An Interview With Jenn Ashworth

Jenn Ashworth's third novel, The Friday Gospels, follows the life of a Mormon family in Chroley, Lancashire, as they prepare to welcome their son Gary back from his two year mission in Utah. As the novel progresses, we see the secret fears and desires the family hide from one another, building up to a dramatic and cathartic finale. The novel is released in paperback today, and I spoke to Ms Ashworth about the book, and her future plans...

Was writing about the Mormon community something you'd always planned to do?
I think it probably was, yes. I always knew I had a story to tell about that part of my life, and I also always knew I wasn't too interested in writing autobiograpically either. It took a long time, I think, for me to find the courage to say what I wanted to say, and to develop as a writer to the point where I felt I could make a decent job of it. There's a strand of US literature by or about Mormons but hardly anything in the UK, so I didn't have very many models to work with either. I think that was a good thing.

I'm still quite interested in telling stories about that community. I have two short stories set in the same world as The Friday Gospels - they are kind of linked to each other. The first, published in the MIR9 last year is called Every Member a Missionary and the second, which is out in the next edition of the Short Fiction journal, is called Katy, My Sister. I don't think I'm finished writing about it all yet.

What would you like readers to take away from the discussion of Mormonism in The Friday Gospels?

My book isn't intented to portray the complexities of a living faith, nor act as propoganda for or against the church. There are other, better places to go for someone to wants to read an account of Mormon history and theology. Fiction, as we know, tells the truth in a different way. I wanted to create a set of characters who interacted with their faith and culture in a variety of ways. From the outside, Mormonism can seem like a religion that prizes conformity above all else. From the inside, it can feel like that too! But there are lots of different ways of being a Mormon, and I suppose one of the thoughts behind having all these different voices was to demonstrate that. The Mormonism of these characters is at the root of all their cruelties and all their kindnesses.

Do you think there's any kind of north/south divide when it comes to literature, or do you find readers around the country are happy to read about towns such as Chroley, where The Friday Gospels is set?

I'm not too aware of anything like that. I've done events all over the country, and there are readers who find something of value in my work in both the North and the South. A Kind of Intimacy did really well in Italy and France. Cold Light has just been published in Germany. I think the best kind of writing points outwards, to something other than itself. So I hope that even though I write about small lives lived in small towns, the books say something relevant to human beings more generally. That's my aim for them, anyway.

I've seen you do readings at events like Bad Language in Manchester - is that something you enjoy, or does it terrify you?

I like meeting my readers. There's something extremely amazing about hearing what someone thought of a book I wrote - realising they spent time with those people that I created, and for a while, inhabited the same world as the one I immersed myself in when I wrote the book. I feel a lot of gratitute for the sustained attention that readers grant my novels. All that side of things is a privilege. But, even though I've been doing events in various places for about ten years now, I have still never quite mastered the terror I feel at standing up in front of a room of people with nothing other than my book in one hand and a microphone in the other. It is incredibly exposing. I write better than I speak, which is just as well, I suppose.

Which current writers do you most enjoy reading?

I'm a huge fan of Kazuo Ishiguro. Also Ali Smith. But recently I've been reading lots of Muriel Spark and Graham Greene, and enjoying those novels very much too.

What are you working on at the moment?

A strange thing, set in the early 1960s in Grange over Sands. It feels like it might be a bit of a ghost story. It might come to nothing, it's still very early days.

Do you listen to any music when you write?

If there's noise in the background, I can usually tolerate it. I have kids - silence is hard to come by. But I'd never, ever put it on by choice and silence would be my ideal.

Read my review of The Friday Gospels here