Ten Terrifying Questions with Joanna Nell!

Joanna Nell was born in the UK and studied medicine at Cambridge and Oxford universities. Her essays and short fiction have won multiple awards and been published in medical journals and literary anthologies. A former ship’s doctor and now working as a GP, Joanna writes character-driven stories, creating older characters who are not afraid to break the rules and defy society’s expectations of ageing. Her first three novels, The Single Ladies of Jacaranda Retirement Village, The Last Voyage of Mrs Henry Parker and The Great Escape From Woodlands Nursing Home, were national bestsellers. Joanna lives on Sydney’s northern beaches.

Today, to celebrate her new novel The Tea Ladies of St Jude’s Hospital, Joanna Nell is on the blog to take on our Ten Terrifying Questions! Read on …

Joanna Nell

1. To begin with why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself – where were you born? Raised? Schooled?

I was born in the market town of Bromsgrove in the English Midlands, notable as the birthplace of poet AE Housman, the burial place of J.R.R. Tolkien’s diabetic mother Mabel, and for having manufactured both the gates to Buckingham Palace and the lifts on the Lusitania. At thirteen I won a scholarship as a day girl to a modestly prestigious boys only boarding school, a challenge for the masters who’d been teaching boys at the school since 1553 (some of them definitely looked as though they’d been there 400 years). Ignoring a passion for books and creative writing, I studied my least favourite subjects – maths and the science – at high school and went on to study medicine.

It’s now thirty years since I qualified as a doctor and I have worked in a variety of medical fields including emergency, psychiatry, obstetrics, paediatrics and even an eye-opening season as an NRL club medic. Unable to resist a man in uniform, I fell for my officer husband during a brief stint as a cruise ship doctor. After we were married, we dodged roaming ponies in the New Forest for several years before moving to Australia in 2003 with a tiny baby and a toddler (both ours, I hasten to add).

2. What did you want to be when you were twelve, eighteen and thirty? And why?

At twelve I wanted to be a vet, having read all the James Herriot novels. My veterinary career was short-lived however and a close encounter with a dozen rambunctious heifers was enough to persuade me to stick to human beings. At eighteen I had just started medical school and liked the idea of becoming an obstetrician, until I discovered how many babies are born at night. At thirty and recently married, I was looking forward to being a mother, still naively thinking that babies slept through from six weeks

3. What strongly held belief did you have at eighteen that you don’t have now?

As a sensitive teenager I believed that being an introvert was a character flaw and something to be ashamed of. I even thought I could change who I was if really put my mind to it. As an adult, I’m totally at ease with my quirks and have learned to view my observational skills and need for solitude as a creative superpower of sorts.

4. What are three works of art – this could be a book, painting, piece of music, film, etc – that influenced your development as a writer?

I’m a huge art lover and the protagonists in my first three novels were each inspired by an artistic work. Peggy in The Single Ladies of Jacaranda Retirement Village was based on a sculpture of an older woman in a bathing suit by Northern Beaches artist Michele Petrie. The character of Evelyn in The Last Voyage of Mrs Henry Parker was inspired by an Archibald Prize finalist, ‘The Inner Stillness of Eileen Kramer’ by Andrew Lloyd Greensmith, and another Archibald finalist, Jude Rae’s Sarah Peirse as Miss Docker in Patrick White’s ‘A Cheery Soul’ inspired my protagonist Hattie in The Great Escape from Woodlands Nursing Home.

5. Considering the many artistic forms out there, what appeals to you about writing a novel?

As a doctor I have always been drawn to the narrative of the case history, to the person rather than the disease, and I attribute this to reading The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat by Oliver Sacks, published the year I started medical school. With modern medicine increasingly protocol driven, I fear the profession is losing some of the precious art of medicine. Having made a living out of trying to put myself into other people’s heads, I’ve discovered that long form fiction allows me the creative freedom to explore in depth what really makes human beings tick.

6. Please tell us about your latest novel!

The novel follows the very different lives of two retirees and a teenager who volunteer in the Marjorie Marshall Memorial Cafeteria at St Jude’s Hospital. Stalwart Hilary has worked her way up through the ranks and runs a tight ship, while the colourful Joy has been late every day since she started. Chloe, the daughter of two successful surgeons is heading for medical school despite a tendency to faint at the sight of blood. When a trendy wholefood café opens up at the hospital, the fundraising cafeteria faces closure and the volunteers must band together to save it. On the surface the three women have little in common beyond their shared mission until they discover that each is hiding a secret shame and none of them are what they first seem.

7. What do you hope people take away with them after reading your work?

Obviously I hope readers find the book entertaining and are amused by the politics and power plays at St Jude’s, a hospital appropriately named after the patron saint of lost causes. Now more than ever I believe we need uplifting and hopeful stories with kindness and optimism at their core, and I hope that readers enjoy reading about a community that pulls together in the face of adversity. I hope that readers will also see the book as my tribute to many unsung heroes who volunteer their precious time to enhance the lives of patients, staff and visitors at our hospitals.

8. Who do you most admire in the writing world and why?

It’s hard to answer this without acknowledging the countless charming and talented writers I call friends or whose novels I have enjoyed. If I had to single out one writer whose work I have long admired, it would be author and playwright Alan Bennett, best known for works such as The History Boys, The Lady in the Van and his Talking Heads monologues. I’ve always considered his observations of life’s accidental comedy to be pure genius.

9. Many artists set themselves very ambitious goals. What are yours?

I’m sure many authors dream of seeing their name on a shortlist or in the top ten bestsellers, and obviously I’d be delighted with either but my ultimate goal to continue writing and publishing books until the day I run out of ideas. It’s a delicious fact that writing skills continue to improve with age – I’m excited to think that the best is yet to come.

10. Do you have any advice for aspiring writers?

Don’t let perfectionism hold you back. Get the words down. Train yourself to live with the messiness of that first draft, then be prepared to rewrite and rewrite until the story takes shape. As Anne Lamott says in Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life, “Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere.”

Thank you for playing!

—The Tea Ladies of St Jude’s Hospital by Joanna Nell (Hachette Australia) is out now. Limited signed copies are available while stocks last!

The Tea Ladies of St Jude's Hospital

Limited Signed Copies Available!

by Joanna Nell

The Marjorie Marshall Memorial Cafeteria has been serving refreshments and raising money at the hospital for over fifty years, long after anybody can remember who Marjorie Marshall actually was.

Stalwart Hilary has worked her way up through the ranks to Manageress; Joy has been late every day since she started as the cafeteria's newest recruit. She doesn't take her role as 'the intern' quite as seriously as Hilary would like but there's no doubt she brings a welcome pop of personality. Seventeen-year-old Chloe, the daughter of two successful surgeons, is...

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