Life Between Mountains and Sky: Quickfire Q+A with Helen Percy

Join us as Helen Percy, author of Whistlebare, takes part in our series of quick-fire Q&As!
What is a quick-fire Q&A?
We have our interviewee pick a number at random and we ask them the general question listed next to it.
Shortly after we switch to asking book-specific questions, to give you a brief insight into our wonderful writers and their books.

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What would you tell your younger self?

Just let it go. There are some things that are worth fighting for, and for them you should give it all you’ve got. If it doesn't really matter, don't waste your time fighting a battle you're not going to win, because life is too short

If you could spend the day in anyone's shoes, who would it be?

Me! I'm quite happy being me.

Where is your favourite place to write?

In bed. In winter, it's the only place that's warm where I live.

What is your favourite thing about Scotland?

Mountains. And skies. And maybe the fact there are more sheep than people.

What is your biggest writing distraction?

Chocolate. Actually, chocolate's probably the answer to quite a few of the questions. I don't settle down to write until I've had a bar of chocolate. If I need a snack to think about it, it's chocolate. I can find anything to distract me really – it takes me a long time to settle down, and I can't write unless I have a completely clear day. It takes me nearly an hour to settle down, so I have to know that nobody's going to phone me, nobody's going to come to the door, and I don't have to go away and do anything.

What motivates you to keep writing?

I have to write. I’m not good at speaking off the cuff. But writing is how I express what's in my soul.

Who inspires you the most?

Alexei Navalny – who was assassinated by Putin. Just his sheer courage in doing things that he knew were going to lead to his death because he believed in them.

How long was this book in the works for?

Between Skirly Crag and Whistlebare, 13 years. Skirly Crag took 12 years and it's taken another year to get this one out.

What's your favourite chapter from the book and why?

Probably the one about the little duck that was so close to my heart. It was so sweet.

How do you plan to celebrate the publication of this book?

The book launch is on the 10th of September at Hatton Castle and I've invited lots of my friends from all kinds of times and places in my life. I'm really looking forward to having them all together, and we're going to sing and dance. One of my friends has written a song for me – she has a voice that moves me to tears and makes me laugh. She sings in Czech and she just is extraordinary, how she can convey such emotions and you don't even know what she's saying – she’s a true artist. So that's very special and I'm looking forward to that. Her name is Katerina Binova-Barbour.  

Was there a particular event or experience that sparked the idea for this book?

Both Skirly Crag and Whistlebare started as a series of lambing diaries. A very popular TV series at the time was Lambing Live which was all very… clean. There was never anything that died, and none of the farmers swore. I thought people would probably like to know what it's really like. I nearly called it Lambing Dead and Alive.

Did you have a particular reader in mind as you wrote?

I hope it will be read by people who really appreciate language and how every word matters and how its place in the sentence matters. So, I suppose I hope it will be read by people who don't necessarily know very much about nature or farming, but who appreciate language.

I want people to feel better for reading it, and maybe also challenged by it.

What do you hope people do differently after reading it?

I hope people have more respect for animals, and understand them as sentient beings that are capable of emotion and feeling pain, as much as people do.

Are you working on anything new at the moment?

I would like to write something about my time in the Kalahari. And maybe something short about my time with a horse and a pack in Georgia, with nothing to eat except bitter coffee, rock-hard cheese and bread – got so hard I might as well have eaten boots.

Whistlebare is out now.