Utterly Dark has a special connection to the sea. But it is tested more than ever before, this autumn on the island of Summertide. Accompanying her uncle as he explores mysterious Summertide, Utterly is witness to strange happenings in the woods. Deep, old magic abounds, and threatens to steal those she loves most. Utterly must face truths about what lies beneath the land, and in her own past, if she is to save anyone. And she must make a sacrifice to the sea . . . An enchanting story of nature, magic and friendship, from the renowned author of Mortal Engines.
David Fickling Books
This is the sequel to the equally brilliant UTTERLY DARK AND THE FACE OF THE DEEP, from one of my very favourite authors, Philip Reeve. I was thrilled to be given the chance to ask him a few questions!
Utterly lives in a magical but realistic historical period, how much research did you do to make it historically accurate?
Not very much, because Wildsea, where most of Utterly Dark and the Face of the Deep is set, is an imaginary island. I always knew it was somewhere you’d get to on a sailing ship rather than a car ferry, so I set the story in a sort of vaguely olden-days 18th or early 19th Century period, and gradually as I wrote I worked out it was happening in 1810.
So that means that Utterly Dark and the Heart of the Wild is happening in 1811, and a lot of it happens on a different island called Summertide, which is a bit bigger and a bit more developed, so I did have to do a bit more research about how grand country houses ran in those days, etc – but of course, if I get something wrong, or want to change something, I can always say, ah, well, they did things a bit differently on Summertide….
And a lot of the research I do doesn’t end up in the actual book. One of the characters in Utterly Dark and the Heart of the Wild is an ex-soldier called Figgy Dan, so I spent some time working out when he did his soldiering and what battles he had fought in, but actually that’s not important for the story, you just need to know he’s been a soldier. So the research is important in helping me understand the characters and get a sense of their world, but I try not to let too much of it clutter up the finished book.
Writing for younger readers with Sarah McIntyre must be very different, has working as part of a duo changed the way you approach your solo novels?
It’s not that different, because it’s still about inventing a story and putting it into words, but it’s much more fun, because we get to share ideas and make each other giggle a lot. But I do find ideas seep across from one to the other – I think Utterly Dark and her home in the Autumn Isles has developed out of the same ideas that we used in our first book, Oliver and the Seawigs. And Sarah now gets to read all my solo books while I’m writing them, and we talk about them together, so she’s a big influence on them all.
All of your solo series are set in such different landscapes with unique characters, do they evolve together or do you spend time worldbuilding before setting to writing story?
I tend to think the best way to do world-building is to just start writing. A lot of people think that if you’re writing about an imaginary world you start off by making a map and then work out its history and language and then set a story there, but I’m not interested in doing that. With the Utterly books I started with a name – ‘Sundown Watch’ – which I knew was the name of a house. And obviously the people who lived in it were watching for something, so I put it on a cliff top, and then I decided the cliff top was on an island, and I drew a tiny little sketch map, but there were no other names on it. Then as I wrote I gradually filled in the map, and changed it a bit to suit the story, and worked out this island had neighbouring islands, so a whole world gradually arranged itself around the characters.
What is your favourite thing or person from any of your stories?
That’s a tricky one – I’m very fond of Utterly herself, and also of Wildsea, and Sundown Watch – I’d like to live there!
Without spoilers, how far ahead have you planned in Utterly’s story? Will it be a trilogy?
I’m not very good at planning! But I think there will be at least three books about Utterly, and I think I could tell many more stories set in the Autumn Isles, either about her and her friends, or with different characters, in different periods of history.
What are you reading at the moment and who would you recommend it to?
I’m reading Roderick Random, by Tobias Smollett. I bought it because I found a second hand edition with lovely woodcut illustrations, but it turns out to be a really good read. It’s one of those rambling, boisterous, 18th Century novels where a young man goes off into the world and has all sorts of adventures. I’m not sure I’d recommend it unless that’s your sort of thing – I guess the language is quite difficult, but you get your head round it after a few pages. And it’s good research for the Utterly books in a way, because there are lots of little details about life in the Eighteenth Century – a bit before Utterly’s time, but people in Wildsea are old-fashioned so they’d probably still talk the same way.
What are you working on at the moment?
I’m working on a third Utterly Dark book, and a new series with Sarah McIntyre, Adventuremice. And I’ve also decided to make a short film, just as a kind of hobby. It’s an Arthurian fantasy so my writing room is filling up with costumes and bits of armour and I spend all my spare time doodling storyboards and making props – it’s makes a nice change from just writing!
Utterly Dark and the Heart of the Wild by Philip Reeve | David Fickling Books | 1st September | £7.99 | Paperback
Philip Reeve grew up in Brighton. He has been writing stories since he was five years old, but the first one to be published was Mortal Engines which won the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize and Blue Peter Book Award. Philip has also provided cartoons and jokes for many books, including Horrible Histories, and co-created young fiction with illustrator Sarah McIntyre.
www.philipreeve.com | Twitter: @philipreeve1 | Instagram: thesolitarybee | #UtterlyDark
David Fickling Books | Twitter / Instagram: @DFB_Storyhouse | davidficklingbooks.com
