By Dan Thompson
A novelist who grew up on the Isle of Thanet has spoken about her time here, ahead of an event with The Margate Bookshop this month to promote her debut novel.
Emily Buchanan’s first book Send Flowers was published this month, and is set in a near-future where the effects of the climate crisis have led to widespread protest. One of the book’s characters is raised in Thanet, like author Emily who grew up in Broadstairs and went to Upton Junior School and Dane Court.
“I had an amazing English Literature teacher at Dane Court called Miss Jones (Maggie Ford now) who was enormously encouraging of my writing – she’d buy all of her students books for Christmas,” Emily remembers.
She also credits the local landscape with inspiring her novel. “Growing up by the sea had a huge impact on my writing – being surrounded by expanse encouraged my imagination and made me fall in love with the natural world. The ocean is essentially a character in Send Flowers.”
Like many young people locally, Emily spent time at the beach: “My siblings and I spent summers exploring the smugglers caves on Botany Bay and were more often in the sea than out of it. I have so many happy memories of Water Gala day in Broadstairs, with King Neptune magically appearing from the waves, and of course the Utterly Butterly planes and the Red Arrows.”
Enjoying the Isle’s beaches led to Emily’s career with Greenpeace. She worked on the UK fracking ban, encouraged Shell to abandon its search for oil in the Arctic and most recently, she helped persuade the UN to agree to protect 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030. She has also worked on Everyday Plastic’s #BigPlasticCount, creating materials for the UK’s biggest investigation into household plastic waste.
“Having such a strong connection to the natural world definitely motivated my decision to work for Greenpeace,” she says, “because after I graduated from university, I asked myself what my ideal job would be and landed on ocean conservation.”
In 2015, her work with Greenpeace brought her back to Thanet as part of a campaign to support the local fishing industry. “It was during the election, when Nigel Farage was standing to be an MP for Thanet South. He’d run on a pledge to reform fishing policy, but failed to show up to an event about that exact issue. I think that election, and Brexit, was what truly politicised me.
“With Greenpeace, I visited Thanet Offshore Wind Farm in an inflatable boat with Emma Thompson as part of a campaign to promote renewable energy. Both my brother and brother-in-law have worked or continue to work for the wind farms, so it was cool to see my work with Greenpeace cross over with my family life, and for Thanet to represent solutions to the climate crisis (sustainable fishing and wind power).”
Emily’s family still lives in the area, with her sister’s children in isle schools, and she still considers it home. “When I get the chance to visit, I love going to Margate Old Town. I used to work in Claire’s Accessories on the high street during the recession, when ‘To Let’ signs dominated the shop fronts, so it’s heartening to see how far it’s come.”
Writing came later, and even that was inspired – at least in part – by growing up locally. “I loved the Dickens Festival. Growing up in a place with a literary heritage, one tied to the books I was studying at school, no doubt made an impression on my ambitions to be a writer.”
Emily is also a fan of another book set in a near-future Margate: “After reading Dreamland by Rosa Rankin-Gee, I’ll never look at Arlington tower the same way again. I love that book for capturing both the effects of climate change on the area, and the (often right wing) politicisation of it. I only hope that gentrification sees Thanet better protected, long into the future, for both newcomers and working-class local people.”
Send Flowers is available from The Margate Bookshop. They will host an event with local writer and historian Dan Thompson talking to Emily about Send Flowers on Thursday 31st July, at Fort Road Bar. Tickets are free and can be booked at www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/send-flowers-with-emily-buchanan-tickets-1481155950319
Not usually my type of book, but might grab myself a copy.
Margate Bookshop event for her book is July 31st at The Fort Road Bar from 7pm
I’ll be away on holiday then unfortunately.