BY G. CONNOR SALTER

Many associate C.S. Lewis with England since he spent his adult life teaching at Oxford. In fact, he was born in Belfast, Ireland. A variety of scholars have pushed for seeing him in his Irish context—from David Clare writing about Irish influences in his story to Sandy Smith exploring the Belfast locations that Lewis grew up in.

 Judith McQuoid brings that Irish background to the forefront in her new children’s novel about Lewis growing up in Ireland. McQuoid was kind enough to answer a few questions.

Interview Questions

Tell us a little bit about yourself and your background.

I was born in Northern Ireland but when I was seven years old we emigrated to the USA because of the Troubles. We lived in Texas for seven years and then moved to England. I went back to Ireland to get my degree in English Language and Literature at Queen’s University in Belfast but didn’t live here again permanently until 2011, when my husband and I moved home with our two kids.

What first inspired you to be a writer?

I’ve always been a bookworm, but the idea that I could write my own didn’t really strike me until more recently. I taught high school for about twenty years and a lot of my creativity went into my teaching instead. When we moved home to Ireland, I wasn’t working in schools anymore and I had the space and time to explore writing.

What do you find more enjoyable (or difficult): getting the first draft finishing or the rewriting phase?

Oh, that’s a good question! I definitely prefer writing the first draft! That’s the fun bit—making loads of notes first and then start writing and see where it takes me. I find the first edit excruciating. It gets easier after the first run-through, but it’s still never as fun as that first draft.

When did you first hear about C.S Lewis?

A long time ago! My dad was a Lewis enthusiast so I probably heard about Lewis from him when I was very, very young, before I can remember. What I do remember though is him reading the Chronicles of Narnia to me as bedtime stories when we lived in Amarillo. He did all the voices—always very dramatic! And often he’d say “Don’t you forget—he was a Belfast boy too” as he finished reading. And it worked—I didn’t forget!

What started you on the journey to write a book about him?

 After my dad passed away, I started researching his family history. And at the same time, I was delving into Jack’s life in Belfast. One day, I realised that my dad’s father, my grandfather, had been born in the same part of Belfast at around the same time as Lewis. I remember the thrill of it, getting out a map and checking to see if they were within walking distance of each other. And then of course came the question, “What if they knew each other?” It started small, wondering if they had bumped into each other on the tram, or maybe they recognized each other from the sweet shop every Saturday morning.

I know you won the Spotlight Competition with Adventures in Fiction in 2016 for your fantasy story The Four Kingdoms and contributed to The Lost Tales of Sir Galahad. Is this your first book-length story to be published?

Yes, it is! I have a wonderful Dublin publisher called Little Island Books and they’ve been a joy to work with. Interestingly, Lewis was thinking about sending a manuscript to a Dublin publisher in 1917, but it never happened.

What were some of the biggest challenges while writing the book?

While in some ways it’s helpful to have parameters to keep to, it can also be challenging to keep to the biographical detail. I was determined to be as accurate as possible, out of respect for Lewis and his family.

You mention on your website how the book paralleled your family history research. Did your research on Belfast help with writing your Lewis story?

Definitely. My family were from the working class, shipyard area of Belfast, and that figures quite a lot in the story. Of course the shipyard and the industrial nature of the city at that time is the backdrop to Jack’s childhood too.

Did you draw on some of the things that scholars have written about Lewis and Ireland— C.S. Lewis: At Home in Ireland by David Bleakley, books like that?

Yes, Bleakley’s book was very helpful and I’ve spoken to some local people who remember the Lewis family. Sandy Smith’s book C.S. Lewis and the Island of His Birth was also a goldmine of information for me, as well as getting to spend time with Sandy himself. He knows so much! Another useful source was Jared Lobdell’s book Eight Children in Narnia, which covers the stories that influenced Jack when he was a boy. And the Lewis family letters too, of course.

People have dramatized Lewis’ life, but usually his adult years—as seen in plays like Freud’s Last Session and novels like Becoming Mrs. Lewis. Did that make it challenging or exciting to write a novel about his childhood?

Both, I suppose. It was very exciting to bring 1908 Belfast to life. And to think about all the places Jack would have experienced here which are familiar to us locals. People often associate Lewis with Oxford and rightly so. But I think Belfast and Northern Ireland also had a huge impact on him as a person and as a writer, which is what I want readers to know.

Historical fiction always involves trying to get things right, but also having to fictionalize some things. Outside of imagining Lewis knew this other Belfast boy, were there any other liberties you had to take?

Very few I think. In the summer of 1908, Flora took Jack for a short holiday to the Larne area, but I’ve changed that to the North Coast instead as there were significant places near the Giant’s Causeway which impacted his writing. Since he visited the North Coast many times both before and after 1908, I felt that was an acceptable change. The only other liberty is his grandmother still living in the rectory later than she would have been.

How much of a role does Lewis’ brother, Warnie, play in this book?

Very little, actually. There is mention of him, of course, but almost all the action takes place while Warnie is away at school in England.

Lewis’ father, Albert, is often seen as a complicated character in Lewis studies. Does he have much of a role in the book?

Yes, both Albert and Flora feature in the story. I wanted to portray both of them realistically, neither as heroes or villains but as ordinary parents trying to do their best for their sons under difficult circumstances.

It’s never easy finishing a book and wondering whether publishers or readers will respond. Your book won a “Date with an Agent” at the International Literature Festival Dublin in 2019, then it was shortlisted for the Book for Children Award at the Wells Festival of Literature in England in 2020. How did it feel to get noticed after all the work that went into writing the book?

I was blessed to have those little wins to keep me going at times when it had become quite tough to keep persisting with it. Sometime a wee bit of encouragement makes all the difference.

What are some themes or messages you hope readers will take away from this book?

That outstanding men and women start off as quite ordinary boys and girls.

And that creativity is important.

Any advice for aspiring authors?

Just keep going. There are people out there who need to hear what you have to say, whether it’s published or not. The writing process is hard work. But it’s good work.

Any platforms where you’ll be speaking about the book soon?

Everything will kick off in early 2025. The book comes out in the UK and Ireland in Spring and then in the States in the Autumn. Watch this space!

More information about Giant can be found on Judith McQuoid’s website. It can be ordered through Amazon or Little Island Books.