Hay 2023 Picks: Fran Littlewood and Joanne Harris in conversation with Maxine Mei-Fung Chung
‘It’s a ‘Menopause Carrie’’.
Fran Littlewood’s Amazing Grace Adams and Joanne Harris’ Broken Light both explore female protagonists of a ‘certain age’ –older women – a group so often erased from our cultural narratives and made to appear, and feel, invisible.
Joanne Harris, author of the beloved Chocolat, interrogates just that in her latest novel, Broken Light. Centring on 50-something Bernie Moon, ‘a fading light’, Harris’ mystical novel explores how older women can take back control when faced with a feeling of invisibility. It’s a ‘Menopause Carrie’ she tells her audience at Hay. Supernatural powers are so often focused on youth when it comes to women, so Harris wanted to flip the narrative and empower older women. Meanwhile, in Fran Littlewood’s Amazing Grace Adams, Grace is one bad day away from saving her life . On a hot summer’s day in standstill traffic in North London, Grace snaps, and takes her life into her hands. ‘Sometimes I have so much rage it scares me...’, says protagonist Grace in the novel, and Littlewood particularly focuses on menopausal rage in her debut, in an attempt to repaint the portrait of the unhinged woman.
Harris has appeared frequently in the press over her vocal views on trans issues, bringing her into conflict with J.K. Rowling. An audience member stoked the fire, asking ‘What is a woman?’. ‘A woman is not a what, and she is whatever she wants to be’, Joanne replied to applause. Female power and anger felt palpable in the audience as issues of female invisibility were discussed.
Harris was a teacher in an all-boys school for 15 years, and she raised the issue of educating boys when they are young around gender: ‘We’ve got to stop giving them the message that it’s wrong for a boy to read books about girls. Because even schools are giving them this message. And this is where the problem happens, where women’s voices are perceived as less.’
In this celebration of ‘women of a certain age’, Littlewood and Harris both sparked conversation around taboo ‘women’s issues’, placing older women centre stage.
Editorial Picks
