The Casual Vacancy satirises depictions of the poor and of 'feckless teenage mothers', author tells the Guardian
JK Rowling’s first novel for adults, The Casual Vacancy, goes on sale this Thursday. Photograph: Rex Features
JK Rowling's first novel for adults, The Casual Vacancy, draws on her own experience of living on the margins of society and satirises a political landscape in which the poor are regularly cast "as this homogeneous mash, like porridge", according to a rare interview in the Guardian's Weekend magazine.
Rowling, who donated £1m to the Labour party in 2008 and has previously spoken of her indebtedness to the welfare state, began writing The Casual Vacancy five years ago under the last Labour government but believes the novel has "become maybe more relevant as I've written".
Speaking to the Guardian's Decca Aikenhead, she described what she saw as "a horribly familiar change of atmosphere" since the 2010 election. "It feels to me a lot like it did in the early 90s, where there's been a bit of redistribution of benefits and suddenly lone-parent families are that little bit worse off," she said. "But it's not a 'little bit' when you're in that situation. Even a tenner a week can make such a vast, vast difference."
The idea for the novel, her first since the 2007 publication of the final volume in the Harry Potter series that made her a global household name and the world's first author to become a billionaire solely through her writing, came to her on an aeroplane. "I thought: local election! And I just knew. I had that totally physical response you get to an idea that you know will work. It's a rush of adrenaline, it's chemical. I had it with Harry Potter and I had it with this."
Set in the fictional West Country village of Pagford, which bears a passing resemblance to Rowling's own childhood home in the Forest of Dean, and telling the story of a parish election triggered by the death of councillor Barry Fairbrother, The Casual Vacancy investigates the agendas and infighting that fuel local politics, and the class divisions that rive even the most picturesque English communities.
Full story at The Guardian.
Rowling, who donated £1m to the Labour party in 2008 and has previously spoken of her indebtedness to the welfare state, began writing The Casual Vacancy five years ago under the last Labour government but believes the novel has "become maybe more relevant as I've written".
Speaking to the Guardian's Decca Aikenhead, she described what she saw as "a horribly familiar change of atmosphere" since the 2010 election. "It feels to me a lot like it did in the early 90s, where there's been a bit of redistribution of benefits and suddenly lone-parent families are that little bit worse off," she said. "But it's not a 'little bit' when you're in that situation. Even a tenner a week can make such a vast, vast difference."
The idea for the novel, her first since the 2007 publication of the final volume in the Harry Potter series that made her a global household name and the world's first author to become a billionaire solely through her writing, came to her on an aeroplane. "I thought: local election! And I just knew. I had that totally physical response you get to an idea that you know will work. It's a rush of adrenaline, it's chemical. I had it with Harry Potter and I had it with this."
Set in the fictional West Country village of Pagford, which bears a passing resemblance to Rowling's own childhood home in the Forest of Dean, and telling the story of a parish election triggered by the death of councillor Barry Fairbrother, The Casual Vacancy investigates the agendas and infighting that fuel local politics, and the class divisions that rive even the most picturesque English communities.
Full story at The Guardian.
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