Mary-Rose MacColl Interview, plus links to author biography, book summaries, excerpts and reviews

An interview with Mary-Rose MacColl

Mary-Rose MacColl discusses the inspiration behind her book about World War One, In Fallling Snow, and answers some questions about her inspirations and personal life.

In your Author's Note, you write about accidentally stumbling upon Women of Royaumont: A Scottish Women's Hospital on the Western Front in a library. What inspired you to interweave the story of Royaumont with that of a female doctor battling sexism in the 1970s?
I was really interested in these women from my grandmother's generation who'd achieved something extraordinary at a time when it was very difficult for women to pursue professional lives. I very much wanted to honor them and was surprised that their story hadn't yet captured the public imagination. The seventies was another key period for women in professions. Grace is the first generation of women to "have it all." I didn't think of these things consciously while writing. Iris was always going to be reflecting on her past experience at a later time. Grace walked in one day and started bossing her grandmother around. She happened to be part of the first generation of women who were mothers and doctors and it was just a lovely time to write about.

You gave Iris Crane your grandmother's surname. Do they share any other characteristics?
For me, writing always has an intellectual trigger and an emotional trigger. I was very close to my maternal grandmother, Meta Crane, who was one of those grandmothers who made everything right in my young life. She died soon after I came across the women of Royaumont. She was about the right age to have served in World War I and she was a nurse. I started to wonder what her life might have been like if instead of doing the things she'd done—marrying my grandfather, running his medical practice and raising four children—she'd gone to Royaumont. She and Iris do share some qualities in common. They're both nurses who grew up on a property called Risdon in the country west of Brisbane in Queensland. My grandmother married Al (Alban Lynch not Alastair Hogan) and the two Als are both doctors whose practices are in Fortitude Valley.

Is Dr. Frances Ivens based upon the real founder and head of Royaumont? Does the abbey where the hospital was established still exist?
Oh yes, all the characters at Royaumont other than Violet and Iris are based on the real doctors and nurses and orderlies who worked there. Miss Ivens was the medical chief of the hospital. Obviously my character is imagined—I never met the real Frances Ivens—but her quick assessment of a situation (sometimes to a fault), her organisational skills (or lack thereof when it comes to details!), confidence and especially, her bedside manner, were all a matter of record. As for the abbey, it's now a cultural foundation for France and I was very lucky to stay there for a week while researching the novel which allowed me to walk through those corridors, up the stairs where the orderlies carried patients, to the wards where the patients were cared for. It's a truly amazing place.

Between the Senegalese conscripts, the firing squads, and the French soldiers' "precious pinard," you've recreated the feel of World War I in astonishing detail. How long did it take you to research this book?
I first read the history of Royaumont in Eileen Crofton's The Women of Royaumont which was very helpful (it's being republished this year as Angels of Mercy by English publisher Birlinn). From there, I read mainly first–hand accounts of the experiences of doctors, nurses and soldiers during the war. I was quite nervous about writing some of the marginalised stories, including those of African soldiers and I was lucky enough to find an audio–recorded account of a Senegalese soldier which helped me understand better what war must have been like for these people. I also read some of the broader history to know what happened when and where. I tend to write first and research later so the whole process was years rather than months.

In an earlier nonfiction work called The Birth Wars, you wrote about the conflict between those who view birth as a medical procedure and those who see it as a natural process. In Grace, you created an OBGYN who views pain relief during childbirth as a woman's right. What drew you to return to the subject in this novel?
Maternity care, in Australia and elsewhere, is in a state of entrenched conflict. Instead of people on both sides of that conflict working together to make sure women get the best evidence–based maternity care, in many care environments, the two sides are at war with one another. Although the battles were different in the seventies from how they are now, the war is the same. When I came to write The Birth Wars, I was amazed that in the twenty–first century we haven't sorted this out. I came back to this conflict with In Falling Snow because it was still in my mind. It's also relevant to the novel's themes.

In Falling Snow displays a thorough understanding of medicine, particularly of obstetrics. Was this a career you once considered pursuing yourself?
I didn't ever consider a career in medicine. I have worked closely with doctors on reviews over the years—I worked in universities for ten years and as a consultant writer on a number of health and medical reviews—and met many obstetricians and midwives while researching The Birth Wars. Grace's character came very naturally, but I also wanted to make sure the obstetrics in the novel was true–to–life. An obstetrician friend kindly read the novel in manuscript for me.

Do you believe that women in medicine today face less professional prejudice than they did in Grace's time?
Yes. Women who wanted to study medicine in the early twentieth century faced barriers even in terms of getting in to medical schools. Now the intake into medicine is around fifty percent female. But there are still issues for women who want careers and children and they are fraught.

Would you consider this a feminist novel?

In Falling Snow first and foremost tells the story of the women of Royaumont and they were extraordinary. It certainly reflects on the issues facing those women who wanted to pursue careers at the time when this was largely unavailable to women. In the seventies, again women were negotiating career and family issues. They were great times to write about.

You divide your time between Australia and Canada. Do you consider yourself as a citizen of one country more than the other?
I was born in Australia and grew up there but feel enormous affinity with Canada and the mountains around Banff in Alberta. Fortunately, the Banff Centre makes it possible for writers to stay in Banff to work on projects. I've written my last two novels in Banff.

Who are some of your favorite writers and literary influences?
I grew up reading Superman and Batman comics with my three brothers. My mother was a keen reader and didn't really care what we read so long as our eyes were on words. I eventually grew out of comics and now read widely so I'll limit myself to writers who I've tended to read everything of (in no particular order): Amanda Lohrey, Margaret Atwood, Charlotte Bronte, Kate Atkinson, Carol Shields, Michel Odent, Eowyn Ivey, Tim Winton, Umberto Eco, Atul Gawande, Ann Patchett, and Sebastian Barry.

What are you working on now?
Another wonderful and largely unknown story about swimming in the 1920s. I have an Australian character living in England who goes to America to train with the Women's Swimming Association in New York (a really great group) and comes back in 1926 intending to cross the English Channel.

Unless otherwise stated, this interview was conducted at the time the book was first published, and is reproduced with permission of the publisher. This interview may not be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the copyright holder.