Featured Interview With Elspeth Grace Hall
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
My name is Elspeth Grace Hall I currently live in Heanor, Derbyshire with my husband and daughter that is when I am not building a new home on a small farm in Caithness, where I intend to take up the country life rearing geese, chickens, pigs and vegetables. I currently have a cat who hears for me (I lost my hearing 6 years ago).
To support my writing I work with my husband teaching history through costumed interpretation. See us at work: www.history-survives.weebly.com
I was born in the 80’s to Anglo-Scottish parents and grew up on the banks of the Chesterfield canal. I spent the first 7 years of my married life near the junction of the Nottingham, Cromford and Erewash canals.
I graduated from the Open University in 2014 with a BA Open that covered history, languages and creative writing.
After losing my hearing in 2009 I learnt Sign Language and enjoy writing poetry in both English and Sign Supported English.
Examples of my poetry can be found at: http://www.thesigningpoet.weebly.com
I have also recorded a series of lessons in Sign Supported English on my youtube channel : http://j.mp/TheSigningPoetVideo
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
According to my parents I have been obsessed with books since I first read “The cat sat on the mat.” by myself at 3 years old.
Personally I remember spending one new years eve night under my duvet with my Percy the Tank Engine torch reading the “Osborne book of knowledge” from cover to cover all 234 pages. I was either 6 or 7.
By the time I was 9 I was infamous for my reading . Teachers would have to pry books out of my hands prior to swimming lessons, on one memorable occasion I missed a school trip because I had been sat reading. I didn’t notice until I finished the book over an hour later; I got up casually walked past a bemused caretaker into the school library and sat in my class room with of pile of books happy as Larry.
As a teenager I struggled with depression and eventually suffered a mental breakdown thanks to a combination of physical bullying and undiagnosed Autism that left me feeling trapped inside my own head. When I was 13 I wrote the first of many dark poems that have since been burnt on the advice of my psychiatrist. Now that I am no longer mentally ill a small part of me regrets the destruction of the odd gem that was in all that poison but at the time it was the only way to heal.
I started writing children’s books when I was 8 months pregnant with my second child. I had lost my first child to death-in-utro. Despite the foetus dying I didn’t miscarry, in my Autism I didn’t realise there was anything wrong so I carried my dead child for more 12 weeks before the bleeding started. Having carried my first child for so long and being more than a little worried about my second I started talking to the bump, telling it stories, earlier than most. When a cat was abandoned in a plastic bag outside my front door the stories wove the cat into the narrative and I started thinking I should write these down. Simply so I could repeat them to the baby when she was older. A few months later a friend at the baby and toddler group heard my proto-stories and asked if I could jot them down for her. That’s when I got serious about writing.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I’m very eclectic I don’t have a favorite genre as such. My favorite authors are; Terry Prattchet (fantasy), Georgette Hayer (historical romance), G.K.Chesterton (religion/adventure), Gerald Durell (travel/nature/autobiography) , A.A. Milne (children’s) and the chap that wrote the Don Camillo series(boys own adventures).
I take my inspiration from A.A.Milne, Beatrix Potter and Enid Blighton
Tell us a little about your latest book?
It all started when Puss-Puss was young. Puss-Puss was not sure how or why it happened. One night she went to sleep in the box under the bed like she did every night but when she woke in the morning she was by the canal in the big outside. These are the wonderful stories of Puss-Puss as she meets new friends and has exciting adventures in the big outside.
This book has taken roughly 3 years to write.
This first book in the series looks at how friendships are formed as well as addressing the crucial question posed by any 4-6 year old “But mummy what does a stray cat eat when there is no cat food?”
But Puss-Puss is not just a cat. She is a cat that spent her kitten-hood in a small girls bedroom, raised on the same stories as we human children. So as well as approaching her new situation in a practical way she does so with the eyes and imagination of a young child seeing the magic in nature.
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