The big screen and gardening
It was also during this period that she would not tell people of her intended career path.
“So I said I wanted to be a vet but it wasn’t true.
“I wanted a cover story.’’
But when it came to the enigmatic American billionaire in Birnam Wood, Robert Lemoine, Catton wanted the reader to know all parts of him.
She said she had a lot of sympathy for his character, describing him as charismatic, very funny, and appealing.
It was important that her story did not narrow his character into a corner, she said.
“I think it’s so easy for all of us to say ‘OK there are the people who we agree with politically and then the people we don’t agree with’, and you kind of demonise the other side and exalt your own side, and that’s kind of the end of the story.’’
However, Catton said everyone is a human being.
“We all get offended, we all feel sad, we’ve all been mistreated in a certain way and have good ideas at a certain point.’’
She did not want to turn her billionaire into a cartoon character but said many of the billionaires that did exist in the world “are kind of like caricature movie villains, and they obviously really enjoy that’’.
Catton said she had also been interested in the difference between information and knowledge.
“These big tech billionaires have a lot of information about us, they have a lot of our data, and are getting rich on that, but they don’t necessarily have knowledge about us.
“They don’t love us, they don’t know us on the inside out and there’s such a big difference between information and knowledge.’’
It was the gathering of information, such as methods of surveillance, that fascinated and shocked Catton in her research for the book.
“I set myself the rule that nobody was allowed to do anything that wasn’t already within the power of people in the world today.’’
Catton is now working on another novel, Doubtful Sound, set in the South Island of New Zealand: “I can’t seem to leave.”.
“It’s a bit more of a claustrophobic, uneasy thriller than Birnam Wood was.’’
In 2023, Catton was named one of the Best of Young British Novelists by Granta magazine, and the book’s introduction featured in its publication.
“It follows a woman who has come back to New Zealand following a quite painful divorce overseas and then when she’s in New Zealand she sees a woman that her ex-husband told her was dead.
“And obviously she doesn’t know why this woman is still alive.’’
Closer to home, Catton, who is married to Steven Toussaint and has a 3-year-old daughter, along with a cat called Laura Palmer - another Kiwi expat.
“I got her at the SPCA in Auckland, and shipped her out here at great expense.
“It’s probably quite good for the native birds of NZ that we’ve taken her overseas.’’
Living on the edge of a woodland, being introduced to foxes, badgers, deer, squirrels and shrews “must just be blowing her little cat mind’’, Catton said.
Also at home, Catton prefers to write her novels on a computer, describing herself as too much of an editor to be able to pen her stories in a notebook - “I just end up scribbling’’.
And while her new novel is keeping her busy, there is another pressing task at hand checking out a seasonal phenomenon close to home.
“It’s bluebell season in England at the moment,’’ she said.
“There’s an ancient bluebell wood near here and at this time of the year - only for about one week a year - the entire wood gets carpeted with these most vivid almost purple violet colour of the bluebells.
“So we are going to go see some bluebells.’’
She hoped it wouldn’t rain.
The 16 finalists in the Ockhams were selected from a long-list of 44 books by panels of specialist judges across four categories: fiction, poetry, illustrated nonfiction, and general non-fiction.
The winners will be announced at a public ceremony on May 15 during the Auckland Writers Festival.