Meet the Sisters Grimm Trilogy Author from Hull
Living North meets Hull-born novelist and journalist Menna van Praag to find out more about the inspiration for her Sisters Grimm trilogy
Tell us about yourself.
I was born in Hull in 1977. My parents met at university there and my mother gave birth to me in the final year of her Philosophy degree – how on earth she managed to do so well (she got a First) while looking after a newborn is amazing to me. I’m very inspired by her. I remember, when I was at university, thinking how I might cope if I’d done the same and quickly concluded that I’d probably have had a nervous breakdown!
How did you get into writing?
When I was doing my A Levels my English Literature teacher liked a poem I wrote and told me it was publishable. That was the first inkling I ever had that becoming an author (or a poet) was possible. I was at university I read a book called The Artist’s Way and that experience absolutely changed my life. I was so full of self-doubt and perfectionism that I could never finish more than a few chapters of anything and throughout my 20s I did my best to challenge those beliefs/traits; that book greatly helped (along with my mother, who’s an extraordinary therapist/life coach).
Read More: Six New Memoirs From Famous Faces
What are your favourite books to read?
I adore anything magical but also love historical fiction. I studied history at university and continue to devour fiction set during my favourite historical periods. When those two genres are combined (Circe or Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, for example) then I’m hooked.
What have been some of your biggest achievements?
Getting into Oxford university when all my teachers told me I wasn’t good enough. Getting 97 percent in my History A Level when my teacher told me I wasn’t ‘a natural historian’, whatever that is. Getting my first novel published after a decade of rejection. Passing my driving test first time at 36 when I’d spent 20 years being terrified of driving. Having my kids and being a (pretty) good parent.
Read More: Why a Local Photographer is Capturing the First Photographic Record of Every Castle in Northumberland
Tell me about Child of Earth & Sky, and the series it concludes.
It’s hard to do this without spoilers! I’ll say that the series is about four sisters with magical abilities who learn the importance of sisterhood and self-empowerment. It was inspired when I gave birth to my daughter and wanted to re-write the traditional fairy tales so that she’d have more inspiring stories to grow up with.
How have readers been responding to these books?
Beautifully. It’s extremely gratifying and touching when readers write to tell you how your stories inspire them to fulfil their own dreams and believe in themselves – it makes all the years of rejection and disappointment worth it!
An item you couldn’t live without?
My computer! In the past 10 years I’ve had three laptops crash on me – once I lost an entire novel because I hadn’t backed it up – and each time I’ve wept. Happily I’ve learnt my lesson and discovered ways to back things up but, being a Luddite at heart, there’s still a lot I lose whenever my computer dies.
Read More: Two Books the LN Team Recommends this Month
A book and podcast you recommend?
Time to Write by Emily Winslow. I adore how-to writing books – I gobble them up – and this is one of the best I’ve read. I met Emily when she invited me to guest lecture for her at Cambridge University’s Institute of Continuing Education. Five years later and we now run the Cambridge Creative Writing Company together. I adore writing podcasts too and listen to far too many to list, but Backlisted is a firm favourite.
Advice you’d give your younger self?
Believe in yourself, because no one will believe in you otherwise.
Favourite place to walk?
My father is from Middlesbrough so we visited four or five times a year while I was growing up. Every time we’d climb up Roseberry Topping and, while I moaned about it as a kid, I always felt a tremendous sense of satisfaction when I reached the top and saw the view. I live in Cambridge now and I really miss the hills and views of Yorkshire. I now take my own kids for holidays there.
What are your plans now?
I’m writing my first work of pure historical fiction, though it does have a supernatural twist...
