{"id":33523,"date":"2013-06-30T14:27:12","date_gmt":"2013-06-30T04:27:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.booktopia.com.au\/?p=33523"},"modified":"2016-03-01T09:46:05","modified_gmt":"2016-02-29T23:46:05","slug":"interview-a-simpler-life-inga-simpson-on-mr-wigg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/2013\/06\/30\/interview-a-simpler-life-inga-simpson-on-mr-wigg\/","title":{"rendered":"INTERVIEW: A simpler life: Inga Simpson on \u2018Mr Wigg\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

In his review, John Purcell credited Inga Simpson\u2019s Mr Wigg<\/i> with giving him \u2018that warm feeling which comes from having read something\u00a0that has strengthened or even reawakened\u00a0a sense of what is right and good about the world\u2019. John spoke with the author about her life and work.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Click<\/a>John: You\u2019ve taken some of the most conservative aspects of rural life and have turned them into a rebel\u2019s song. What do you want city folk to take away from this novel?<\/em><\/p>\n

Inga: I guess I wanted to capture\u2014for all readers\u2014the pleasures of a simpler life, one connected to the natural world. Ideas about \u2018slow food\u2019 and self sufficiency are not really new but were a way of life, a necessity even, for my grandparents\u2019 generation. Looking back, it seems like such a rich life to me\u2014one many of us now hanker for. I don\u2019t always recognise the gothic rural Australia featured in contemporary fiction as the same place where I grew up. I\u00a0wanted Mr Wigg<\/i> to have an alternate, more celebratory, voice.<\/p>\n

John: I get the feeling Mr Wigg is about people and places dear to you. To be blunt, are you Fiona? (And if you are not, how the hell did you describe things so authentically?)<\/em><\/p>\n

Inga: Fiona is<\/i> the name I was almost given but she is not me\u2014[she is] the child my parents didn\u2019t have, perhaps. I grew up on a property and drew on that experience, whilst also taking plenty of poetic licence. I guess Fiona does stand in for my affection and nostalgia for my paternal grandfather (and his peaches), who I didn\u2019t know that well. Some of the details, like blacksmithing, were practised in my own family\u2014giving me the capacity to describe them.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

John: I was reminded of To Kill a Mockingbird, Hesse\u2019s Knulp, Willa Cather\u2019s My Antonia and Olga Master\u2019s A Long Time Dying while reading Mr Wigg. Which books, if any, had a direct influence on the writing of this novel?<\/em><\/p>\n

Inga: Well, that\u2019s\u00a0very lofty company you put Mr Wigg<\/i> with there\u2014thank you! The only direct influence was a\u00a0delicious short story by Anna Tambour\u00a0about a man retreating to the country to grow an\u00a0orchard of medlar apples,\u00a0called \u2018Valley of the Sugars of Salt\u2019, in Monterra\u2019s Deliciosa & Other Tales <\/i>(Prime), which gave me the courage to give Mr Wigg\u2019s trees a voice. I had Tim Winton\u2019s Blueback<\/i> (Penguin) in mind, too,\u00a0hoping to create a similar kind of contemporary fable, but Mr Wigg<\/i> is a long way from the ocean.<\/p>\n

John: What was the last book you read and loved?<\/em><\/p>\n

Inga: The Midnight Dress<\/em> by Karen Foxlee. Luscious sentences, gorgeous adolescent voice and a plot that seems to emerge from the landscape (rural Queensland) itself.<\/p>\n

Read John’s review of Mr Wigg<\/em> here<\/a><\/p>\n

Buy Mr Wigg<\/em> here<\/a><\/p>\n

First Published in <\/strong>Books+Publishing<\/strong>
\nReviews<\/i>Books+Publishing Reviews<\/i> is a free fortnightly publication. However, to access full reviews, interviews and news stories, you must be a paid subscriber to Books+Publishing<\/i>. To find out more about Books+Publishing<\/i>, click here<\/a>. To sign up for a free trial to Books+Publishing<\/i>, click here<\/a>. For more information contact subscriptions@thorpe.com.au<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In his review, John Purcell credited Inga Simpson\u2019s Mr Wigg with giving him \u2018that warm feeling which comes from having read something\u00a0that has strengthened or even reawakened\u00a0a sense of what is right and good about the world\u2019. John spoke with the author about her life and work. John: You\u2019ve taken some of the most conservative aspects of rural life and have turned them into a rebel\u2019s song. What do you want city folk to take away from this novel? Inga: I guess I wanted to capture\u2014for all readers\u2014the pleasures of a simpler life, one connected to the natural world. Ideas about \u2018slow food\u2019 and self sufficiency are not really new but were a way of life, a necessity even, for my grandparents\u2019 generation. Looking back, it seems like such a rich life to me\u2014one many of us now hanker for. I don\u2019t always recognise the gothic rural Australia featured in contemporary fiction as the same place where I grew up. I\u00a0wanted Mr Wigg to have an alternate, more celebratory, voice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[3800],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33523"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33523"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33523\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56839,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33523\/revisions\/56839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}