S. J. Watson

Q&A with S.J. Watson

Before I Go to Sleep is your first novel. Have you always wanted to be a novelist?

Yes, for as long as I can remember. Well, my very first ambition was to be a dustbin man, but since the age of eight I've dreamt of seeing a book I'd written on the shelves and in the hands of readers. I pursued a career in the NHS, but I always knew I'd come back to that one overriding ambition eventually.

The main theme of Before I Go To Sleep is total memory loss--a terrifying condition. How did you come to this idea?

I was reading an obituary about a man called Henry Gustav Molaison, who died in 2008. He’d undergone surgery in 1953 which left him unable to form new memories. It occurred to me that he must have woken up every day thinking it was 1953 and he was still in his twenties. I tried to imagine the shock he must have felt when he saw his own reflection and was struck by how little he must have understood himself and his condition. The character of Christine came to me almost immediately. So, while the novel isn’t about Molaison, it was inspired by his condition.

How much research did you have to do on it?

A fair bit. I wanted the medical aspects of the novel to be authentic of course, but I was also very aware that I didn’t want to either trivialise or sensationalise these conditions. I wanted to try to understand what it must be like to experience this kind of memory disorder, or to live with someone who does. During the course of my research I read about many people with severe memory problems and realised what a profound effect it can have. What can be more terrifying than the loss of a sense of self? To literally not know who you are? I wanted to do these people justice.

What are you currently reading?

What is your favourite book of all time?

That's such a hard question--it feels wrong to pick one book! And my favourite book changes almost daily. But if I were to choose a book that has had a profound effect on my life, then I'd say Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. It was reading that book that made me think 'I always wanted to write a novel, so why aren't I writing?' It was that book that reconnected me with my childhood ambition.

What are you working on now?

I'm working on my next novel. It's called Nine Lives. I'm writing about power, and jealousy, and desire. It'll be different from Before I Go to Sleep though I'm still interested in identity, in what makes us who we are, so I think people who enjoy that book will like this one too.