Laura Dockrill: tour de force

An interview with Booktrust favourite, Laura Dockrill, is a wonderful way to spend an afternoon. What you won't read are the silly endless ridiculous tangents on everything from slang to the best way to make a corset out of paper, the love-in mutual appreciation society between interviewer and interviewee and what Laura really thinks of Florence and the Machine.

What you will read is an interview with one of the hardest-working and most talented authors and poets in the country today. Laura is indefatigable. Not content with being a poet, she has her own poetry choir. Not content with releasing books of poetry and illustrated novellas, she has just put out a collection of twisted fairytales, inspired by Grimm, Dahl, fantasy, Skins, Shameless, Greek mythology and ghosts, called Echoes. She has been tearing up stages across the country for years now, she's been on ones-to-watch lists for a good few too. Laura Dockrill hasn't just arrived, she's taking over. BOOKEND.

So read what she has to say, go track down Echoes and ensure you see her live somewhere. You won't forget it. BOOKEND.

(All this BOOKEND nonsense will become clear...)

> Hello Laura Dockrill, how are you?

I’m good thank you.

> First off, we’ve had some questions off Twitter. @BooksaCotswolds asks: Do you use Twitter, and if so, what do you use it for?

Have you heard the new news? The new groundbreaking news? I’ve been on Twitter for 57 minutes. (Follow her @lauradockrill) I don’t know how to use it but I’m friends with Russell Brand, HarperCollins… I’m a bit like a child who gets their first email and their only email friends are their mum and their teacher. We’ll see how I get on with it.

> What made you join it?

My publisher saying, ‘Can you please sell some books?’ They’re like, don’t oversell- just talk about yourself in a way that’s really likeable! So that’s what’s I’ve got to do. I don’t know anyone who uses Twitter, I only know only cool people. Actually, Phill Jupitus and Russell Brand use Twitter- they’re cool.

> What’s the scariest thing that’s ever happened to you on a date? (from @vixvixvix)

One time, I went on a date that I didn’t think was a date till I got there and realised it was a date, so that was pretty scary. The boy got a bottle of water, tipped his head back and poured the whole thing down his chest. On purpose… in a sexy beachy way. He slung his head back as if it was really hot. I was staring at him and I was naughty and told lots of people so whenever they walked past him, they tipped their heads back and pretended to throw water on themselves. It just got worse and worse. I know that’s mean but it was a bit scary. And it was a daytime date.

> What’s the scariest film you’ve ever seen?

I’m a real scaredy cat. I get freaked out by psychological stuff. I saw this film recently called Martyrs. It’s horrible, it’s French, it’s so scary. The Blair Witch Project nearly made me wet myself. And one other one… The Orphanage. I don’t like psychological stuff; monsters I can deal with.

> Scariest animal?

Sea lion. I went swimming with a sea lion and it was so loud and clappy and big. I’ve seen a tiger before but it was through glass. I was in the pool alone with a sea lion and they’re supposed to smash water in your face and it’s really scary. You’re on edge the whole time.

> So, to Echoes- your new collection of short stories. It’s very Dahl-esque in places. Was he the only inspiration?

I guess it was also the books I was reading at the time; they were very descriptive and pernickety. I’ve always loved classical stories, which I use in my performance work. I’m really into the classic way of storytelling. I’ve been going back to my roots and where I got all that from, which is fairy tales, Greek mythology, Roald Dahl- so it was a really lovely journey going back to what I knew and developing my writing. It wasn’t like having to write a sci-fi book and developing a whole new realm of work. It was very comforting.

> There’s a lot of mashing up classical tales and resetting them in the modern world of Laura Dockrill’s not-quite universe. What other modern things inspire you?

That makes me really happy that you say that about the universe because that’s exactly what I’m trying to create, like Roald Dahl or Tim Burton – a whole land. I quite the idea that some things are not easy to identify. I love language and I love the way it evolves and changes. When people get annoyed at kids for messing up language, like using ‘dark’ and ‘heavy’ and ‘sick’, those sorts of things inspire me. I love that we’re evolving.

> What’s your favourite bit of slang?

My brother’s got a new one called ‘greezy’ which means it’s good. I’ve got a new one though. You have to start spreading it around. I’m trying to make my own slang up. If you want to say at the end of a sentence, ‘full stop’ or ‘period’ you’ve got to say ‘BOOKEND.’ My friend has one… instead of ‘standard’ he wants to say ‘BENCHMARK.’ We’ve all got to start saying them to see if they stick.

> One of the ones I’ve been trying to do, is when people state an opinion and say ‘FACT’ at the end of it, I’m trying to recategorise it so instead, they say ‘OPINION.’

Like, instead of I like beer… fact… it’s I like beer… OPINION? Yes, okay, let’s work to make all these happen.

> Why did you decide to write a book of short stories instead of a novel?

I’m not really interested in the idea of writing a novel at the moment because I’ve always thought in little stories. It was little stories in plays and Greek mythologies that got me excited about writing. I mainly only read novels but in terms of writing, it’s not my passion. The more I’ve done it, the more I’ve enjoyed the artform of the short story. It’s just so nice tucking into this little world and then popping out of it again. Angela Carter was a massive inspiration for me and reading her magical little stories- they were so dark- I just loved them. Writing short stories, for me, is the same process as writing a song or a poem. I love listening to an album of work and hearing each song evolve from beginning to end and them having them all as a collection with a story that feeds through all of them. Even the positioning and the contents of where you choose to put each story is a massive story in itself.

> If you were to describe Echoes as one whole body of work, like a concept album, what would the concept be?

There’s definitely an adventure. My editor pointed out that I’m one of a few writers that flips through different types of narrative so much. From the voice to the gender to the setting to even how it’s presented. One of the pieces in the book is 'Lady in the Snow' and it was supposed to be read like Sin City, a bit gritty and I got this amazing artist, Chris Hughes to draw me some manga artwork for it. The recurring theme through all the stories is Chinese whispers, gossip, hearsay and folklore…

> Echoes…

Yes, well done you. You got the theme!

> How did you go about writing it?

The first story I wrote was based on 'Rumpelstiltskin', which didn’t make the book because it was rubbish. After that I got worried that this wasn’t the right artform for me, that I couldn’t do it. Then I took some advice off my friend, the poet Tim Clare… he said, ‘when you’re about to write something… go to write what you would normally write, then think “What would I never write?” and try that.’ So I went with that mentality. Even if it didn’t always work. Also, I wrote it on a computer. Using a computer to write is new to me as I’ve always handwritten all my work. I’ve never sat down and typed on keys… I can see now why people sit down and type on a computer. I’d turn up with my work on scraps of paper and my editor would despair! She felt bad asking me to do work again. That, and she couldn’t read my handwriting.

> So, that’s actually your handwriting throughout Ugly Shy Girl?

Yeah.

> Do you write everyday?

I’m pretty disciplined. If I don’t do any writing that day, I get really cross and beat myself up. It happened where I’d have aims in my diary, like ‘This month… I want this story finished.’ That kept me going. But I enjoyed writing Echoes so much. And then… I got secretive and I wouldn’t show anyone anything. Like a mad scientist. I didn’t show my work to the publisher or to my friends. I started stacking them up and being really private. The editing process was really hard because my editor had to do it all at once.

> What is Laura Dockrill’s Word Orchestra?

It’s just another way of making poetry fun and accessible. I wanted to challenge the perceptions an audience has when a poet steps onstage and then they go, ‘Tsch, I can switch off now…’ It’s such a niche craft that’s been buried, that society’s chosen to switch itself off from it because it doesn’t make it any money, when really, it’s one of the longest-standing crafts that’s ever existed. I was thinking of the chemistry of what happens in a song, that thing that makes an audience member’s hairs stand up on end. The Word Orchestra is an experiment. Seven actresses in a word choir. It’s less a performance and perhaps more for the theatre, I think. It’s just another way of staying true to poetry.

> Where do you get the energy to be a performance poet and a writer?

I feel like writing energises me. It doesn’t exhaust me. It makes me feel stronger and better. I feel better and stronger when I’m working. I’d never go around moaning and moping about my job. It annoys me when people think that if it’s creative it’s drab or it’s hard work or it’s making them feel unhappy. It motivates me. I feel like I’ve a job to do. If I don’t throw myself at this headfirst, I’m always going to wonder when I’m 40 and have got three kids, ‘What if?’ I don’t want to wonder what if, I want to do it.

> How do you differentiate between prose, poetry and illustration when creating?

There’s days when I panic about it and I think everything’s a mess. Actually, I look at people like David Shrigley and Sarah Finelli, and actually, I think we panic as artists about following in other people’s footsteps and have someone we want to be like, but why can’t we just do it ourselves from the beginning. The reason I perform is because I feel those words work better with visuals and audio. The reason I illustrate is because the words look better with the visual. It’s the same thing, just different outlets of doing it. I look at people like Jeffrey Lewis and he illustrates and he sings. He’s a real inspiration to me as an artist and a performer. His songs are poetry. That’s what I want to be. I want to do it for myself. HarperCollins have been brave and let me scribble all over everything. They let me have a lot of artistic freedom. It’s a learning curve for them too, having someone like me who’s so hands on, from the cover to everything. That’s just the way I choose to work. In my own scruffy way, I’m a bit of a perfectionist.

BOOKEND

Laura's website