Orlando

"This is Woolf’s mysterious and magical insight into the cyclical, sexual nature of time. Her hero/heroine appears and reappears in new bodies in new ages. It’s her most beautiful writing too, in my opinion. Yes, which is why it’s such a great book. It was Virginia’s only completely light-hearted, love-inspired, spontaneous story. She wrote it in one weekend, or so it’s said, while a guest at Vita’s west country place. Books inspired by love and written at once are rare for novelists. Orlando may even be unique. Poets, of course, write a lot of occasional poems, but they are short. Orlando is mysterious, tender and profound all at once, because the love she celebrated was doomed by both her and Vita’s circumstances. But in the process of trying to preserve that feeling, she invented (or discovered) a form of time travel. Orlando is an angel. In my novel Messiah , there is an angel modelled on Orlando . There are also some others. I’m big on angels."

"Well, it’s known first and foremost as a feminist classic. But it is also a historical novel because its plot spans centuries. It’s a sort of pseudo-biography of a young Elizabethan era nobleman who is mysteriously immortal, and also mysteriously transforms into a woman partway through the book. They revel in this new form, yet also push up against the kind of gendered expectations of the time. My favourite scenes are set in the 17th century, during the Great Frost and the ‘frost fair’ where Orlando falls in love with the Russian princess Sasha. Yes, it’s very much a tribute and a love letter to Vita, although one thing I hadn’t realised was that the recurring image of the goose in Orlando is apparently a metaphor for the great novel that Vita always wanted to write, but never did. In the book, the goose is always just out of reach. I found that so interesting, as The Tower has a great deal of bird imagery in it. In my book, birds have a myriad of meanings, one of which is the freedom that Mary Stuart seeks. Again, it’s always just out of reach. Yes, I found Orlando very funny. And, although I didn’t see Emma Corrin’s recent stage version , I think Tilda Swinton caught the comedic potential of the character in the 1992 film . I think fun is always desirable when it comes to feminist historical fiction, because the themes can be dark and uncomfortable and challenging. Even small moments of levity can be a gift for your character, and also for the reader."