21/01/2016 Meet the Author

each day this week, Nick Higham talks to one of the writers in line

for the prize. Today he's with the writer Frances Hardinge to discuss

her book The Lie Tree. Frances Hardinge, this is a cracking

yarn, if nothing else. It is set in the mid-19th century

on a slightly fictional Channel Island where a family has

just arrived fleeing scandal. The father is a natural scientist

and he has a daughter, Faith, a 14-year-old daughter,

who is passionately interested in science, which is a shame

because it is the mid-19th century After her father dies

she is the only person convinced She investigates and discovers that

one of his specimens is a tree that, according to his notes,

feeds on lies. There is a lot of slipping out

of the house, caves, exciting events that the daughter

gets involved in, but what makes it appealing to me as an adult

is the stuff about science, religion, approaches to evolution

in the 19th century and the plight of an intelligent young woman

in Victorian times who was trapped. There was no way I could not address

the question of gender. Because I had a young girl

who is passionate about science, she will run into rejection

and obstacles at every turn. That is something I feel angry

about. I consider education for girls to be

an important issue globally, so of course a bee in my

bonnet came out to buzz. Are you exploring something darker

about Faith She also has a dark side

and that is something explored. I like complicated heroes

and heroines, A lot of my protagonists

are angry in different ways, although they do not always

immediately realise it. It is different from your earlier

books because it is set

in a historical period, not an alternative world

you have created. You have introduced an element

of the supernatural. What is the appeal of something

rooted in historical actuality? Originally, I was not certain

where I would put my idea of a plant that feeds on lies and produces

fruit that you can eat in order At first I thought of putting it

in a fantasy world but when I thought in those terms the idea

seemed to be rattling around and it was when I thought

of a historic setting And I realised

where it belonged and it developed

a certain emotional power. A passage shortly after

the father has died when the house goes

into mourning and you talk

about the clock being stopped. "It was a house of

the dead now, footsteps were trespasses, dead

people bled silence", You are not one of those writers

who automatically strikes No, I am afraid I have

a long-standing love I do strike out purple passages,

it is just that a few are left.