AUTHOR TALK
Scientist Stephanie Parkyn has turned her hand to historical fiction with debut novel, Into the World
Originally from New Zealand, environmental scientist Stephanie Parkyn discovered a new world when her husband took a job at the Cadbury factory and they moved to Hobart in 2010.
Having worked as a scientist for 15 years, Parkyn was already dabbling in writing and visual arts for a change of pace. But when she started exploring her new city and its history, she found more fodder for writing.
Her debut novel, Into the World, is based on the true story of Marie-Louise Victoire Girardin, a woman who disguised herself as a man in order to serve as a ship’s steward on board the Recherche, commanded by Bruni D’Entrecasteaux on the famous journey that saw the French explorer land in Tasmania.
“She is believed to have been the first European woman to set foot on Tasmanian soil,” Parkyn says. “And while there was certainly suspicion on board the ship that she was actually female, she appears to have made friends on board who were powerful enough to have helped her keep it a secret.”
Parkyn first heard of the expedition, which was primarily tasked with searching for missing French explorer La Perouse, when she moved to Hobart and noticed all the French names on the map.
Her personal interest grew, and she remembers the feeling of closeness to history when she camped at Recherche Bay, the site of the landing.
“The first story I heard was of that meeting between the French sailors and the Tasmanian Aborigines and that mutual curiosity they had,” she says. “It struck me as such a precious moment in time, and then I read the story of Marie-Louise and I had to know more about her.”
With her background in biology and environmental science, Parkyn found a close affinity with the naturalists on board the French ships, but her interest in the science of the voyage served mostly as a window into her own research of the characters and then trying to find the story arc that would tie it all together.
“I have such a fascination with the naturalists, that celebration of reasoning and questioning of the time period,” she says. “Meanwhile, Marie-Louise tries to find her way in the world and not do what is expected of her all the time, which neatly parallels with the French Revolution, which was happening at the time; questioning the status quo, the natural order of things.”
Parkyn now lives in Launceston and has already finished writing her second novel, which is set in the same period and follows the experiences of two of the expedition’s naturalists upon their return to France.
“I really enjoy writing historical fiction, I’m enjoying finding all these stories from the past and working out how they relate to now, how they can help us understand today,” she says.