' l‘amously opened .Illlltl Karen/nu: ‘llappy lamilies are all the same: cyery unhappy l‘amily is unhappy in its own particular way.‘ Domestic relationships go under the scrutinising but sympathetic eye ol~ l)ont)\‘tttl \U [littl intricacies til~ dynamics and needs. tensions. misunderstandmg and humans at their best and worst are esplored. 'Relationships between people in a lamily are often the closest ones and they can be yery complicated.‘ she says. ‘.\ll the interesting psychological stul'l comes up within those contests because most of us can go around on a more l'ormal. surlace way you can go to a party and be yery nice or you can go to a bank and chat to the person and then you go home. It‘s not all horrendous stul‘l'. but that's what you hay c to work with. liqually. those are the bonds that can produce the most pow erl'ul feelings and situations. I suppose l'm lascinated by that.‘
So. you know. an ayerage conyersation on a Monday alternoon on Byres Road. .'\s we scrape up the last few crumbs of cake and glug the last sip of tea. Laura Marney walks past and enthUses to us about her latest novel. ten plays. collection of poems and screenplay she's been working on that day. And then she tells Anne to keep up the good work on that tan.
Anne Donovan 8: Agnes Owens, 25 Aug, 10.30am, £7 (£5).
‘RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN FAMILY MEMBERS ARE THE CLOSEST AND CAN BE VERY COMPLICATED'
Anne Donovan takes a tea break with the Glasgow literati