London is a chameleonic city, full of surprises. Around every corner, through every cobbled alleyway, lurking in bollards and docks and placards, London persistently reminds its visitors of all the Londons it has been, and all the Londons it has yet to become.
Even in my own lifetime, London has shot skywards, and the monolith of St Paul’s Cathedral is dwarfed by the buildings around it. So when it came to creating another London, this didn’t seem like much of a leap – there are already a thousand Londons, in real life, in fantasy, across history and across fiction. So London Overhead materialised in my mind, almost fully formed. A London that floats above the city we know, ancient bridges and staircases, lined by a net to catch anyone falling from the skies.
‘Starminster’ is my first novel, and it was constructed from many micro-epiphanies as I struggled to write the story that I knew my young self had wanted: a wish-fulfilment story about a girl with wings. The first few chapters of the book took years to get right. I knew I wanted an isolated child as a main character, but couldn’t figure out how to write her. When my mother-in-law casually mentioned champagne rhubarb, grown in candlelight, I knew that my protagonist was raised in a rhubarb shed, longing for starlight
When constructing my school of flight, Starminster, it was important to me that learning to fly was rigorous and challenging in nature; I hoped children would recognise that incredible skills can only result from hard graft. An early draft described a school of flight located in the Kentish school where I teach, but the magic I wanted was absent.
“It is a source of daily delight and wonder to me that Starminster will soon appear on bookshelves”
Eventually, I remembered the childhood hours I spent gazing upwards in churches and cathedrals, imagining soaring through rafters, or reading in dusty, inaccessible nooks. St Paul’s Cathedral inserted itself into the novel as the perfect place – the only place – suitable to host England’s only school of flight.
It is a source of daily delight and wonder to me that Starminster will soon appear on bookshelves. I hope that it will find its way into the hands of children who have also dreamed of the lightness and freedom of flight – and that they can achieve that dream, and many others, through the infinite power of imagination.
About the book:
Astrid has lived in the rhubarb shed her whole life. The outside world is dangerous, Mama explains; she will understand when she’s older, but she cannot set foot beyond the door. Astrid longs to see the world; to meet other children; to live in the farmhouse with Mama. But what she longs for most of all is to see the stars.
Then one night, a stranger unlocks the shed: a stranger with wings. She has come to take Astrid to a secret city in the sky called London Overhead, far above the highest peak of the Shard. For Astrid, like her, is a Librae – and will soon grow wings of her own . . .
Astrid is swept into a breathtaking and magical world of new friendships, sweeping adventures and unimaginable discoveries at the ancient, beautiful school for Librae students: Starminster. But quickly she learns that all is not well in the glimmering city. And when rumours abound of missing children in London Underfoot, she begins to realise that Mama may have been right about the dangers waiting for Astrid all along . . .
25 Apr 2024, PB, £7.99, 9780008626891
