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MLF Chapter & VerseMLF Chapter & Verse

The Manchester Literature Festival Blog

Five questions for Evie Wyld

 

The author of two powerful, beautifully-written novels – All The Birds, Singing and After the Fire, a Still Small VoiceEvie Wyld was named one of Granta’s Best British Novelists Under 40. We caught up with Evie to ask her about the books she loves and what she’s reading now before her event during the Festival with fellow novelist Cynan Jones.

 

What books are on your bedside table right now?

Harry’s Last Stand by Harry Leslie Smith

The Wonderful Discoverie of Witches in the County of Lancaster by Thomas Potts

The Way Inn by Will Wiles

 

What writers have influenced you and your work the most?

Tim Winton and Kate Grenville are probably the biggest, or longest influences. I think the books you read shape you continuously, so everything I read influences me and my work. I recently read Fourth of July Creek by Smith Henderson and felt a little change in me.

 

What’s your favourite thing you’ve written?

When I was six I wrote this: ‘Today we went to the coloured sands and we got some coloured sands and Bill Hoad put Panda out the sun roof and she was very scared then we came home and the hamster had gone mad.’
Nothing has come close since.

 

How would you describe your latest book, All The Birds, Singing?

I would say it’s a story about memories and how cruel we can be to ourselves with them. It’s also about the choices you make in an unthinking moment and how they can stay with you forever. It’s also a supernatural thriller about sheep.

 

What do you do when you’re not writing?I run a small independent bookshop in Peckham called Review. The rest of my spare time is taken up with worrying.

 

 

See Evie Wyld with Cynan Jones at International Anthony Burgess Foundation on 13 October at 6pm, Tickets £6/4. Booking and info here.