The Normal People screenwriter talks about growing up in a commune, heartbreaking plays, and the rumours that she’s collaborating with Taylor Swift
, about a matriarch oppressing her daughters, opens, directed by Mahalia Belo, is released in January. She lives in Hackney, London, with her partner, theatre director Sam Pritchard, and their two children.When I was doing A-level drama. There were far more girls in my class than boys, and we were looking at putting on a play. Our teacher suggested we read it, and it broke my heart. The plays that do that are the best plays.
My sister and I were the only children there for a long time, and when all the adults ate together, we’d be sat at the table or under it, listening hard. There were pretty shared values there politically, but still lots of debate, conflict and drama. Dinner party scenes are still my favourite things to write. And I’d always be in a corner, reading.I’d fill my suitcase for holidays with books and put a swimsuit on top. That was it – I’d read everything.
For Daisy and Paul , it must have been bananas, but I felt at a remove from it. Having a very young baby and home schooling our son helped. But I try very hard not to think about audiences, because it’s a bit dangerous to look up what people are saying, to listen to that noise. If I do, my writing becomes something else. It has to be something I’m in a private, intimate conversation with. I’m quite good at hiding.
I’m all or nothing with the kids. When I’m with them, I try to forget everything else. When I’m writing, the banalities of motherhood such as head lice and sorting instrument lessons disappear. I write when the kids are asleep. I’ve always written well at night, but I’ve tended to over-romanticise the unhealthy, tortured pain of writing. You have to watch that., with Rachel Weisz, featured very visceral birth scenes, and your forthcoming film,) with a newborn navigating a climate disaster.