Spanning almost forty years, from the Falklands War to the onset of Covid, and increasingly tinged with an air of suspense and revelation, this story is a poignant exploration of the complexities of love and friendship. Will Michelle be able to break free from the emotional ties of her past and forge a new beginning, or will she be dragged into a cycle of regret and bitterness?
This is Gavin Stewart, author of the state-of-the-nation novel An Endless Chain.
We spoke with Gavin about how his life has changed over the past twenty years (the length of time it has taken for this story to fully form itself), how changing environments play a part in all of our stories and why he chose to bookend this story with two major political events.
The narrative of An Endless Chain spans many decades but so has your writing journey. Your first novel, Walk the Line, released in 2018, a novel which you began writing all the way back in 2004! With this follow-up novel sharing many of the same characters, how has your creative vision changed over the last twenty years?
One of the things I write about is how we, and our relationships and friendships, change over time. Both novels take place over about 40 years, and their storylines, and even a couple of scenes, overlap. Which is a way of saying that the vision is largely the same, exploring how characters and relationships develop over time and through different experiences and events. An Endless Chain is a deliberately tighter story, focusing mainly on a single character, and there’s a bit of a parent/child relationship between the two books. That said, I’m a slightly different person myself compared to 2004, more pessimistic in some ways, more hopeful in others, which is partly the point!
In your ‘Meet the Author’ video, you labelled ‘the relationship between our personal lives and the changing environment and events we live through’ as a leading inspiration behind your writing. If you wouldn’t mind sharing with us, was there a relationship like this which has led your life away from careers in sport and banking and into creative writing?
There’s no single relationship or event, more an accumulation of pushes and kicks that moved me on! For example: I stopped being a student and got a job so I could afford to row internationally. And I had been wanting to write the book that became Walk the Line for over 20 years but only started it in 2004 when I stepped away from the voluntary work I was doing in sport. Since then, writing has increasingly absorbed any time available, and the first draft of both novels was written in A5 notebooks that I took to work and carried around in my pocket.
Between the years of 1982 and 2020, we follow Michelle live through her mid-20s and her mid-60s. Is Michelle the subject of many familiar faces in your life or is she a creation all in her own?
It would be naïve to imagine that no aspect of Michelle’s character resembles people I’ve met but she is essentially a creation, as you put it. I wanted her to be someone who moved through different parts of British society without wholly belonging in any of them. So, she’s not an outsider but she is slightly detached from the circles in which she moves, whether it’s the Nottingham Labour Party or metropolitan London. This also meant I could depict what I hope is an interesting life, with its share of successes and regrets, as a slight contrast to those around her, without needing to be judgemental.
I’d love to dig a little bit into your reasoning behind time and place in your book. The 1980s sees Britain fighting a politically complex war in the Falkland Islands, whereas the 2020s sess Britain once again fighting through a politically complex medical emergency on home soil. Why did you wish to bookend your narrative with these two background world events?
You’re right to make the comparison, and both also arrived unexpectedly and had a far-reaching impact. The main advantage for me, in the shape of the novel was to show the contrast in how they affected the characters’ lives. So, disagreements over the Falklands War weakens the links between Michelle’s group of friends and nudges her towards looking outwards more, beyond her comfort zone. Covid’s impact is more direct, making communication between the characters more limited but also more intense, pulling some together while driving others further apart. It forces them to change their behaviour, which then influences how the story plays out.
Finally, as the years continue to pass, new events shape our ever-changing world. Do you see your writing continuing into a similar new title or are you headed elsewhere creatively?
Part of what I’ve tried to do, across both books, is to create a varied cast of characters who all have lives of their own, most of which we don’t see or hear about. I find Brie a fascinating character, and I also want to write something more about Ed when he was younger, including some of the intrigue he might have been close to. At some stage, I’d also like to write a novel that involves how people cope, or not, with the sheer pace of events and technological change. But for now, I’m still digesting the effort involved in writing An Endless Chain, so I’ll see how I feel in a few months’ time.