Lesley was named as one of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland's 2016 Artist Career Enhancement recipients for literature. She is using the award to complete her second novel.
Can you tell us a little bit about your debut novel The Lonely Life of Biddy Weir?
Biddy Weir is a shy young loner who lives a solitary existence with her old-fashioned, emotionally crippled father. She is happy to exist in her own wee world, sketching seagulls and examining bird poo – until she is branded a ‘Bloody Weirdo’ by the most popular girl in her primary school. What follows is a heart-breaking tale of bullying and redemption, which spans from the late 1970s to 2000. Set in a fictional seaside town in Northern Ireland, the novel is a stark illustration of the extent to which bullying can affect us all, hitting home the uncomfortable truth that beyond victim and perpetrator, those who are passive witnesses play their own unwitting part in the ensuing damage. Spare, dark and often unrelenting, Biddy’s is a story with universal appeal, which ultimately affirms the value of being different.
Bullying is such a hot and emotive topic, what inspired you to choose this as the subject for your debut novel?
I didn’t consciously set out to write a novel about bullying, but thinking back on it, I suspect my subconscious had been at work for a while. I remember being in a shopping centre one day, and spotting a girl who had been in my year at school. She looked exactly the same as she did when she was fourteen/fifteen – same closely cropped hair, same thick tan tights, same saggy cardigan and knee-length tweed skirt. At school, the teenage years had seemed to bypass her completely. She was a loner, who wore very old fashioned, dowdy clothes and wandered around with her head bent low. When I saw her at the shopping centre we were in our early forties, but she could have been in her sixties. I couldn’t get her out of my head, and began to think of other women I’d encountered over the years who didn’t necessarily conform to the idea of being ‘normal’, many of whom seemed to be stuck in time. Around the same time, I became aware of some bullying that was going on in my daughter’s class at primary school. I witnessed one little girl whispering vile threats to another (who was timid and sweet) during a school outing, then my daughter herself experienced some unpleasant behaviour from a girl in her class, as well as another child who lived just around the corner. The girls were all around seven or eight years old, and it was so shocking and upsetting. Then one day this character literally popped into my head, demanding to tell me her story. At first I thought she was called Bunty Walker, but I knew she’d been badly bullied at school and I wrote a short story about her quest for revenge. I couldn’t leave her alone, though, and kept editing the story, and adding bits on. Then I realised that she was actually called Biddy Weir, and she wasn’t looking for revenge at all – she just wanted someone to talk to. So I let her talk, and I kept writing down what she had to say - until one day I realised, with some surprise, that I was actually writing a novel. As a nod to the original character, I briefly introduce a Bunty Walker towards the end of the book.
