Hilary McKay contemplates life with the Cassons

Caddy Ever After is your latest novel about the Cassons—a funny family of artists whose four kids are named after paint colors. As a novelist, what attracts you to kooky, dysfunctional families?

A lot of people call them dysfunctional. I don’t call them dysfunctional myself.

How would you describe them?

They’re just getting by like most of the families I know here in England. Not all of them have two resident parents or an income coming in regularly every month. I wouldn’t call them dysfunctional because they do function. They love each other and more or less, they make progress without getting into too much trouble.

Do you have a favorite character among the Cassons?

I’m very fond of Indigo. He’s based on one whole person, which not many of the characters are. They’re usually a mishmash, just out of my own head. He’s such a nice, gentle person. I like Rose, too, but she’s very hard to keep in the background. She’s very stubborn. She’s very much like my daughter, Bella. She’s Rose’s age, nine years old, and she draws on the kitchen wall and has her own opinions that nobody’s going to change.

Was your own childhood anything like the Cassons’?

No, I didn’t have such a happy time. I would have loved to have lived in a house where you were allowed to think your own thoughts. That’s more like the house I try to run—one where children are respected as much as adults and their friends are welcome. My friends never came to my house. I think perhaps I write about what I would have liked to happen. Not that I was hurt or abused in any way. We were just constrained.

Some authors find that writing is therapeutic or healing. Is that true for you?

No. My books are my private thing, and they’re not much to do about my family. My [three] sisters hated my first three books [the Exile series], which were much more based on my family. They said, “Don’t you dare put us into your books again”—they recognized themselves. My parents didn’t like them either. In fact, my mother read Saffy’s Angel and said, “This is so boring. Don’t send it [to your publisher].” And I keep my books away from my own kids. I think that’s only fair. You know, they live here with me. They have to eat my cooking. That’s enough to ask of them—never mind read my books.

What have you heard from young readers that has touched you?

I had a letter from a child, and it was very carefully written—if you can imagine, each vertical stroke and horizontal stroke was a zigzag. She had cerebral palsy. And there was a note from her mother saying, “This letter took three hours to write.” It was only a few lines, and you think, “My goodness, me.” Every stroke had been a shake, and it was so carefully done. I wrote to her for a long time. You get some very moving letters, and you do get letters that say, “I have to do this book report. Please write back to me very quickly.”

What do you do in your spare time?

I work in a school library and the children are all very polite about my books. They take them out to cheer me up. I go and do it once a week in the village school library. I really, really like it. I’ve been doing it for years.

Will you be writing more books about the Cassons?

There’s another one I’m writing now. I don’t know whether it’s going to work. Maybe I’ll just chuck it. I’m at 31,946 words, two-thirds through the first draft. Actually, I thought I’d finished the series with Permanent Rose. I don’t want to push my luck too far with this family.