Interview with Kate Morton

The Gloss Book Club: What would you like to tell our members about your novel Homecoming? 

Kate Morton: I was writing a different book in early 2020, but when the pandemic took hold, my family and I returned from London to Australia for what we thought would be a short period. As the uncertain weeks (and then months) went by, living near my extended family, in the landscape of my childhood, I found myself thinking about home, belonging, and what it means to ‘come home’. Place is of profound importance to me and I drew enormous comfort from the surrounding landscape — ancient gum trees, birds going about their business, creeks flowing onwards through valleys — natural sights and smells that I knew intrinsically; it became clear to me that I needed to put aside my manuscript and write instead about the place that I was in, here and now, and about people across time seeking the (sometimes elusive) safety and security we call home.

TGBC: Where did the inspiration for Homecoming come from? 

KM: The first part of the novel that I wrote was Percy’s prologue chapter. I had such a clear image of a man on a horse, returning home through the countryside that I loved, and making a terrible discovery. So many details – the warm sensation of winter sun on Percy’s back, the sweet smell of wattles lining the road, the fairy wrens darting through the bushes, and the silver-trunked gums – were drawn from my real life at that time, and the scene appears in the book with very little changed from the way it arrived in my notebook.

TGBC: We love dual timelines, how do you go about planning those, do you write one in its entirety or go back and forth?

KM: I am convinced that the genre chooses the author, rather than the other way around. Perhaps because the relationship between the present and the past interests me so deeply, weaving multiple timelines together is a very natural way for me to tell a story. Generally, I write in the same order that the chapters appear in the book, as I find this leads to a more natural, intuitive flow between story threads. I don’t see them as separate stories: in the same way that our own pasts are always with us, influencing the decisions we make and the things that we think and feel, so too the historical storyline of HOMECOMING is intrinsic to the lives and actions of its present-day characters.

TGBC: This novel is about a woman who leaves England and returns to Australia, something you did yourself – how did your own experiences help?

KM: My character Jess and I have in common an unexpected return to Australia from London. I was therefore able to draw on personal experience when relating Jess’s thoughts about home and belonging, the difficulties of living so far from family, the inevitable tension of calling more than one country home – along with the minutiae of long-haul travel, and the sensory experience of arriving back in one’s home country after a long time away.

TGBC: You are such a force – having written so many noteworthy novels – do you feel a lot of pressure when you put pen to paper to start something new?

KM: It is vital for me to believe the story that I’m telling. To that end, I spend a great deal of time dreaming-up the world of the story before I even think to sit down at my desk. Disparate ideas come together, faint at first, and then bolder, until I start to see snatches of scenes, hear exchanges between characters, feel the emotional echo of their predicaments: these I scribble down in my notebook, and my imaginings get bolder, gain clarity, building upon one another, so that eventually the book’s milieu – its colour, shape, and feeling, along with the characters and main plot – feels real to me, alive. That’s when I start to write.

TGBC: When did you first start reading and what were your favorite books as a child?

KM: My mum taught me to read before I went to school, and from the moment I discovered that those black marks on white pages were actually doorways through which I could slip into other worlds, I was hooked. I put together my own collection of pre-loved editions, gathered from the various dark and dusty second-hand shops I would visit with Mum when she was seeking treasures for her antiques business, and began my reading life as a mystery-lover. THE FAMOUS FIVE, THE SECRET SEVEN, TRIXIE BELDEN… I longed to be part of a child detective squad and to uncover a wicked team of neighbourhood smugglers. I also adored THE ENCHANTED WOOD, ANNE OF GREEN GABLES, THE SECRET GARDEN, the works of Roald Dahl, the NARNIA novels, and all kinds of fairy tales.

TGBC: Can you tell us anything about what you’re working on next?

KM: My next novel contains an historical period (and location) that I’ve never written about before; by contrast, some of the characters have been with me for over a decade, patiently waiting their turn. I still find myself fascinated by the tethering of the present to the past, complex family relationships, the problematic nature of truth and the mutability of stories: history, mystery, and memory.