Better Late Than Never

Gilli Allan

When the first flicker of the story which became ‘Fly or Fall’ sparked in my imagination, I was living in a nice house in Surrey, close to friends and family. My son attended a super primary school, my husband was in a good job and, to cap it all, I was a novelist.  My first book - Just Before Dawn - had recently been published, and my second - Desires and Dreams - was in the system. I’m a ‘panster’ style of writer. I’d begun to reflect on the opening of a new story that as yet had no title.  All I knew was that Nell married young because she’d become pregnant with twins.  Her husband, Trevor, is a teacher. They live with Nell’s invalid mother, in London. When the story opens, her mother has just died. Nell and her husband are faced with an unexpected change in their fortunes.  Trevor wants to move away, but Nell is haunted by a presentiment of disaster.

Then, in real life, my own mother died and my husband was head-hunted. Suddenly I was faced with exactly the same prospect that I’d envisaged for my heroine.  The new job was in Gloucestershire, a county neither my husband nor I had ever set foot in, let alone had connections to, but it was a good opportunity and I had a portable career. I put the book aside, planning to continue after we were settled. 

Even though  I’d  supported our relocation I found myself wading through all the emotions I’d only previously imagined for my heroine - loss, loneliness, disconnection and bereavement. Then, out of the blue, the demise of my publisher was added to the list. 

Over the years I’ve tinkered with this ‘book’ but it’s always gone back on the shelf.  I continued to write other stories, but everything I sent out, in my quest to find a new publisher, came winging back. But with the E-revolution I was at last able to add to my canon. I self-published TORN, and then LIFE CLASS, in 2011 and 2012. 

It was early in 2013, when I was wrestling with ideas for a new story, that I retrieved my abandoned book from its metaphorical shelf. As soon as I started to read it, not only did the title - FLY or FALL - leap out at me, but the rest of the story fell into place. It was great fun re-writing it, bringing it up-to-date and plaiting the threads into a satisfying conclusion.

Currently available in e-format only http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00EWSHCBQ, FLY or FALL - soon available in paperback.

My short story, Holiday Romance, which Katie Fforde badgered me into attempting  and is the first ss I’ve written since I was sixteen , is being published in February, 2014, in the e-edition of the RNA Anthology - Truly, Madly, Deeply.

I’ve recently produced the illustrations for the children’s book (provisionally titled The Tale of King Harald -The Last Viking Adventure) due to be published in the Spring of 2014 by The British Museum Press, to coincide with the Vikings exhibition.

FLY OR FALL
She's not 'that kind of woman', but....

Now living in an unfamiliar landscape, Nell feels cast adrift.  Her husband is no longer the man she married; their young teenage twins are grumpy and difficult. The women she meets seem shallow and promiscuous. The new house is unwelcoming and needs modernisation.  Thrust into a continuing chaos of rubble, renovation and burly builders, she’s at first grateful and then resentful that one of these men, infamous as a local Lothario, doesn’t make a pass at her.
When Nell takes a bar job at the local sports club she begins to blossom and to become enthusiastic about her life. When she’s pursued by a beautiful and enigmatic young man, she’s tempted into behaviour she would never have previously imagined herself capable of. The foreshadowed upheaval, which began back in London as a tremor beneath her feet, rumbles into an earthquake.
FLY or FALL follows the dismantling of all of Nell’s certainties, her preconceptions and her moral code. Unwelcome truths about her friends, her husband, her teenage children and herself, are exposed.  Relationships are not what they appear. The hostility between brothers is finally explained. But by the autumn of 2013, the landscape of Nell’s life is transformed. She’s rebuilt herself as a different person, a braver person, and she’s embarked with optimism on a totally new life - a life that opens the door to love.

Gilli Allan


Thank you for sparing time to talk to us today, Gilli. We wish you continuing success with your books.
Best wishes, Henri

Interviews on the RNA Blog are carried out by Freda, Henri and Livvie. They are for RNA members only. If you are interested in an interview, please contact: freda@fredalightfoot.co.uk