Authorgraph No 265: Catherine Doyle
Catherine Doyle interviewed by Fiona Noble.
The themes of Catherine Doyle’s latest book, Pirates of Darksea, a swashbuckling adventure of magic and bravery and brotherhood, can be traced back to some of her childhood favourites, she tells me, speaking over video call from her home in Ireland. ‘Peter Pan and The Chronicles of Narnia were huge influences on me.’ The tranquil waters of the magical kingdom of Darksea are being haunted by a deadly monster that is eating islands in huge bites. In our world, Max and his family are fighting the very different monster of his elder brother’s illness. When Captain O’Malley needs a human crew member in Darksea, Max must embark on a dangerous quest that will see him navigate far more than he bargained for.
‘With all my middle-grade work, and in particular with Pirates of Darksea, I always try and instil a very big emotional heart in the middle of it,’ Cat tells me. In Darksea, the story of Max and Christopher has a very personal connection, their bond inspired by Cat’s relationship with her own two brothers. As a teenager, Cat’s eldest bother Connor was diagnosed with a serious heart condition. ‘It was the first time in my life I’d ever seen my parents afraid,’ she recalls. ‘Overnight my brave older brother who was incredibly adventurous, never took no for an answer and did crazy dangerous stuff on the regular was suddenly a completely different version of himself.’ It was a very formative experience which led to a shift in the family dynamics. ‘My younger brother and I had to step into this role of being the sibling leader and figure out what our identities were.’ This is the scenario that Max encounters in the book as he ventures into the unknown without Christopher. ‘I like the idea of a younger brother getting vaulted into his older brother’s shoes without much warning,’ Cat explains. ‘He has this childish desire to want to fix his brother and help his family. And, of course, life is not really that simple.’ The book is all about bravery, she continues. ‘There’s the obvious bravery that you need to face down a villainous monster ship, but also the quieter kind of bravery, which is just as important, to sit in the scary moments with the people you love and just be there for them.’
Happily, Christopher went on to make a full recovery but the experience left a profound impact which has influenced Cat’s work. ‘It’s the idea that this can happen to anyone at any time,’ she continues. ‘Children are not shielded from the worries, complexities and sadness of everyday life.’ Her middle-grade books explore topics including illness and grief. ‘I think it’s really important to tell those stories because that’s what life it like, for anyone of any age.’ Writing about these topics for a middle-grade audience can be a challenge. ‘I never want my books to be extremely sad,’ Cat agrees. ‘I try to do two things: one is to bring in a huge amount of humour to the story. For me, as for a lot of people, the way you deal with sadness is humour, it’s a natural antidote. I also like to ground these emotional journeys in big magical adventures. There’s always a sense of enjoyment and fulfilment even as you’re going through the tougher emotional elements.’
Cat’s middle-grade work is typically inspired by Irish folklore and mythology and in Pirates of Darksea, Cat initially researched legendary 16th century Irish pirate queen Grace O’Malley as an inspiration. ‘I thought she was so cool, growing up,’ enthuses Cat, ‘this figure that blazed her own trail, utterly fearless and reckless.’ However, Cat quickly realised there was little she could use in a middle-grade story. ‘She’s not child-friendly at all,’ she laughs, ‘nothing usable there!’ Cat’s own pirate queen, Captain Eliza O’Malley is a ‘slight nod…the name and appearance, but they are very different.’ Eliza is a very satisfying, well-drawn character, multifaceted and nuanced. ‘I love a really twisty, complex character,’ Cat admits, ‘Eliza was really fun to write At first glance you wonder, who is this mean, moody, cranky woman pirate who is just a shadow of her great older brother who is now dead?’ As the book progresses readers learn she is deep in grief. ‘She doesn’t really want to be in the shoes of her brother. She hides away and is frightened.’ This contrasts with Max’s youthful enthusiasm for doing the right thing and being brave in every encounter. ‘That’s the other natural reaction to this kind of situation. We can’t all be like Max.’ The book is ultimately hooked around the beacon of hope. ‘In the darkest of our journeys, in the scariest of times there’s always a current of hope and that’s what you reach for to light the journey.’
Pirates of Darksea is Cat’s fifth middle-grade novel, following The Stormkeeper trilogy, standalone adventure The Lost Girl King, and 
Dickens reimagining The Miracle on Ebenezer Street. The publication of The Stormkeeper’s Island was a pivotal moment in her career, achieving critical praise, commercial success and multiple international deals. ‘It really launched me into a different realm of my career,’ says Cat, but what feels most important to her is how personal and poignant the trilogy is. The series was set on the island of Arranmore where her grandparents grew up, and deals with the loss of her grandfather to Alzheimer’s. ‘It was a really personal intense journey for me that helped me come to terms with my grandfather’s diagnosis and also to memorialise him.’ He died of Covid the week that the third book in the trilogy was published, and Cat feels that the process of writing the trilogy took the sting out of the grief and the tragedy. ‘These three books very much feel like the essence of him and the essence of my grandmother. It’s so much more than just a series of books for me; it’s like a little piece of my heart and my family.’
Cat’s writing career began almost a decade ago when she was studying for an MA in Publishing, writing her thesis on the success of YA trilogies like The Hunger Games and Twilight. ‘I was really immersed in that world,’ she remembers, ‘and as I wrote my thesis, I also started to write Vendetta.’ This would become the first title in the Blood for Blood trilogy, a YA saga pitched as Romeo and Juliet meets The Godfather – ‘very much of its time,’ she laughs – published by Chicken House in 2015. A deal to write middle-grade books for Bloomsbury followed, and that process proved to be so nourishing, creatively, that she never imagined returning to writing YA. Then, during the pandemic, a phone call from Katherine Webber, her sister-in-law and fellow author, changed everything. ‘She rang me and said, you and me should write a book about twin princesses separated at birth. You can do the witch and I’ll do the princess.’ Cat was immediately hooked. ‘It was just a joy. I was reminded that YA is so fun.’ Burning Crowns, the third and final book in the trilogy will be published in April. The marketing campaign for the series is awash with princess gowns, elaborate balls and fan cosplay. ‘It’s been the most pure, wonderful form of fun,’ says Cat. Cat and Katie live in different countries, so the writing process sees them plan the plot before writing and exchanging chapters and then tying it all together at the end. Katie writes Rose, the idealistic, romantic princess whilst Cat writes Wren, the sarcastic, Irish-coded witch. ‘It’s an easy division of voices,’ she laughs.
The experience has reignited Cat’s love of writing YA and, in September, Simon & Schuster will launch The Dagger and the Flame, an epic, cat and mouse, enemies-to-lovers fantasy set in the darkly enchanting city of Fantome, inspired by 18th century Paris. Publisher Rachel Denwood calls it ‘an ambitious, seductive tour-de-force.’ ‘It’s a tiny bit older, more romantic and darker than Twin Crowns,’ explains Cat, and she expects it to appeal to an upper YA/crossover audience. ‘As a reader YA romantasy is the thing I’ve loved the most consistently throughout my life and The Dagger and the Flame has been incredibly fulfilling to write.’
Fiona Noble is a books journalist and reviewer, specialising in children’s and YA literature, for publications including The Bookseller and The Observer.
Books mentioned:
Vendetta, Chicken House, 9781909489813, £7.99, pbk
The Storm Keeper’s Island, Bloomsbury, 9781408896884, £7.99, pbk
The Lost Girl King, Bloomsbury, 9781526608000, £7.99, pbk
The Miracle on Ebenezer Street, Puffin, 9780241435250, £7.99, pbk
Pirates of Darksea, Bloomsbury, 9781526655103, £7.99, pbk
Twin Crowns, Electric Monkey, 9780755503643, £8.99, pbk
Burning Crowns, Electric Monkey, 9780008617530, £8.99, pbk April
The Dagger and The Flame, Simon & Schuster, 9781398528376, £16.99, hbk, September
