by Ali Mercer
If anything’s going to make you respect women, it’s being brought up by a mum who is on her own. I vividly remember sitting at our kitchen table as a teenager, doing battle with some impossible algebra homework while my mum struggled to tile the splashback behind the sink. Neither of us really knew what we were doing, but in the end she managed and so did I. Turned out it wasn’t quite so impossible after all.
I did most of my growing up in an all-female family. My parents split up when I was little and my dad lived overseas, so I didn’t see him all that often. That experience fed into me writing about an all-female family of three in His Secret Family: Jenny and her two daughters, Ava and Ellie. I was also interested in exploring what happens when a family begins to change – when patterns that have become established are broken up, and there are suddenly more questions than answers.
When I’m shaping a story I always ask myself, ‘What if?’ What if the mum in the family-of-three suddenly got involved with a new man? How would the girls feel about the arrival of an apparent outsider in their close little world, which might not always have been financially secure, but which had at least given them a measure of emotional stability? What would happen when the new man clashes with their dad – who isn’t a regular presence in their lives, but still matters to them both? What if none of the adults in the story are quite who they seem to be… and what if the decisions they made in the past are about to catch up with them?
Jenny, Ava and Ellie make up one of the all-female family units in this novel; Paula and Daisy are the other. The clash between them gave me the framework for the story. Mark’s wives, Jenny and Paula, each have a child that the other doesn’t know about, at least for a time. Mark, who is hung up on the idea of perfection and can’t bear to face up to his own guilt and shame, tries and fails to keep the existence of both children a secret.
Ellie acts as a kind of bridge between the two parts of the story; she senses some of what has happened and what may be about to happen, but not clearly. Later on, she is so distraught about having been powerless to affect events that she rejects her powers of intuition entirely. It’s another kind of denial of something you can’t control, though what Ellie pushes away is an aspect of herself.
Paula and Mark’s experience of having a child who is different to her peers, and who is subsequently diagnosed as autistic, was inspired in part by my own family experience. My son was diagnosed at a similar age to Daisy in the novel. If you like, you can find out a bit more about that from the blog on my website, alimercerwriter.com.
The scene in the novel where Paula and Mark watch Daisy in a Christmas show was prompted by years of watching my son in school assemblies and performances. Just like Daisy, when he was very little he coped with having an audience by turning his back on it. That’s all changed now he’s in secondary school, though – he loves drama and is eager to take part. He’s been brilliantly supported all the way through that journey by staff who have been absolutely committed to finding ways to include him, and it’s been great for his confidence as well as for his understanding of how other people behave and why they do what they do. Drama is magic, and can draw people together like nothing else.
Amy, who is Daisy’s key worker at pre-school, has the key qualities of kindness and acceptance that I’ve come across again and again in people who work in education – qualities that both of Daisy’s parents, in their different ways, have to find in themselves. Children and adults who are different or who are experiencing difficulties are not always met with acceptance, however, and sometimes kindness is in short supply. The history of the treatment of people with learning disabilities or mental health problems is tainted by cruelty and prejudice, and this is all too often still the case today.
In His Secret Family, Ingrid’s prejudice and her own family history prompt her to reject Daisy as soon as she recognises that she is not like other children, and as a result Daisy becomes yet another loss in her life. Decades before, Ingrid’s sister Constance was given a lobotomy and was left incapacitated. Any potential Constance and Ingrid might have had to have a relationship as adults was destroyed, and Ingrid has been left wanting and missing something she doesn’t know how to find.
By way of contrast, Ellie and Ava have grown up together and the bond between them endures – though that doesn’t mean they always get along. And eventually they have the chance to get to know Daisy, too. Any family is made up of all its members, and I was glad to be able to conclude His Secret Family with a reunion that was also a homage to the lost.
Thank you so much for reading His Secret Family. I hope it has touched you and surprised you, and drawn you in.
If you enjoyed reading my book, I would be so grateful if you could write a review. I’d love to know how you felt about the characters and to hear what you thought about the issues raised in the novel. Also, it’s really helpful for other readers when they’re looking for something new.
Do get in touch – I’m often on Twitter or Instagram and you can also contact me through my Facebook page.
All good wishes to you and yours,
Ali Mercer
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www.alimercerwriter.com
Acknowledgements
Thank you to Judith Murdoch, my agent, and Kathryn Taussig, my editor. I’m very grateful to the team at Bookouture – so creative, so friendly, and so committed to great storytelling. Thanks to Kim Nash and Noelle Holten, publicity managers extraordinaire and now novelists too. And thank you to Jon Appleton and Celine Kelly for your inspired work on my books.
I owe a thank you to several people who read early drafts of this novel, including Neel Mukherjee and Patricia Duncker, who I met after Patrick Gale invited me to North Cornwall Book Festival (which is brilliant, so do go if you ever get the chance). Also, thank you to Nanu and Luli Segal and Helen Rumbelow.
Every writer needs people around them who help them to keep going through the tough bits, and I’ve been very lucky on that front. Heartfelt thanks go out to all my family and friends. Thank you to David Mercer. Thanks to Gary, Katie, Emma, Sam and Laurence. Mr P, Izzy, Tom – you know I couldn’t do it without you. And finally, thanks to my mum, to whom this novel is dedicated.
Published by Bookouture in 2019
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An imprint of StoryFire Ltd.
Carmelite House
50 Victoria Embankment
London EC4Y 0DZ
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www.bookouture.com
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Copyright © Ali Mercer, 2019
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Ali Mercer has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work.
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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers.
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eBook ISBN: 978-1-83888-103-0
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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places and events other than those clearly in the public domain, are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
