Samantha Harvey
Samantha Harvey
Samantha Harvey, is an English author. She completed the Bath Spa Creative Writing MA course in 2005, and has also completed a postgraduate course in philosophy and a PhD in Creative Writing. Her first novel is The Wilderness, a book about the unravelling effect of Alzheimer's disease. Her second novel, All Is Song, is a novel about moral and filial duty, and about the choice between questioning and conforming...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionYouTube Star
Date of Birth30 May 1993
CityIpswich, England
fall freedom leave love mutual ours theirs
When we fall in love, we feel that this person is ours and we are theirs by our mutual volition, and we know they could leave - we know that because they are free, and their freedom is part of the thrill.
distinct fall free love quite regardless whom
My sister is my sister regardless - has always been and always will be and has no choice about it. This is a love quite distinct from that of a lover, with whom we fall in love, in part, because they are free and have a choice.
children japanese love plain radically spaghetti surely
The Japanese have different words for love. To them, it's plain weird that we love spaghetti and love our children and love our lovers, all with the same word, when surely the thing being described as love is radically different in each case.
compliments confident
I made a decision when I started writing 'All is Song' to take the compliments I had for 'The Wilderness' and try to be confident and not overwhelmed by it.
both fascinated holds keeps longer possibilities sort
I'm just fascinated by the past. You know, both by the possibilities it holds and by the complete tyranny of it, the way it sort of keeps you in this stranglehold and makes you want things that you no longer have and you can never get back.
less modern political similar society socrates tolerant wondered
Socrates was famously executed for his philosophical and political beliefs. I wondered what would happen if you had a similar character, who was so relentlessly questioning of everything? In a modern society, would we be any more or any less tolerant of that kind of character?
intensely time until
Socrates, after all, could be an intensely annoying man, all the time questioning passers-by until they became exasperated.
against books freedom represent
We see book-burning as a crime against humanity: it's intolerable because books represent a kind of freedom to us.
almost best considered gone instant itself letter performance robust seem sort
Down on the ground, we seem to do anything but make lengthy, robust monologues. We can communicate in an instant almost anywhere. Gone is the slow old letter - itself a monologue, a sort of considered performance of best self - and in its place is the e-mail, the text, the SMS, the tweet.
grows shift toward
As the U.S., much of Europe, and the U.K. shift toward the political right, the rhetoric grows more insular, defensive, and protective.
agreeing common discussing female men morning nurturing periods
Common perceptions of female friendships are morning coffees discussing children, bags, periods and agreeing about the misdemeanours of men... mild, soft, nurturing relationships.
confuse elude forms
The sense of one's past is so strong and forms our sense of self so strongly, it will always fascinate, elude and confuse me.
accessible address exploring interest medium novel novels teach ways
One of the things the novel can do is address big questions in ways that are accessible to people. It's not that I want to teach people, but these are the things that interest me, and this is my medium for exploring ideas, and I think the potential of novels to do that is massive.
Monologues are self-verifying and self-referencing, a world in their own right, one with its own internal logic that strengthens with reiteration.