https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jul/18/kit-de-waal-as-soon-as-you-introduce-a-talking-horse-im-just-not-interested

The novelist on overlapping identities, having to read the Bible, and why she doesn’t like fantasy fiction

Kit de Waal is a novelist and short-story writer. Her debut novel, My Name Is Leon, was shortlisted for the Costa first novel award while her second, The Trick to Time, was longlisted for the Women’s prize for fiction. She has also written Becoming Dinah for young adults, and edited Common People, an anthology of working-class writers. In 2019, she was part of the BBC panel creating the 100 Novels That Shaped Our World list, and recently co-created an online literary festival, the Big Book Weekend, in association with the BBC and Arts Council England. De Waal’s new book, Supporting Cast, is a collection of short stories featuring the lives of secondary characters from her previous two novels.

What made you want to write these stories?
All of the characters that I write – even before I sit down to write – have a life beyond the page. They’re not waiting in the wings to walk on. They’re off living their own life, and then they’re in my book, and then go off to live the rest of their life. Nobody’s a secondary character in their own life, but some people skirt around the edges of a party and I always think they’re undoubtedly the most interesting. I had most definitely not finished with these characters.