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Hi Annelise! Thank you for joining us to talk about your wonderful new book, The Odyssey of Phoebe Quilliam. It’s a beautiful, epic adventure full of heart, and we’re so excited to discuss it with you!

1. Congratulations on the release! The Odyssey of Phoebe Quilliam has been described as a story that skilfully combines a fast-moving fantasy adventure with a very real struggle against the monsters of grief and guilt. How does it feel to have this deeply emotional adventure out in the world?   

Thank you so much for the kind words. This is probably my most personal book in that I’ve drawn from experience of recent grief in my own life to speak through my main character, Phoebe. So, I’m very happy to have it out there and to be receiving such lovely feedback from readers who’ve connected with the emotional heart of the story.

2. The bond between Phoebe and her grandmother, Cass, is the story’s emotional anchor. Could you talk about the decision to explore the difficult reality of a loved one’s memory loss through dementia through the lens of a magical, mythical adventure?   

Dementia is an unwelcome spectre at the feast for so many families, my own included. When I first had the idea for Phoebe’s story, I wasn’t necessarily thinking that I was going to be writing about that particular monster. My main interest was in writing about a girl from our world going into a world of Greek myth and coming up against half-human creatures with multiple heads, in the manner of heroes like Odysseus and Theseus and Perseus. However, it became clear to me as I was finding my way into Phoebe’s story, that none of those are the worst monsters that a person has to face. It’s the monsters Phoebe takes with her into that world, the ones she’s carrying inside of her, which are her toughest opponent.

Having said that, I didn’t want Phoebe’s story to be bleak or depressing. It has things to say about grief and loss, but in a way that stresses that these are monsters which can be faced down and survived. Ultimately, it’s meant to be an enjoyable tale of adventure and hope.

3. The world Phoebe is swept into isn’t just any fantasy land; it’s specifically inspired by Homer’s The Odyssey. What was it about this particular epic that felt like the right landscape to explore Phoebe’s personal journey of grief and courage?  

The Odyssey is arguably the greatest adventure story of them all. It’s got everything – an epic sea voyage, vengeful gods, terrifying monsters, shipwrecks, love, betrayal, family, a bit with a dog…. you name it. When I first read it as a kid, I thought the scenes where the hero Odysseus is battling monsters like the Cyclops and Scylla and Charybdis in his bid to get back home from war were the heart of the story. It was only later I cottoned on that the Odyssey is really about memory. Other people’s memory of Odysseus, while he spends so many years apart from his family, and Odysseus’s own memory of himself, who he is and where he comes from. It’s also a story about homecoming. Home as a place where you live but also home in an emotional sense – as a place where you are recognised and where you’re most truly yourself.

So, you can see why that might be an interesting landscape in which to set the story of a girl grappling with her grandmother’s dementia and the sense of losing a person she loves, as well as dealing with feelings of being adrift herself and nothing being the way it should.

4. In the book, Phoebe meets Leander, a boy on his own quest to find his father, a shipbuilder for Odysseus. How does his journey complement Phoebe’s own internal quest to reconnect with her grandmother and find her way home?  

Although Leander and Phoebe don’t get off on the right foot at their first meeting, one of the things that brings them together is recognition that they share something. They both know what it is to lose somebody and be desperate to find them again. They also understand what it’s like to have grown up with a Dad-shaped hole in their lives and to wonder what it would have been like to have known that person. While Leander still has hope in that regard, in Phoebe’s case, she knows it’s an impossibility – her father was an RNLI volunteer who lost his life at sea.

5. Art and creativity are central to the story, from Phoebe’s artistic ambitions to Cass’s seascape painting that acts as the portal to the mythical world. How do art and storytelling function as a form of memory and a way to fight back against loss in the narrative?   

I really appreciate it when people notice that The Odyssey of Phoebe Quilliam is my little ode to the power of storytelling. Phoebe and Cass’s bond is forged in large part by it – it’s Cass who first tells Phoebe the story of the Odyssey, passing on a love of that myth forged in her own childhood. The other thing they share is a passion for art and there’s an artwork by Cass herself which we encounter in the first chapter and which plays a key part in the narrative. Inspired by her childhood memories of summers on the Greek island of Ithaca (legendary home of Odysseus), it’s a painting featuring a girl called Hattie who became Cass’s closest friend. After Hattie died young, the painting became Cass’s way of remembering her and ensuring that the bond between them would never be broken. That power of art and storytelling to triumph over death and anything else that tries to keep us apart is a key theme of Phoebe’s story.

6. The antagonist is a terrifying, shape-shifting monster called the Morpheia that feeds on memories. What does this creature represent, and why was a formless, memory-stealing monster the right villain for Phoebe to confront?   

At face value, the Morpheia is inspired by creatures from Greek myth like the Sirens or the Hydra and plays the classic role of the beast the hero must ultimately vanquish. In Phoebe’s case, the prospect of defeating a monster that feeds on memories obviously taps into her own desires – she would give anything to be able to stop her grandmother’s own memories being stolen and is motivated by the secret hope that she has the power to make that happen if the Morpheia is slain.

However, the Morpheia also represents the kind of monster I was talking about earlier – the one that you keep inside of you. She’s the voice that whispers in your ear, telling you you’re not good enough, that you should have done more, that if someone you love is suffering, it’s somehow your fault. In Phoebe’s case, the Morpheia knows exactly where her vulnerabilities are in this regard.

7. Can you tell us a bit about your writing process? Have you always had Phoebe’s story nestled away somewhere ready to tell?

My writing process goes something like this. Set sail – all is well. Get out to open sea – begin to experience panic and disorientation. Lose sight of land and drift around for many months – during which time, drowning, shipwreck or being eaten by monsters all feel like very realistic possibilities. Finally, after many months, catch sight of land, sail wearily towards it. Crawl onto shore and collapse.

That’s the first draft done, and then the good part happens which is editing and happens on (more or less) dry land.

As to the idea for Phoebe’s story, I think it’s been there in some form since before I came up with the idea for my Circus Maximus series about Dido the girl charioteer – which then intervened and became the focus of my writing life for the next four books. With TheOdyssey of Phoebe Quilliam, I’ve enjoyed the foray into Greek myth-inspired adventure and hope I’ll get the chance to do a mixture of that kind of story plus more historical fiction in the future.

8. What do you hope young readers, particularly those who might be experiencing a family illness or a sense of loss, take away from Phoebe’s quest?   

I hope they might take away the idea that while none of us, unfortunately, can avoid monsters in life, you don’t have to face them alone.

There’s a scene where Phoebe talks to her mother about grief and it sums up pretty much what I’ve learned myself from my own experience. Grief is like a river. You can’t ever hope to stop it or outrun it. You have to channel it, somehow. Find somewhere for it to go. 

And don’t forget the power of memory – and indeed of sharing memories – in keeping the ones we love with us.

9. What advice would you give to aspiring writers who want to blend real-world emotional challenges with fantastical settings?

The same advice I give myself whenever I start writing anything which is – What do you really, really want to say? What’s the story ultimately about? Then, when you’ve figured that out, sit down and tell the tale, give your imagination free rein and make it as entertaining as you possibly can. Don’t worry about adjusting all the signposts as you go and pointing readers towards ‘the message’. You’ll find the emotional thread as you go and hopefully your reader will too.

10. And finally, how would you describe The Odyssey of Phoebe Quilliam in just three words?

Can I have four words? 

‘Girl finds way home.’

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