The Banff Centre and Wild Flour Bakery Cafe in Canada were a mother’s arms when I needed them. Antonia Banyard and Alison Watt became my friends, along with the families at Banff Elementary School. My American cousin Andrée MacColl extended warm hospitality to my family more than once and gave me fond memories of the United States.
David Mayocchi has walked a long road beside me and it has cost him, and all the good men in my novels rely on him for lessons about how to be a person.
As readers of my book For a Girl will know, I have two children, one named Otis and one I named Ruth, who has another name now. I love them both and that is the antidote to despair.
Mary-Rose MacColl
July 2019
Lost Autumn
Mary-Rose MacColl
A Conversation with Mary-Rose MacColl
Discussion Questions
A Conversation with Mary-Rose MacColl
What inspired you to write this novel?
The true answer is that I don’t know exactly, or perhaps the more correct answer is that with this novel it wasn’t one thing. Lost Autumn (The True Story of Maddie Bright in Australia) is about fame, celebrity, journalism, women’s lives across the span of history, aging, and finding our true story. I became interested in fame and celebrity researching my last novel, Swimming Home. I have a family history in journalism and an enduring interest in women’s lives across history. Like most people, I am trying to find my own true story.
I am interested in what happens to people, what makes them do what they do, how they cope with what life brings. Maddie is an old woman at the start of the novel and she tells us the story of the most important experiences of her life, these sentinel events that shaped what happened subsequently.
Novels provide a unique way to consider the human condition, over time, at depth, a bit like therapy but with a story to pull you along—and much cheaper.
What kind of research did you do?
The novel is set in three time periods: 1920, when Edward visited Australia; 1981, when Maddie Bright is telling her story of what happened then; and 1997, when journalist Victoria Byrd is following a lead to a story about the reclusive novelist M. A. Bright. I like to stick to facts when I’m writing historical fiction. For the 1920 story, I started with biographies of Edward VIII and his tour of the Empire after the Great War—it was a time in which every town and community in Australia had lost young men, and people looked to the prince to bring hope.
While Edward had to work as a fictional character on the page of the novel, I do like to try to remain faithful to the spirit of the real historical figures I put in my fiction. As for Miss Ivens from In Falling Snow, I tried to be true to the spirit of Edward, who made for fascinating study. I read his letters, the trip diaries, more history and biography and other more general texts, as well as newspaper clippings and other accounts of the tour.
For 1981 and 1997, I was involved in researching a different historical figure, Diana, Princess of Wales, who became engaged to Prince Charles in 1981 and died in 1997. Her entire life is on the public record, and my research focused on these key moments and on the response of journalists to her death and then to the anniversary twenty years later. It was a really interesting exercise to go over these moments I’d lived, with more experience and, I hope, kinder sensibility.
Did anything in the real history you learned surprise you?
I was taken by how very young Diana was when she became engaged, more child than adult when you watch the video footage. Also, the way the media turned on her again and again over time, constructing her as some grand manipulator, a common trope for powerful women.
What was it like to write about real historical characters? Did the true history make the novel easier or more difficult for you to write? Were there any historical facts that you had difficulty carrying into your novel?
I like having the constraints of historical fact, as history sets some limits on what would otherwise be limitless. Working around those constraints creates interesting creative opportunities. Edward is a fascinating figure from history, as is Diana. I was struck while researching by the eerie similarities between Edward and Diana—beautiful, flawed, tragic, so loved by people and also so hated.
Lost Autumn covers a wide span of history—from the 1920s into the 1990s. How did you approach each timeline differently? Did you have a favorite time period to write about?
I like all three time periods for different reasons. Nineteen twenty was immediately after the devastating Great War, when every town and city in Australia had lost young men and hope seemed lost with them. Maddie’s generation was trying to find that hope again. Nineteen eighty-one and 1997 are periods I lived through so they are easier in some ways, harder in others. Our lives were different in those times, pre-internet and mobile phones. News was reported very differently. I found those differences, which we don’t really notice living through them, interesting to write about.
Tell us a bit about Maddie’s voice. Do you identify with her? How did you come up with her character?
Maddie is a favorite character for me. As a younger person, she believes in goodness and she has held on to that belief into her old age despite what we might think is overwhelming evidence to the contrary. I love that. I love her hope. She is the old person I would like to become.
How was writing Lost Autumn different from writing your previous novels, In Falling Snow and Swimming Home? Has your writing process changed over time?
My writing process has changed over the years, but I’ve settled into a methodology, if you could call it that. I write in notebooks with a pen for a long time before I move to the computer and even after I’ve moved to the computer, I go back to handwriting. I like the pace of writing by hand and also the ease of pen on paper. It seems more flexible than a word processor. I write characters and scenes and then, at some stage, a novel happens.
Without giving anything away, did you always know how Maddie’s story would end?
No. I don’t generally know what I’m writing until it’s written.
What do you hope readers will take from Maddie’s story?
I love humans, and novels give us enormous scope to consider our shared humanity and how we manage the things that happen to us. I hope people have the opportunity to do that reading this book.
What’s next for you?
I am very interested in another historical period right now, a sort of The Name of the Rose meets Possession. That’s about all I can say about it at this stage.
Discussion Questions
The novel follows three time periods—1920, 1981, and 1997. Do you feel that the author was successful in moving the reader through these different historical periods to more contemporary times?
How did you feel toward Maddie during the different time periods?
Why do you think the prince struggled with his role? Do you think he had any redeeming qualities?
On this page, Maddie mentions that Andrew Shaw reminded her of Mr. Waters. Why do you think that was and do you agree?
Did your impression of Mr. Waters change from the beginning to the end of the novel?
On this page, we read Maddie’s letter to Helen. What did you learn? And what was your response?
Throughout the novel we learn more about the relationship between Helen and Mr. Waters. Was the ending what you expected?
How did the war impact Maddie’s family?
Do you think Helen’s or Maddie’s choices contributed to their suffering? What would you have done if you were Maddie?
Does Victoria make good choices in her life?
The women in Lost Autumn find themselves trapped sometimes by what the society of their times demanded of them. Discuss society’s expectations surrounding mothering. Did the women have different opportunities across the decades? How has our idea of mothering changed over the course of the twentieth century? Do y
ou agree with each character’s choice?
Princess Diana died in 1997 yet we still see articles written about her influence, documentaries made about her, and her photograph on the cover of magazines. Why do you think that we cannot let her go?
Discuss how fame and celebrity are explored in the novel. What are the benefits to being famous? In what ways is fame difficult? Have things changed in terms of the way we deal with fame, celebrity, and women in today’s age of the internet?
Were you surprised by the ending? Why or why not?
About the Author
Mary-Rose MacColl is the award-winning author of six novels, a nonfiction book, short stories, feature journalism, and essays. Her novel In Falling Snow was an international bestseller. She lives is Brisbane, Australia, with her husband and son.
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