Andy Mulligan Interview
I first heard about Andy Mulligan’s latest offering, Trash, while on a work experience placement at David Fickling Books. They were very excited about it and after reading it I can now understand why – it’s one of those special stories that don’t come along too often. The wonderful characters Mulligan has created struggle against the heartbreaking hand that life has dealt them and as they fight back you can’t help but feel uplifted. The plot, pace – everything seems perfect with this book, it engages you on so many levels.
Raphael is a dumpsite boy. He spends his days wading through mountains of steaming trash, sifting it, sorting it, breathing it, sleeping next to it. Then one unlucky-lucky day, Raphael’s world turns upside down. A small leather bag falls into his hands. It’s a bag of clues. It’s a bag of hope. It’s a bag that will change everything. Soon Raphael and his friends Gardo and Rat are running for their lives. Wanted by the police, it takes all their quick-thinking, fast-talking to stay ahead. As the net tightens, they uncover a dead man’s mission to put right a terrible wrong. And now it’s three street-boys against the world…
…and ofcourse, Andy has answered some of my questions:
It strikes me as being very difficult to write from the point of view of different narrators – Melvin Burgess did it very well with Junk – did you ever have the problem of one character sounding too much like another or any other issues?
No, not problems as such because I am very clear about the characters’ similarities and differences. Raphael and Gardo for example, are very close friends and share the job of pushing on the story they so want to tell – but they do have distinct attitudes. I wanted to ensure the reader didn’t get trapped with one narrator: everyone in the book has a narrow, personal take on the events, and I like that. Rat in particular is the most lyrical of the storytellers, because there’s an energy and delight in him that lifts his prose!
You state on your website that you “know that awful sense of boredom, when the shutters come down, when you lose your audience.” What do you think makes Trash exciting where other books are not?
I don’t know. I like to think the characters are engaging – the three boys are straight-forward with the reader, and you quickly discover they deserve to win. Most readers should also understand their vulnerability too, especially up against the ruthless police. I tried to cut sidelines, tangents and pontification out of the book. It moves fast and there’s no subplot. Things change all the time, but you’re rarely confused. The boys have no time to be self-indulgent or self-absorbed – those vices, for me, are the vices that kill characters and ultimately kill books.
You say that you had the ending to Trash before you wrote the beginning. How did you go about developing the rest of the story from this point of inspiration?
I had the ending, yes – that epic typhoon spreading the wealth, the rain in the desert that Olivia refers to. But I had the start too: the hunting through muck. I was lucky: when the ideas were gestating, I couldn’t do any writing. I was teaching, and that is full-time. The only space you get is a few hours a day of pondering. So I pondered and pondered, and when I finally sat down to write, the story came together. There were very few wrong turns.
Trash caused a big stir when the rights were sold… when did you become aware that there was so much interest in your book?
We were very lucky. My agent Jane Turnbull is a trusted agent with excellent contacts that she’s earned over the years because of her commitment to writing she enjoys. She put ‘Trash’ out to a handful of publishing houses, and they all jumped at it – which was overwhelming. David Fickling’s name was well known to me, because I’ve enjoyed so many of the books he’s published. When he bid for it – and that was early October last year – I got very little sleep. To be wanted by David Fickling Books is a real honour.
Did you have a particular routine when you wrote Trash?
Yes, I did – I have a strict routine when I’m writing anything, or I try to. I’m at my desk at ten in the morning, and I work til six in the evening. I try to have as few breaks as possible, going out for air to a local coffee shop. I get back and crack on. Then I take the laptop up to my favourite bar, read through what I’ve done, ponder again, make notes, and get ready for the next day.
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