AUTHOR INTERVIEW

Jen Williams tells why we should all be afraid of the big bad wolf...

McElhone

ANora voracious reader since childhood, Jen Williams’ path took her to art college before she decided that creating her own tales was the career for her. She has always held books close to her heart. Now, on the publication of her novel Dog Rose Dirt, she tells us about her writing journey.

“Reading was enormously important to me as a child,” says Jen, 40, who grew up in and around London and Kent.

“My mum read to me when I was very small, and I quickly started reading anything I could get my hands on. I was down the library all the time (usually alongside my nan, who was constantly devouring Catherine Cookson books) and I zipped through everything in the kids’ library and started borrowing books from the adult library as soon as they would let me.

“From that period I specifically remember Narnia, The Animals of Farthing Wood, The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, any book about ghosts or spontaneous human combustion I could get my hands on, and a lot of Stephen King and Terry Pratchett. I remember being told off frequently because the only thing I ever wanted to do was read… But those worlds were an enormous solace to me, a very introverted kid dealing with upheaval, with being bullied at school, and so on.”

The writer had a passion for fairy tales too, a love which has never left her. “My mum ordered me a complete collection of the Grimms’ fairy tales when I was around four or five, but quickly realised when it arrived that the original versions aren’t exactly child friendly,” she says.

“She waited a while to give it to me but, being the reader I was, I sought it out early and devoured it. The figures that interested me the most in fairy tales were always the baddies; the witches, the wolves and the devils. Witches in particular fascinated me because they seemed to be the only women with any real power in these stories.”

Today, the lasting influence of those fairy tale characters and plots can be identified in Dog Rose Dirt – just without the wolf costume!

“For me the big bad wolf is a stand-in for all predatory men,” explains Jen. “Of course, as a kid when you read Red Riding Hood, you’re horrified by the idea of being stalked by an actual wolf, by the gruesome fate of the grandmother (I always preferred the version where granny was actually eaten and not just hiding in a wardrobe).”

This novel has offered Jen the chance to examine the reasons why someone can become a ‘monster’; “In fairy tales the Big Bad Wolf is just there; he’s a part of the wood, and it’s simply his nature to want to eat you,” she points out. “Serial murderers are fascinating, I think, because the question of ‘why’ haunts us.”

While Jen is fascinated by examining the motives of male serial killers, she is also determined to feature strong female protagonists in her work. “Women have been faceless, titillating victims in more crime-based media than I can list here, and it reinforces the idea that we are disposable objects,” she asserts.

Dog Rose Dirt by Jen Williams, HarperCollins, £8.99.

Jen Williams was fascinated with fairy tales.