Life, love and death recur as common themes in Lizzie Eldridge’s works. She speaks to Veronica Stivala about her latest novel, Vandalism.
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The setting is contemporary Glasgow. Our protagonist is Moira, whose best friend, Connie, is dying of breast cancer. During this time, a man reappears from Moira’s past, a man called Ewan with whom she had a brief, but extremely intense relationship with nine years ago. Although in a settled relationship, Moira begins an affair with Ewan and this triggers a lot of conflicting emotions.
This is the initial part of the plot of Vandalism, a new novel written by Lizzie Eldridge and published by Merlin Publishers. For those who are familiar with Merlin, they will know that the publishing house sets a high bar for the writers it chooses, be they children’s books, thrillers or fantasy works.
This is certainly a deserved feather in Eldrige’s cap. Scottish by nationality, Eldridge has been living in Malta for the past seven years.
Although Vandalism is Lizzie’s first novel, it is not her first to be published. Her second novel is Duende, which she self-published as a second edition last October. This occurred at the same time that Merlin accepted Vandalism for publication, which means that there was a fair amount of synchronicity involved. Although Vandalism and Duende are separate books, the author feels it timely that they are on the market concurrently.
We discuss both books, which both have a unifying theme of life, love and death. Set in Spain between 1900 and 1936, Duende is a love story in which the relationship between two men takes place within a turbulent socio-political world immersed in philosophical and artistic debate.
Both Duende and Vandalism were written from a place of compulsion. A real need to write
Culminating in the Spanish Civil War, the story unfolds against a backdrop of escalating social unrest, violence and death in a country riven by long-standing conflicts. Interweaving fact and fiction, the lives of the central protagonists, Nayo and José, coincide with those of real-life artists and philosophers such as Salvador Dalí, Ortega y Gasset and, most significantly, Federico García Lorca, who becomes a friend.
Duende unfolds within a complex and vibrant landscape in which survival is paramount while existence is tenuous and forever under threat.
Lizzie explains why she finds herself returning to the universal themes of life, love and death in both:
“To quote from Vandalism: ‘love, life and death, those three cornerstones of the human condition that seem hell bent on letting you down.’ They are the only and precarious certainties of what it means to be human; the themes which touch us all. My return to these themes is because, as a writer, it’s the human condition I try to explore as my characters grapple with the unforeseen circumstances of their live.”
Speaking about grappling with unforeseen circumstances, Lizzie explains how Vandalism began during one of the most difficult periods in her life. “Writing was a means of surviving the unbearable. Going back to my premise that life, love and death are the tenuous mainstays of human existence then my inspiration for Vandalism emerged from these.”
The author draws further similarities between the two books: “Both Duende and Vandalism were written from a place of compulsion. A real need to write, and to write about these characters and the lives they lead. There was an urgency involved – a feeling that these were stories which needed to be told. There was the same drive, energy and compulsion.”
A full-time English language teacher, Lizzie says the focus on language corresponds perfectly with her work as a writer: “I get a deeper understanding of my own language and come into contact with a diverse range of people and cultures,” she says, grateful for the flexibility that the job allows her.