Tom Gaisford has been one of the guest speakers at the Guernsey Literary Festival this week, talking about his debut crime novel, Sanctuary. What readers may not know is that he lives here so his work in the local arts scene will continue even now that the festival is over.
Gaisford is first and foremost a novelist. He’s had his debut, has a publisher and is writing his second book. People who have read my book review will know his path to writing fiction has been a winding one: he went from solicitor to freelance journalist to barrister to Spanish teacher to author.
But what I didn’t expect when chatting to him last week, was that he dabbled into the world of professional singing.
“Okay, so he said, put your mouth or lips together and say f******k, but really, really loud and just use that fricative, explosive power…that’s what writing fiction felt like to me.”
This anecdote came out in a round-about way after I asked him if he had an audience in mind when writing this book.
While he answered the audience bit, I needed to hear the singing story first.
“I had a singing lesson for a bit of fun and was drafted into Morley College chamber choir. Then it was suggested that I do a one-off audition at a convent in Arundel (long story). From there I was sent to the Royal Academy of Music, where I was told me that I *might* have it, as it were, but that I needed to be trained for a year first, to see. I spent a couple of months shadowing a brilliant tenor called Iain Milne, and on realising that I’d never be anything like as good as him, I committed to the Bar.”
So what does this singing sojourn have to do with the motivation for writing the book, I’m thinking? In his gestures and mannerisms, Gaisford for me personifies his answer: as with the singing, writing is about expression, about release. There are clearly a lot of thoughts swirling about in his head and on the tip of this tongue, and writing is how he gives voice to them.
“I wanted to write fiction because it gives you more freedom to explore issues and ideas… As with the singing example, you get yourself out the way more than you do when you’re writing, say, an essay, and you’re less conscious of the rebuttals, of the case against you, as it were.”
Gaisford said the story idea, centring around seeking asylum, kept “nagging away” at him, so he used his specialist knowledge of immigration law to start putting together the outline of a story.
As a journalist, when you meet an author for a feature, many of your questions are likely to have been covered, and you’re very aware of trying to let the world hear something new. as was the case with this interesting question put to Gaisford by his publishers Cinto Press.
What inspired you to become an author? Was it a person, something you read, an innate desire?
“My grandfather was a great storyteller,” said Gaisford.
“‘Point to anything in this room and I’ll tell you a story about it,’ he would say. Then at school, I studied the humanities, but I think my fascination with language was truly ignited in Spain. I was a 23-year-old history graduate and en route to becoming a lawyer when I happened upon Laurie Lee’s glorious ‘As I Walked Out One Midsummer’s Morning’… A few months later, I did a TEFL course and packed myself off to Andalusia.
“Long story short, I became besotted with the Spanish language, music and culture. I spent six months in the South, then deferred my legal training again and spent the following year at Salamanca University, where I studied Spanish literature, poetry and translation. It was pure joy. And with hindsight, it sparked a latent interest in me to become an author.”
For many journalists the audience you are trying to reach and the impact you are trying to create is very important. I asked Gaisford if it was the same for novelists.
When you wrote the book, was the genre or labelling of your work something at the forefront of your mind, or did that come from the publisher?
“I didn’t confine myself to a specific genre – at least, not consciously – though I gave more thought to this when editing. Typically, I suppose the target audience would be people who care about similar things to those the author cares about. In the case of Sanctuary, these might be people who understand that economic disparity, conflict, climate change, and so on, are the principal causes of forced migration; romantic people who who believe in following their hearts; people who value books and the arts in general; people who care, ultimately.”
He quoted Oscar Wilde, “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”
This is a quote from Lady Windermere’s Fan, and romance aside, as the quote in context of that play is both about romance and the morals of men in my eyes.
I think Gaisford is trying to get across to me that human beings may have nothing, but ‘some of us are looking at the stars’ in other words, some of us have the ability or opportunity to appreciate the beauty of the world and stay focused on the positives.
These thoughts on beauty feels like a good time to ask on his experiences of living in Guernsey, and how indeed he ended up here. He explains it’s all down to his pediatrician wife, who saw a job she liked the look of, applied, and got it.
“I flew in having never been here before, and that was it, I was converted. It’s unquestionably an absolutely beautiful island, particularly the South Coast – Moulin Huet was a complete game changer when my wife and I saw it – we were awestruck.
“It’s a also healthy place where you can find balance, and I think that’s critical for people like us who gravitate towards demanding, high-pressure work. After a long hiatus, these days I do as much sport as I can – tennis, pádel, running, sea swimming, and so on – and most of those I exercise with either do demanding jobs, or who have done them in the past. A benefit of living on a small island is the shorter distances you have to cover, as it means you tend to have more time in the day to look after your health. Another advantage is the close sense of community here, with all that entails.
“There’s a sense that people muck in and and support each other to achieve their various goals and dreams. I’ve just come from the Valette Bathing Pools cafe, you know, and it’s the perfect example of what I’m talking about – an incredible community hub.
“You get the cold-water swimming, of course, the snacks and the breathtaking views. But it’s more than that. The instant friendliness and encouragement that you receive as a random person walking in there is something I haven’t experienced in many other places.”
He goes on to explain, that he has been working at Elizabeth College as a Spanish Language Assistant for two years and taught years Years 10-13.
“I took the job at EC because I’m passionate about Spanish and a close family friend (former drama teacher at the College, Maz Campbell) told me about the vacancy. I loved the job, was brilliantly looked after by head of languages, and, indeed, by the whole department, and the students were a great mix and great fun to teach.
“It was genuinely a wrench to leave, but having had the rare fortune of securing a literary agent, I sensed that I needed to devote more time to my writing if I was going to stand a chance of getting traditionally published. Currently my Spanish teaching is reduced to the odd bit of private tutoring and conversations with my two young daughters.”
So back to present day, and his new life of writing his second novel while looking after his children. We get onto how his career knowledge to date, working in immigration, and so on, informs his view of life on Guernsey, and he responds that the demographic here is more mixed than he had feared.
“My experience is that diversity is a good thing and tends to enrich a society. I think there’s an element of denial about perspectives that suggest otherwise, which needs to be challenged – in an open, honest way, of course, that is conducive to fostering mutual understanding rather than division.”
This reminds me of an interesting section right at the end of Sanctuary, in chapter 56, when immigration lawyer Alex Donovan is talking to his love interest, junior barrister, Amy. Reflecting on her job and on human rights law in general, she says: “Into battle we go each day on our white chargers, fighting to protect refugees, but what about the others we ignore?”
I asked Gaisford to expand on this apparent reference to white privilege, for readers un-aware of the term, it’s defined as: “People with white skin having advantages in society that other people do not have”.
“In a word, yes. I think I suffer from a general sense of guilt, as do many of the characters in the novel. It stems, I think, from having better opportunities than a great many others, and race continues to play a significant part in that. I didn’t choose to be born in London, of course, nor to be born into the comfort of a white middle-class family, but that’s not the point. My background puts me in vastly more fortunate a position than those from poorer, often more desperate or marginalised communities. I guess one of the things I’m trying to say with the novel is that with any form of privilege comes responsibility. And to be fair to the people I worked with in the field, a common characteristic they shared was their close awareness of this.”
Gaisford and I talked more about self-awareness and how it’s something to strive for, not least when it comes to race and privilege, and to do so unapologetically. He stresses that wonderful as it is to be liked, he is not trying to appeal to everyone with his book; that it is essentially about treatment of asylum-seekers, and the murky world of asylum policy and practice, and that some, no doubt, will be less drawn to it than others.
We wind up our conversation and I feel like going back to what he wants to achieve with this book, as to date I don’t think I’ve read fiction that explores such a current and urgent subject.
“When you step back, ultimately everything is a narrative,” he said. “And who controls the narrative dictates the sorts of reactions that then ripple through Society. A key motivation of mine when writing Sanctuary was try to harness the power of a good story to steer the discourse on undocumented migrants in a better informed and more compassionate direction.”
It’s funny, because when I meet Gaisford, I’m literally at the end of reading his book, and I have his central character immigration lawyer Alex Donovan in my mind eyes. I do feel like when I’m talking to Gaisford, I’m talking to Alex. I guess that’s normal, as he wrote him.
To me Alex is a naïve humanitarian. Gaisford though, seems to be very much one step ahead. A man with a distinct moral compass, and a value system that probably drove him to his chosen career.
I just want to know now what ‘Alex does next’…and I’m definately wondering if our island of Guernsey will make a guest appearance.