Six questions with Rose Diell, author of ‘Fledging’
Back in April, Lydia and Zara, who co-lead West London Feminist Book Club, hosted their first author event! This author event was with Rose Diell, talking about her debut novel, Fledging. The evening, hosted in The Other House in South Kensington was everything you could’ve imagined and more, with lots of questions to Rose and Nikki from Herne Hill and Clapham Books there to sell not only copies of Fledging, but other titles relevant to the book.
The one problem with the evening? We were left wanting more. So, we posed the questions we wanted to ask Rose to her in a follow-up interview after the author event. This way, we don’t have to gate keep and we can share the love about this title with all of our book club members.
We hope you enjoy, and if you scroll to the bottom you’ll see the imagery from the evening.
Love, WFLBC x (@westldnfembookclub)
1. For those who haven’t yet read Fledging, can you tell us a little bit about the book in your own words and what inspired you to write it?
Lia is a woman in her thirties trying to achieve her dreams of being a songwriter and thinking maybe motherhood isn't for her. But all her friends are having kids. She's going round and round in her head. Meanwhile, her mum has a terminal illness, throwing her decision into sharp relief. One day, she's suffering bad abdominal pains so she goes to the bathroom... where she lays an egg!
I was inspired to write the book because, while I haven't laid an egg, I have been a woman in my thirties obsessing over the baby question. I noticed how much other women my age were focused on this too, whether they were trying to have children or were trying to make up their mind. At the same time, I couldn't find much fiction written on the subject. So to an extent, I wrote the book I wanted to read.
2. What impact do you hope this book has on its readers? And what has the reaction been so far?
I wrote it primarily to help those who, like me, just weren't feeling that 'baby fever' but kept hearing 'won't you regret it?' I hope the book helps articulate some of their feelings, and make them feel 'seen.'
I also wrote it to explain myself – to explain to others around me some of the complexity involved in this dilemma and why it can be such a difficult decision. Friends or family would make false assumptions like 'she doesn't like children', or if they did ask 'why not?,' I felt like there was no simple answer. I needed to sit them down for three hours to explain. Maybe this book is me doing that! So I hope it opens up a conversation between mothers and non-mothers, those who want children and those who don't – as well as those who want them but can't have them.
I've also been really touched by how the book has resonated with mothers because of the mother-daughter relationship and the many facets of motherhood that are explored in the book (positive and negative!). That wasn't something I'd expected as much but it's been really nice to hear.
3. What books have inspired your writing?
A book I read just before writing Fledging that really influenced me was The Vegetarian by Han Kang. It's more literary and even weirder than Fledging, but I love the way Kang creates a modern day fable to explore a woman's lack of agency and subsequent unravelling – a South Korean contemporary Ophelia. I wanted to find my own weird, surreal way to explore the motherhood decision. Which is when I came up with the egg...
Two others authors I'd mention are Margaret Atwood and Angela Carter. Fledging has been compared to both, which is hugely flattering. I love Atwood but had never heard of Carter. Thankfully I have now!
4. How does Lia's experience challenge or reflect broader cultural assumptions about what makes a “woman”?
One of the most insidious cultural ideas that can really affect women without children – whether by choice or circumstance – is that if you don't have children, you're not a grownup or not a full woman. That you're less-than and couldn't possibly be fulfilled. Although there are prejudices and challenges for men without children too, I really think that's something that affects women in particular - you can see it in the way media reports on female politicians and music stars. In Fledging, I hope I show - and Lia learns - that there are many different ways to make a contribution and to leave a legacy in this world. And that there's nothing inherently more selfish about not wanting children.
“I know it’s a common complaint that strangers like to pat pregnant bellies, but I feel no urge. Instead, I’m thinking that Safa is no longer a woman; she has become a different species. Or rather, something unnatural. An alien. I know this is completely illogical. Some would say she’s more a woman than me. One that I can’t relate to, can’t imagine being. I feel a kind of dissociation just looking at her."
5. In what ways do you think her friends serve as mirrors, showing Lia who she is or who she’s not?
I think they definitely do. There are lots of scenes exploring Lia's relationships with friends, and that was an aspect of the book I really brought out after feedback, because it's something that both mothers and non-mothers can really struggle with during that time in our lives when people's paths are diverging. I also wanted her friends, and the various women in the book, to give insight into how many diverse perspectives there are on this issue. Through her reactions to the things they say, Lia learns more about herself. Perhaps the reader will too.
6. What made you center so much of the emotional tension around Lia’s mother’s illness?
There are a few reasons.
First, I had an idea in my head when I started writing the novel, of life going full circle, of different kinds of mothering and of Lia coming to a time where she mothers her own mother, in a way.
Second, because the fact Lia's mum is running out of time heightens the time pressure on Lia's own decision. Like many, part of her dilemma is that she knows her mum would like grandchildren, and she likes the idea of that – but she knows she doesn't have much time left to make that happen.
It also accelerates her journey, that we all go through as adults, of trying to understand her mother on a deeper level – who she has been before and beyond being a mother, and the choices she has made – in order to work out what the right decision is for her.
And finally, it heightens Lia's sense of her own mortality, and questions of legacy and what we leave behind when we die.
"I think of Mum. I think of her years. I think of children without grandparents, grandparents without grandchildren. I think of how eggs are first formed in the ovaries of the foetus, so that some iteration of me, no wider than a hair, has existed ever since my mother came into being in the womb of my grandmother."
We’d like to say a huge thank you to Rose for coming along to our book club, and for taking the time to answer these questions. Please follow our Instagram page , or sign up to our newsletter to keep up to speed with all of our West London book club activity!
Images from the evening, please click to the left or the right to scroll through.
