Polly Samson is the author of two short story collections and two previous novels. Her work has been shortlisted for numerous prizes, translated into several languages and has been dramatised on BBC Radio 4. Her novel The Kindness was named Book of the Year by The Times and Observer. She has written lyrics for four Number One albums, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Her latest novel is called A Theatre for Dreamers.
Today, Polly Samson’s here to answer a few of our questions about her new book. Read on …
Polly Samson (Photo: Harry Borden)
Tell us about your book, A Theatre for Dreamers!
PS: The novel is set among the bohemian community on Hydra in 1960. Among the main characters are the real people who were there, including Charmian Clift, George Johnston, Leonard Cohen, Marianne Ihlen and Axel Jensen. My narrator is an eighteen-year-old girl called Erica Hart who arrives on the island to clear up a mystery or two concerning her dead mother, who had been a friend of Clift’s. Erica finds herself swept up in the island dramas as the world teeters on the edge of social, political and sexual revolution.
Lately it seems there’s been a resurgence in interest in Hydra and the circle of artists that formed a community there. Why do you think that is? What drew you to the subject?
PS: I was drawn to the subject by a visit to Hydra in May 2014 and, in the house we had rented there was a copy of Charmian Clift’s 1959 memoir, Peel Me A Lotus. This was my introduction to this incredible writer and her life on the island. There has been a great resurgence of interest in the artistic community (of which Clift and Johnston were the undisputed King and Queen) following the deaths, within three months of each other, of Leonard Cohen and Marianne Ihlen, and in particular the beautiful letter that he wrote to her at the end.
How did you go about creating a fictional story out of a true one? Did you feel restrained by the history or did you find that it gave you structure and freedom?
PS: Sometimes it felt like I’d bitten off more than I could chew, partly because so many of the community were writers and writers tend to write! It wasn’t just the books, both published and unpublished, but diaries, biographies, letters: a labyrinth of reading but such a fascinating one. I wanted to stick as closely as possible to the known truth but I did shift Gregory Corso’s dates very slightly to suit the narrative, and I changed the backstory of another character to allow me to include a story about sponge fishing. I liked having a framework of chronology and facts to hang my story from and I very much enjoyed the detective work of slotting everyone’s stories together.
Where did the character of Erica come from?
PS: Erica was my eureka moment in writing this book. I very much wanted to place the reader at the centre of events and I wanted to tell the women’s stories. Having a young narrator who is looking for role models on the brink of adulthood, and at such a fascinating period of women’s history was key to writing about the lives of Charmian Clift and Marianne Ihlen. Through Erica’s eyes I was able to contrast Marianne’s willingness to be a muse and Charmian’s struggle to be free enough to write books of her own.
Do you read other books while you’re writing? Were there any other books that inspired this novel?
PS: There was no time to read off subject and I wouldn’t have wanted to. Writing this book was an incredibly immersive experience. I read and re-read George and Charmian’s books and there were so many biographies to digest. Axel Jensen, I discovered, is also a very good novelist, despite that I was reading mainly bad translations from Norwegian. Normally I read poetry when I’m writing fiction and in the case of this book I read Leonard Cohen and Gregory Corso’s poetry but, other than reading and researching, my downtime was spent listening to the entire Leonard Cohen catalogue on repeat (which remains a pleasure).
Who do you most admire in the writing world?
PS: Again, so many people. Right at this moment I am in lockdown with my son who has managed to write his first book (a memoir about fathers and birds) while at the same time becoming a father himself. I’ve no idea where he found the time or the words.
Is there a book that you wish you’d written?
PS: So many! The one that I read again and again to see how she did it is Rose Tremain’s The Road Home. That first chapter is a masterclass in establishing character.
What is the best piece of writing advice you have ever received?
PS: Is this awful of me? I can’t think of a single helpful piece of writing advice I’ve ever received. I become completely hamstrung by things others tell me they do, such as keeping lists of characters’ breakfast choices etc. My advice to myself is: Do not imagine there will ever be a reader. And that seems to work!
What do you hope readers will discover in A Theatre for Dreamers?
PS: With the way things are in the world right now, I hope they will discover that armchair travelling is a possibility and that they will be transported to this lovely sunny Greek island while reading the novel.
And finally, what’s up next for you?
PS: I am currently narrating the audiobook of A Theatre for Dreamers and rather regretting having such an international cast of characters. It’s really difficult not to lapse into very bad accents (I’m no actor) and my daughter tells me that my current version of Leonard Cohen sounds like Eeyore and my George Johnston like Sir Les Paterson. Once I’ve corrected those it’ll probably be some song lyrics for my husband, a couple of short stories that I’ve been longing to write and then another novel that’s starting to brew.
Thanks Polly!
—A Theatre for Dreamers by Polly Samson (Bloomsbury Australia) is out now. Find out more about Polly Samson here.
A Theatre for Dreamers
1960. The world is dancing on the edge of revolution, and nowhere more so than on the Greek island of Hydra, where a circle of poets, painters and musicians live tangled lives, ruled by the writers Charmian Clift and George Johnston, troubled king and queen of bohemia. Forming within this circle is a triangle: its points the magnetic, destructive writer Axel Jensen, his dazzling wife Marianne Ihlen, and a young Canadian poet named Leonard Cohen.
Into their midst arrives teenage Erica, with little more than a bundle of blank notebooks and her grief for her mother...
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