Scots teacher is ‘the JK Rowling of the Far East’
FEW of us would even know her name.
But a Scots teacher has written books so popular in China that she has been dubbed ‘the Jk Rowling of the Far East’.
Claire McFall’s debut novel Ferryman has sold more than a million copies in the country, nearly 5,000 miles from where it was written.
Now she has quit her day job after a leading Hollywood company bought the rights.
The 35-year-old said she was ‘mega-excited’ by the deal with Legendary Entertainment – creator of such blockbusters as Godzilla and Pacific Rim – to take her Ferryman trilogy to the big screen.
Mrs McFall was teaching at Peebles High School in the Borders when she received a call from her agent. She said: ‘I heard the word Legendary and thought, “Oh my goodness, I know who that is”.’
Ferryman blends her Scottish upbringing with Greek mythology about the afterlife. Inspired by ‘a ‘strange dream’, it retells the ancient myth of Charon, the Ferryman of Hades who transported souls to the Underworld across the River Styx.
It was published in 2013 and won the Scottish Children’s Book Award in the 12-16 category. But it was not until it reached China that Mrs McFall, who now lives in Galashiels, Selkirkshire, found stardom.
The Chinese edition was published in 2015 and has sold more than a million copies. It stayed in the Top 10 general fiction charts for two years, where it was joined by the sequel, Trespassers, published last September. In 2016, Mrs McFall was named as one of the ten most influential writers in China.
Last year, she went on tour to Beijing. Her agent Ben Illis said: ‘None of us were prepared for it going completely nuts within such a short space of time. The Chinese media have been comparing her to Jk Rowling and she’s been outselling Harry Potter here for a while.’
Now she has given up teaching, Mrs McFall can enjoy the company of her husband, archaeologist Christopher Bowles, and their three-year-old son Harry.
The final instalment in the Ferryman Trilogy is due next year.
For now, she is basking in her success. ‘We call it the little book that could,’ she said. ‘It just seems to keep on marching.’