LE PORTRAIT MAGAZINE MARCH-SEPTEMBER ISSUE | Page 62

to take the path I wanted and not worry about being a ‘goat’ [‘goat’ is
the term for the novel’s outsiders].”
Watching Alan Bennett’s Talking Headsalso “opened a door”: “I could
see the power of words and how they can switch your perception and
you can understand another human being through them. I wished I had
the ability to harness that power and use words so beautifully.”
In her 30s, she went back to college, did her A-levels, applied for
medical school and is now a psychiatrist (“I had to work while I was at
med school, so I delivered pizzas – I still do now if they’re shortstaffed!”). On the wards the first thing she had to do was certify a death:
“I thought I was going under – I’d come home and cry. I thought, I’ve
either got to lose that sensitivity or find a way of processing it, so I did
what I always do – write.” She wrote in car parks in her lunch break, on
night shifts on the rare occasion that everyone was asleep, and still gets
up at 3am to write. “We need to be kinder to people who stand at the
edge of the dance floor. Mental illness doesn’t get the compassion other
illnesses do. Social isolation is so damaging. The judgments we make of
people aren’t always right. I wanted to convey that in a story.”
Another lucky twist in Cannon’s tale was receiving an unexpected tax
rebate: “I thought I could either have ballroom dancing lessons or write
a book. I did an online Faber course. That disciplined me.” Mentoring
was also vital: “The writer Kerry Hudson set up WoMentoring: it’s so
important for people who don’t have the opportunities, to enable people
who have got talent to have a chance to use it.” Cannon loves to play
guitar and piano, and when writing the novel made a Spotify playlist full
of 70s music: “I have to write in silence – even the sound of my own
breathing irritates me. But when I’m thinking, I like music to help me
visit certain eras.”
She finds it both “strange and incredibly moving” to hear from people
who have read the book, not least her mother: “When the box of proofs
arrived, my mother picked one up and said: ‘Imagine, all that came out
of your head!’” AS
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