Life
Page 42
Maybe, maybe not.
Think about it later.
Lock the door and drive away.
Life: An Explanation
I was born in North East Manchester, a landscape of narrow valleys, many streams, willows and poplars—overlaid with a thick crust of houses, mills and factories; most of the wheels already stilled before my time. In the house where I was born there was a window in the bedroom I shared with my younger sister, where I could hide behind the curtain and see a shadow girl on the other side of the glass, wild and free. I’ve written about my childhood, and how I think it relates to my writing, you can find the essay here:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/gwynethann/SFEYE.htm. When I was grown I went to a south coast University, where I did not have a brilliant career (I didn’t do a stroke of work); but I dreamed my dreams and read some very interesting books. Later I lived in Singapore and became a passionate admirer of the culture of that whole region. The Jakarta Regime was subjugating East Timor, and I met Indonesians who tried to tell me how bad it was, but I was too ignorant to understand. That’s when the battle of the sexes, in all its cruel consequences and seductive appeal, began to be an obsession. I’ve written about that, too:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/gwynethann/OSLO.htm.
Back in England, living in frugal content, combining motherhood and “career” (of sorts), exploring France and Italy on a shoestring every summer; for years I never had any private money in my pocket: I was making less than a science post-grad. But I couldn’t give up tussling with the questions that seem to me so important. How can something as fragile and unstable as human sexual difference as it really is, be the cause of so much suffering: the foundation of so many books of merciless law? How can this problem ever be solved? What would the solution cost?
The story of Anna Senoz is not my life story (the scruffy and pugnacious Ramone, Anna’s shadow-girl, is more like me, if I could imagine myself a feminist media-star). But in ways it’s the story of my life as a writer: the experiences that shaped me, the changes that swept over my world, the ideas that made me write the novels I’ve written, the people who have inspired me; the future I imagine.
Books by Gwyneth Jones
Divine Endurance
London, George Allen & Unwin, 1984; London, Headline, 1993
Escape Plans
London, George Allen & Unwin, 1986
Kairos
London, Unwin, 1988; London, Gollancz (revised) 1995
Flowerdust
London, Headline, 1993
White Queen
London, Gollancz, 1991 (James Tiptree Award 1991)
North Wind
London, Gollancz, 1994
Phoenix Cafe
London, Gollancz 1997; New York, Tor (revised) 1998
Bold As Love
London, Gollancz, 2001
Castles Made Of Sand
London, Gollancz, 2002
Midnight Lamp
London, Gollancz, 2003
Seven Tales and a Fable
Cambridge MA, Edgewood Press, 1995