Local author Chris Foster Tolley, otherwise known as Chris Walklett, lecturer in Essex Pathways, has spent five years researching and writing his debut novel.
We caught up with him to find out what inspired his road trip story, what he’s learned from self-publishing and how he’s juggled writing with not only a job, but also a PhD.
What’s your novel Trip ’89 about?
It is centred around a character in his early 20s who, experiencing malaise, does up a campervan and embarks on a trip around Britain in 1989.
The trip, as well as being an actual one, is also a metaphorical one, providing the narrator/author with a vehicle (no pun intended) to look at the social, cultural and political elements of the 80s.
Ultimately, it’s about friendship, having an open mind, what constitutes home, and growing up (in all senses of the word) – timeless themes.
It’s serious but also fun and humorous, with a gentle warmth, and characters that I think the reader will fall in love with.
What inspired the story?
‘Write you’ is what they say, right? There’s no doubt I plugged into personal experiences. I have travelled a lot and am very familiar with the main location in the novel – the apparently sedate seaside town of Sidmouth, East Devon, famous for far more than just retired people, as it has lively and outgoing youth and an eclectic, world-renowned annual folk festival.
The more I thought about it, the more I felt it was perfect to write a novel about the state of Britain and the world from the base of this small and contradictory place. It helped to be a historian, as I was able to recall quite a few of the events of the times and weave them into the narrative.
But, it’s not an autobiography nor memoir. I’m a ‘nobody’, so that wouldn’t make any sense. But in many ways, that fits because it's about a nobody becoming, or feeling like they have, or can, become, a somebody. Something I think many of us can relate to.
It’s taken five years of research, what did that entail?
It could be that it took five years because I’m not a natural writer. For many years at Essex I have taught process writing, and that’s what writing a novel is: a long and sometimes painful process of pulling ideas together and playing around with them, editing and re-editing until they fit.
It took that long to get it right, and certainly a fair chunk of that constituted research of various different types. I was determined that from the off the reader should be soaked in the decade. My decent memory took care of certain parts, but there were interviews too as well as scrutinising events, dates, newspaper articles and sifting through rave tracks from 1989!
A lot of research also went into the explanatory notes that are included - 44 pages where I inform the reader about places, events, songs and expressions. It added months to the process but was worthwhile as it lent the book an authentic feel – a work of fiction that is full of facts.
What have you learned from self-publishing your novel?
That writing can be extremely cathartic. I have been through some horrendously stressful times in the last five years, and writing helped take my mind off that and give me what I felt I lacked – something to look forward to.
But if by self-publishing a novel we mean going out on one’s own, then it’s tough and it takes a whole bunch of time. Initially, I contacted every publisher and agent I could find. The rejections, though disappointing, gave way to fine-tuning, revisions and extra ideas like the explanatory notes and the accompanying Spotify playlist of tracks from 1989.
I learnt more about book formatting and design and became obsessed about the cover and artwork. PR continues to be a challenge. I have to find way to let people know Trip ’89 exists and without a publisher or agent that really is a minefield.
You’re also doing a PhD, what are you studying and why?
I am focusing on protest within British songs – themes that very much fit with the novel.
The PhD is currently at a very early stage but the topic, and indeed my whole educational journey of late, has been leading in that direction. My MA dissertation was on using songs/lyrics in teaching and resulted in my first book Teaching Tracks, a classroom aid which focuses on using songs in education.
Exploring people's thoughts and beliefs through so-called protest songs is a valid and valuable way to document social history and this theme has been carried on Trip ‘89 – the influence of music from the eighties permeates the entire book.
How has being a student and teacher at Essex influenced the process of writing the novel?
I am not sure whether being a PhD candidate has affected the process, as I am still in the very earliest stages, but being a tutor has. In History lectures and seminars, I take students back to the period we are studying, and what better way to do that than through music and other social and cultural elements from the time?
I have also discovered that when undertaking lengthy studies, inspiration itself was not enough, and the discipline and organisation required for the MA dissertation were integral for success when I set out on this project, which turned out to be a much longer, much more complex. This should stand me in good stead with my PhD.
What advice would you give to other aspiring authors?
My advice is to be naïve - naivety is your friend.
I penned an article on the writing process explaining how not knowing how long it is going to take and what you will have to do or go through is a writer’s superstrength.
Would I willingly have given five years of my life to this had I known in advance? Almost certainly not, so I’m glad I didn’t know because the journey has been so fulfilling; there were extraordinary highs and lows, but for me it had a therapeutic value that is really hard to verbalise. Now that it’s all done, the whole thing feels like a win/win situation.
Trip '89 is available to buy at Red Lion Bookshop in Colchester, Wivenhoe Books, and Dial Lane Books in Ipswich. Follow Chris on LinkedIn and Facebook.
