Nathaniel Spain's short story What My Father Left Behind appears in our anthology Broken Ground. Here he's taking part in our author Q&A series, to tell us about the background to his story, his reading, and his favourite bookshops.

Q & A with Nathaniel Spain

Can you tell us anything about the inspiration behind your story What My Father Left Behind?

Like the mermaid in the story, it’s a mishmash of things without a singular provenance. Part of it was approaching the theme of hauntings, looking at different ways a haunting could be imagined: of the individual, in locations, objects, societies, and as a form of trauma. The setting of 1950s London, under the long shadow of the Second World War, felt natural because of this. All of the paraphernalia the central character sorts through will be familiar to anyone who’s had to clear out the home of a loved one who passed away. The mermaid itself is of course very similar to the Fiji mermaid. Something ghastly and otherworldly as a spectacle – but it’s also pitiful.

What attracts you to writing short stories in general?

It’s nice to let things go unexplained. In longer fiction there’s a pressure to make everything neat, coherent, resolved. I think the best short stories embrace being tantalising – creating a space around the story that the reader can explore and lend their own interpretation to. There’s a lot of fun to be had in implying a universe-in-miniature.

I think the best short stories embrace being tantalising

And how about the appeal of supernatural or speculative fiction? What draws you to using those ideas in your work?

On the one hand, I think speculative fiction helps us explore the very real things that impact us through using the fantastical as a metaphor. When we enter into a speculative story, we can engage with what might be dark or painful in a way which is fun, or easier to look at because it’s oblique.

On the other hand, there’s a lot that’s strange and fantastical about the world and our experiences of it, so speculative fiction is a way to make that more overt, exploring a different kind of truth to the one presented by realism.

When and where do you most enjoy writing?

I tend to get in the flow of writing once it gets dark in the evening (make of that what you will), but I often get struck by inspiration when I’m half awake in the morning, so I’ve been known to lurch out of bed and get writing in the early hours. But I think it’s nicest to write when you’re travelling. Being out of your usual environment helps you approach a story in new ways.

it’s nicest to write when you’re travelling. Being out of your usual environment helps you approach a story in new ways.

Moving on to your own reading, what’s your ideal time and place to read?

I often squeeze in reading when I’m having breakfast or lunch, but I love reading on the train. It’s when I can really get stuck in. I had a lot of long train journeys recently and polished off The Stand in a few weeks.

If you could give copies of one short story – classic or modern – to everybody in your own home town, which story would you choose, and why?

I grew up in a tiny rural village in East Anglia. I think it would be fun to shake them up a bit. Maybe The Erl King by Angela Carter – make them feel a bit weird when they take a shortcut through the woods.

Do you have a favourite memory of reading a book or story? Maybe a moment that really left an impression on you?

A generic but truthful one is The Hobbit. I’ve got great memories of my dad reading this to me as a kid, and then subsequently poring through it and looking at the maps. It’s probably the cornerstone of my literary taste.

Finally, do you have a favourite independent bookshop you think people should visit?

Tyne and Wear, where I live, has a lovely selection of bookshops. I couldn’t possibly choose one, so Cogito Books in Hexham, Forum Books in Corbridge, and The Bound in Whitley Bay would be my picks.