Maggie O'Farrell talks Hamnet, family history and her new novel, Land
"There's a point in middle age where you can see the beginning and you can see the end for the first time, maybe that alters the way you write"
Back at the end of March I met up with the bestselling author of Hamnet (BAFTA winning! Oscar nominated!) Maggie O’Farrell at a cafe midway between our respective homes in Edinburgh to interview her for Country Living magazine about her new novel Land (out this week in hardback - and all I can tell you is IMHO it’s her best yet, which is saying something). You can read the full profile in the current issue, which is on newsstands now, but as a special treat for subscribers of The Shift, I thought you might like to see our full unexpurgated conversation. (I’ve tidied it up, but apologies in advance for any typos or weird punctuation I’ve missed!)
For the full experience, imagine the hissing of a coffee machine, audible chatter, Maggie and me chewing (her shakshuka, me cheese and mushroom omelette) and Abba’s greatest hits playing on repeat in the background!
[Money Money Money]
Sam: First of all, let’s talk about Hamnet’s insane unstoppable trajectory. What has that been like? It’s not really your MO, is it, all that red carpet glamour?
Maggie: No, not at all. It wasn’t that fast to me. Hamnet (the book) came out in 2020 - and I’m gesturing with my Oscar nails! They’re looking a bit scruffy now! It’s not like it’s been constant. I’ve written two other books [The Marriage Portrait and Land] in that time and there was the play - which was really strange and amazing. Also before we actually started filming there’s always that thought that it’s probably not going to happen. The usual story is that you can even get to the point at which the sets are built and the costumes are ready and somehow it all falls apart. That’s the usual story. So I really wasn’t counting on it at all. I just thought this is an interesting experience and I’ll see what happens.
I remember the first day on set, I was on set in Wales - a Tudor village called Weobley, and they put straw and mud all over the kerbs and tarmac. All those black and white Tudor houses you see are there, they just had to get rid of all the yellow lines and the pavements and the streetlights.
They had to grubby it up?
They Tudored it up! I called my husband about something else and he said to me, ‘do you admit now that it it is happening?!’ And I was like, yeah, OK, all right.
[Voulez Vous]
Even after Paul and Jessie were cast and Chloe was on board…?
I think you have to. I know so many people who’ve been quite broken hearted by believing in it and then, somehow, the financing or something happens, or the major star has to go off and do something else. Who knows? There are so many stories. So I just thought all the way along it might happen but if not it’s an interesting process.
It’s been so surreal and so weird but you have to go along for the ride. And it’s been a very wild ride certainly. I think it’s really important to try new things, especially in your 50s. When Chloe [Zhao] first asked me to write the script with her I initially thought ‘no, I don’t think I can do that, I’m writing more novels, I’ve got other things to do…’ then part of me thought, ‘you know, when you hit whatever I am, 50, you should be challenging yourself to do new things.’ So I thought why the hell not?
And also, she seemed like somebody I could work with. When I had my first ever Zoom call with her - you know, you’re about to have a call with an Oscar-winning director and I thought I was going to see a Bel Air mansion, an infinity pool, probably a butler - but actually no. She’s not like that at all. She came on screen and she’d just been surfing and she had all this wet salty hair and a hoodie pulled up and she was in some kind of mobile home and there were lots of dogs in the background and I thought, actually, I can work with this person. I can get on with you.
Was it the dogs that did it?
She had me at the dogs. Three very beautiful rescue dogs of various sizes and breeds.
From the outside Hamnet looks like a really collaborative process.
That comes all the way down from Chloe. It’s the way she works. She’s an extraordinary person. It’s like she’s got these invisible antennae that come off her head. She’s always listening. She’s very attuned to how people around her are thinking and feeling. She fosters an atmosphere on set where everyone is listened to and everyone’s opinion - the cast, the crew, the cinematographer - everyone’s opinion is taken into account. Which I don’t think is normal. I mean, I haven’t been on many film sets at all but the ones I have been on, the director is a big presence. They are there and imposing and everything they say goes. Whereas Chloe on set is practically invisible, you hardly even see her. She’s like a cat who creeps in and out. Everything is set up and the actors are in and she’ll come in very silently and whisper something in someone’s ear and then disappear again. She deliberately makes herself a very quiet presence. It’s interesting.