The Canon of Shannon

Author Samantha Shannon created a best-selling sensation in 2019, with her sweeping fantasy epic The Priory of the Orange Tree picking up a fanatical global audience. Now she’s back with A Day of Fallen Night, a standalone prequel to that smash hit novel. Ahead of her visit to Nottingham’s Waterstones this month, she explains how she put together a beloved fantasy series…

Creating a whole new world…

The starting point came from wanting to reimagine the legend of St. George and the Dragon - a lot of the initial details I came up with originate from that in some way. There’s an Elizabethan version of the story that involves St. George fighting the dragon near an enchanted orange tree, and it protects him from the dragon’s fire. Exploring this idea of how a magical tree could keep someone safe became the basis for one of the magic systems in the series. I also really wanted to explore the mythology of dragons. I've always been so interested in how sometimes they're associated with water, but then they're also associated with the complete opposite, with evil and fire, and I ultimately created the two magic systems based on that binary.

Weaving together separate narratives… I think the most challenging element of writing these books is navigating multiple timelines. When I have several perspective characters, there are different things happening to them that take different amounts of time, and then I have to bring them all together. That is one of the biggest tasks when writing a book of this size. It’s a lot easier in my other book run [The Bone Season series] as that’s only looking through one character’s perspective. But with both The Priory of the Orange Tree and A Day of Fallen Night, pretty much all of the narratives eventually converge into one, and it’s very tricky getting all of them to come together.

Sometimes I do have to tweak the timeline to make it work. For example, I really needed this one character to be at a battle at the end, but I just couldn't think of how to get him there in time because he was such a long way away. So I came up with various wild solutions, like having him ride a dragon into the fight, even though that's not really a thing you can do in this world. In the end I had just rearrange the chronology to give them more time to get there. So it can be an interesting challenge!

Crafting magical powers…

I always think it's very important to establish limits within the magic system. Otherwise, theoretically, anything is possible - which can lower the stakes significantly. If the reader knows that a character could just pull some mystical power out of nowhere to resolve the situation, they know they’re always likely to be safe. So I decided from the off that there would be various constraints on this. Fire magic can enable characters to create and deflect fire, for example, but I also make it very clear that they're not immune to fire. That helps to make sure certain situations have real weight, and can be more exhilarating as a result.

Finding excitement in the everyday…

It was particularly important to set up interesting angles to everyday life in A Day of Fallen Night because that book is fundamentally about a global disaster - and I think that, in order to understand the stakes the characters are facing, you need to be able to see the world that they're potentially going to lose if this disaster takes complete hold. That's why the whole first part of the story is dedicated to what each character's ordinary life is like. And then I slowly thread through a sense of unease that will hopefully keep the reader on their toes, that steady unsettling of the status quo. Character is very important in this series. I really try to make each character layered and interesting, and to ensure they not only face global challenges, but that they have their own individual challenges as well.

Starting a religion…

The main reason I based the story on the legend of St. George and the Dragon is because I was raised in the Church of England, and I remember singing this hymn called When a Knight Won His Spurs - that was one of my earliest impressions of the idea of a knight, one who kills dragons and ogres and that sort of thing. So I suppose the story overall came into my head within that religious framework, and I therefore wanted to tackle it within that framework.

Also, I really wanted the story to not have conflict in the areas you usually find in epic fantasy; misogyny, homophobia. I think it’s perfectly valid to dive into those, and they can be interesting places to explore real world issues. But for myself, as a woman, I sometimes feel tired of female characters having to face misogyny - because then it feels inescapable. So I decided that one of the key conflicts the characters would be facing would not be related to that, but to religion, and religious conflict, and how different historical events can be interpreted in different ways by different religions. So there is, for example, one event that happens in the world's history that two religions interpret in entirely unique ways. I found that really interesting to interrogate. As someone who was raised religious and then later became an atheist, it's just a subject that's always fascinated me, and I loved creating all of the different faiths of this world. I really wanted to tie each one into the magic systems in some way too, so they do all reflect some part of the world's reality - it's just how it's being interpreted.

Embracing your fanbase…

I was very pleasantly surprised by how many people read The Priory of the Orange Tree - and that’s in no small part down to TikTok and how many people have responded to it on there. I love meeting readers, hearing from them. It’s an honour as an author to be able to touch so many people’s lives, even those who live so far away from you. It’s a really wonderful part of the job. I owe a lot to my translators, too, as they broaden my audience a lot more than I could on my own. I hope people enjoy reading this new entry into the series just as much as they did the first book.

You can see Samantha Shannon in conversation with Francesca May at Waterstones Nottingham on Tuesday 14 March interview: Lottie Murray photo: Jonas Mortensen

Journalist, author, sociology lecturer and former Editor-in-Chief at The Guardian, Gary Younge is heading to Five Leaves in March to discuss his sixth book. Ahead of his visit, we sit down with him to delve deeper into his fascinating career…

Back in 2015, you inspired the artistic work of a Nottingham-based artist called Chiara Dellerba. She created a piece inspired by your book, Who are We?. How important do you think the connection between your work, which is very hard-hitting political writing, and the more artistic manner of communicating political thought is?

I think all these things are interconnected. My work is influenced by music and literature and other people’s work. One hopes that your own work will leave its mark on others, but you very rarely know what impact you have.

I think of intellectual work as being like pollination. It lands in all these different places and then people take it and spread it and it lands somewhere else. It’s essential for everybody. My work is non-fiction, but we know that is not the only way that you get a message across. Quite often, it may be the most obvious but it's rarely the most effective - if we think of the role that music and theatre have played in political change in the past.

You have spoken about being politically active from a very young age and your experience as a seventeen-year-old boy going to Kassala, Sudan, with Project Trust to teach English in a UN Eritrean refugee school. How do you think this experience has impacted your work? That experience came out of my political passion. I was raised by my mother and two brothers and my mother was a very political, with a small p, woman. So, we grew up with a sense of Britain and its colonial past, issues of race and discrimination more broadly, issues around the Holocaust and antisemitism. I grew up in a very politicised household.

When I was sixteen, I went on pickets to support the miners and so on. My mum and I used to picket the South African Embassy every Friday against apartheid. By the time I went to Sudan I was a very politicised individual - it was a very traumatic thing to do but, in some ways, it was one of the less political things I did.

For as long as I can remember, my life has involved that kind of critical element to it. When you’re seven or eight that’s not going to involve a whole lot of action. Growing up black in seventies Britain meant that you had to constantly be critiquing. You were in a constant state of inquiry, which led me to a kind of political analysis. There was a real logic to it.

Focusing more on your upcoming book, the subtitle is From Nelson Mandela to Black Lives Matter. Why did you choose this name?

I’ve been lucky enough in my career to have a ringside seat at some amazing historical moments. My first break in journalism was following Nelson Mandela on his first election after coming out of prison, and I was 25.

I couldn’t drive and so I ended up getting lifts with his bodyguards and we got on very well. I was involved in the anti-apartheid movement and I have studied in the Soviet Union and they invited me to come along with them, so I did. This was the very beginning of my career and the piece of work that got me my job which is why the book starts with that.

It starts with Mandela and ends with this moment. The last piece that I have written is an interview with Lewis Hamilton and he’s talking about the impact that Black Lives Matter has had on him as a racing car driver. The subheading shows the bookends really. All the interviews and personal essays in the book are issues around race which I think have been very poorly reported.

Obviously, the book explores this in more depth, but what are the main similarities and differences between Nelson Mandela’s movement and BLM?

The key difference would be the ANC, which Mandela led, an organisation with very clear demands and a structure from top to bottom. The ANC was a prescribed organisation and by Mandela saying “we should be equal” he was put in prison. Well, we don’t have that anymore if you look at BLM, but what we do have is the legacies of that kind of racism all over the world.

If for 200 years you say to people, you can’t walk and if you try to walk, we’ll shoot you. And then after 200 years you said, “Okay everybody can walk now,” the people who haven’t been walking for two years are going to struggle.

So even when you get rid of the laws, you still have to deal with the legacy and history. BLM is about this, but it doesn’t have an organisation. BLM has no clear set of demands. It’s been a consciousness raising moment and it’s been very effective as this but, in many ways, one could argue because of social media - which is much more powerful and quicker to respond. The institution or organisation doesn’t exist and so it’s cleared a lot of space in terms of how we think about race. So, they are very different and I’m not saying one is better or worse than the other.

Gary Younge is speaking at Five Leaves Bookshop on Wednesday 8 March

@garyyounge

Nottingham’s skate community is renowned for its strong sense of togetherness and frankly terrifying lack of fear, but in Karim Keita, it may soon have an Olympian among its alumni. We sit down with Karim to hear all about his love of the sport and what drives him to succeed…

There is something beautiful about finding a hobby that is not only about fitness, but about being outside, finding friendship and developing a skill. Skating is all of that, for anyone who tries it, but for Karim Keita, it's elevated to a new level: competing for a place in the Olympics with the Senegal Skate Team.

So how did a nineteen-year-old Confetti graduate go from skating at Flo to jetting off to Dubai to hustle in the International Olympic Qualifying Championships?

Karim has three nationalities - English, French and Senegalese - and has lived in each of those countries equally. France, where he is currently based, also marks the beginning of his journey. His Grandma lived close to the sea, so Karim started surfing, which laid the foundation for his skating career.

After spending his college years at Nottingham’s Confetti, with his days devoted to honing his skating at Flo and Sneinton Market, he returned to France. One day in Bordeaux, Karim met a French-Senegalese man who asked him to join the Senegal Skate Team. It’s been a big journey since this first interaction - he recently became one of fourteen athletes to have been selected as part of the youth Olympic programme for skating, and has been to Dubai, competing in the Olympic Qualifying Championship for Senegal.

Representing Senegal is especially meaningful to Karim. “I feel happy because it’s my origins. My dad’s from Senegal and I lived there for two years. I feel happy to represent it because it's like family.”

Chatting to Karim before his trip, he seems more excited to meet new skaters, see the crazy things they do and skate in Dubai, than he is concerned about the result of the championships. It's clear that his love of skating is one of healthy appreciation, separable from his ego and spirit for competition. With this perspective, any success Karim achieves is purely a bonus.

“We’re going to skate with all the communities from all the different counties. We’ll see some mad skaters, it's going to be really crazy and fun. Also, I've never been to Dubai. First time ever. I'm just happy because it's a new place, but I don't know what's new about it. Some people say really good things about Dubai. I want to see those good things.

“We can meet people out there and after, scout out the places that we could go skate, or scout some friends to skate with, and share where we might be able to meet next. This is where skateboarding is all about sharing. And sharing and having fun, that is what I love.”

Since Karim and I first spoke, he has competed in Dubai. Though he missed a few tricks, he scored higher than in Rome 2022, and he still has a chance to qualify next year. Just a brief look on the @SenegalSkateTeam page, however, shows that scores are not what motivates this crew. In fact, Karim himself summed it up perfectly: “As long as I can skate, I’m kind of happy.”

Seeing athletes excelling at their sport can be intimidating, and witnessing that can feel like a barrier to beginners. But Karim assures me that perfecting tricks is only a small part of it. Skating is for anyone, each scene is unique and communities across the world are welcoming.

Whether he’s skating in France, Senegal, or Nottingham, Karim says “every single place feels special to me. Each place has… not a different emotion, but a speciality that you can't find in another place, and something that you want to have there. Like with Nottingham, there's a reason I want to be there.”

I ask him how he has found the skate community in Nottingham, and he grins, “Oh, lovely. I feel like it's very developed compared to most cities in the UK.

“I used to go to Flo Skatepark to skate with my mates. Obviously I would go to Sneinton Market, that's where the most skaters meet up. There’s Lady Bay, Radcliffe Skatepark or Rushcliffe Skatepark. Then there's also the Tram Line Spot that's opened recently, which is a new place where skaters can come together. I'll be coming back to Nottingham soon, so I'll be checking that out then. It looks sick.

“Skating together, we push each other to do our best. If you go to Sneinton Market, or the new Tram Line Spot now, you've got free beginners’ sessions and teachers there from Skate Nottingham. That is the community. When we skate together, sometimes we get together just for fun, and sometimes it can be more of a training thing to perfect our tricks.”

I’m intrigued to find if Karim feels that skating in Notts is a diverse community. “Yeah, it's open to anyone of any age, any gender. That's what's really good about skating - you can vibe with anyone, it's all about having fun. It's not about thinking what kind of hero you are, it's all about positive vibes, trying to learn tricks. It brings people together. Like with football or basketball, playing games unites people.”

“Hearing you speak about skating, it makes me want to try it…” I add. “You should,” asserts Karim. “You can go to Flo Skatepark or to the Tram Line Spot or go on Skate Nottingham where you'll be able to find beginner sessions and it'll be really fun. You’ve got people who can teach you, they're here to help, they take you from A to B, tell you what position you need to be in to be able to keep your balance. It’s all about trying, and trying to understand it, and maybe you'll understand how the positive vibe of sharing and learning from other people can feel really good.”

Keep up-to-date with Karim’s quest to reach the 2024 Olympic Games by following him on Instagram @lil_blackfako

With Nottingham Castle’s (metaphorical) drawbridge still, at the time of writing, firmly raised, local creatives and friends of LeftLion Ryan Boultbee and William Harvey want to hear what you’d do with the iconic spot if it was in your hands. So, scribble your ideas on this nicely-drawn sheet and share them with the pair online…