Novel set in Oxfordshire and London PLUS author QA (“… in this book she has captured a quintessential British feel”)

14th August 2015

The New Woman by Charity Norman, novel set in Oxfordshire and London.

Chosen to feature on BBC Radio 2’s Book Club, Summer 2015.

I became a fan of Charity Norman when I read After the Fall, set in New Zealand. Charity has never been shy of tackling difficult subjects and The New Woman is no exception. She is gently but firmly taking on the mantle from Jodi Picoult for tackling controversial subject matter, setting moral dilemmas at the heart of a novel.

In The New Woman, the Livingstone family has been living a middle class, average life, but dad Luke has always struggled with who he is, ever since he was a small child. More than that, he has been struggling with the fact that he was born male, but has always fundamentally felt that he is female. Finally, one day, he can no longer keep up the pretence and has to embark on the process of transitioning from male to female. He has sired 2 children with his wife Eilish, Kate and Simon, and the author is clear that this is not about being sexual, this is about the core of identity as a human being. It is a condition, gender dysphoria. This is not simply about experimenting with women’s clothing, in other words transvestitism, this is about being true to oneself.

Of course, the issue not only affects Luke, but it challenges each family member in different ways, and Charity explores how each person deals with the immense change that is about to happen. The sense of loss, the person they have known, whether son, brother or husband and friend. The responses to the transition are multiple, but immediate acceptance is rare.

The author has beautifully captured the sense of isolation that transition can bring, mainly for the individual at the heart, but also for each family member. It is a lonely journey. The determination required to embark upon and then sustain the process is enormous, whilst all around family and friends are mired in their often overwhelming prejudices and fear.

As always the author is a hugely capable observer of relationship dynamics, capturing nuanced behaviours that will resonate with readers. And in this book she has captured a quintessential British feel, set as it is in Oxfordshire and the East End of London.

– Due for release soon is the film The Danish Girl starring Eddie Redmayne and the actor talks about transition to The Huffington Post, click here for the article –

Tina for the TripFiction Team.

And over to Charity who has agreed to answer some of our questions:

TF: You have sympathetically dealt with the subject of gender dysphoria in The New Woman. How did you come to choose this subject for your book?

CN: It’s a subject that’s intrigued me since I was a teenager, and read Jan Morris’ autobiographical book Conundrum. My father and she were in the army together during WWII, when she was still James Morris. Recently I’ve been a volunteer on a telephone crisis helpline in New Zealand, often talking to people who’re struggling with their gender identity. I felt woefully ignorant and began to research. I became friends with another telephone listener, an amazing woman who transitioned later in life. She’s very clever, and very honest, and didn’t mind how crass my questions were – she patiently helped me to understand. In the end, this just had to be the book I wrote next.

TF: How have you carried out your research, both for the process and for the responses of family and friends?

CN: I read every relevant book and article and blog I could find, including some written by spouses of transgender people. I watched videos. I followed relevant groups on Facebook and Twitter to get the latest news. I spoke to transgender people and their families and checked in often with my friend, who gave me priceless insights. My husband has an extended family member who is a trans woman, so I’ve a bit of personal experience of how a family may react. I researched for months, and kept going throughout the writing process.

TF: Much of the book is about identity and belonging. Are identity and belonging issues that you yourself have had to face – I understand you have spent periods living around the world, in several different locations?

CN: Great question! I agree with you – this book is about identity and belonging. Have I faced such problems? Well yes, I did as a child of nine, when my family suddenly moved from idyllic, rural North Yorkshire to inner-city Birmingham. It was nobody’s fault but I didn’t feel I belonged, and I wasn’t one of the cool girls at school! I’ve moved around quite a lot ever since then, and I like the anonymity of that. I don’t think I want to ‘belong’ in a community in any very deep sense. Lucia’s different – she does want to belong – and she yet walks away from the comfort of a role she’s played for at least three decades. In doing so she sets out on a far more courageous journey than any of mine.

TF:  The book has a very British ‘feel’ to it. A man transitioning to a woman can really upset the status quo. It must have afforded a lot of potentially interesting dynamics?

CN: It does feel British, though I wrote most of it in New Zealand. My brother lives in the Oxfordshire countryside so he’s probably Luke’s neighbour! I considered setting it in New Zealand but ultimately felt I understood British society better when it came to such a dramatic event. It’s true that this subject gave endless scope for interesting dynamics and the tricky part was deciding which ones to write about.

TF: How did you move from being a Barrister to writing books?

CN: It was a terrific job to have, and I did it for about fifteen years in all, but we had three very small children. We lived in Yorkshire. My husband was a house husband and I was always out at work. I’d arrive home late and the children’s fingers would be frozen from waiting for me by the gate – oh, the guilt! So we decided to have a role reversal and move to Waipukurau in Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand. My husband’s from there originally. We planned that he would work and I would write books and look after the children, and we’d keep chickens and sheep. So that’s what we did.

Since this is for Trip Fiction I’ll add that we stopped in Malaysia on the way, and stayed for two weeks in a hut on Tioman Island. Our three hung out with a crowd of the local children while the monsoon season churned the sea around us, the roof leaked and our clothes went mouldy. It was marvellous! Clouds clinging to the forest; columns of soldier ants; snorkeling in a storm, and a Tioman school sports day.

TF: What are you working on at the moment and will location be a strong element?

CN: Yes! My next is set at the remote end of Lake Tarawera in the North Island of New Zealand. Tarawera was the scene of a devastating volcanic eruption in 1886, and the volcano still hunches broodingly over the lake. I spent a week alone in a cottage there recently, and my only companions were a family of quails. The story is about an English backpacker who gets herself tangled up in a cult. You’d be amazed at how common this is – the research has been chilling and truly fascinating.

TF: What are you reading at the moment?

CN: The Bees, By Laline Paull. It’s a thriller, set in a bee colony. Intriguing!

TF: Holiday plans? And favourite place to visit?

CN: I hope to deliver my next book by mid-September but there’s a scary amount of work to be done first. We’re promising ourselves a real escape after that, which would be our first family holiday for a while. I hope we’ll head off either to the Southern Alps of New Zealand or to a Pacific island. I’d like to revisit and see more of Vanuatu, though we’d have to be sure we’re helping rather than hindering the local economy which has been devastated by Cyclone Pam. As for favourite places to visit – I’m a travel bore – how long have you got?! 

Thank you so much for having me!

You can follow Charity on Twitter and Facebook and do drop by and connect with the Team at TripFiction via social media: Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest and when we have some interesting photos we can sometimes be found over on Instagram too.

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