She went on a residency to the Arctic Circle as part of her research. “It was a ship and there were 18 of us on the residency and then the crew as well. It was like a social experiment, it was really, really good. Obviously the Arctic is totally the furthest place on earth that you can get away from Antarctica because it’s the North as opposed to the South Pole so it’s quite an epic fail in terms of getting closer to Antarctica but it’s a similar vibe. It’s not like I went to Trinidad!
In Mr Chartwell Churchill’s depression is manifested as an actual black dog that comes to visit him. Hunt says, “Churchill famously called his depression the black dog. I don’t know why I was thinking about him but he just cropped up… I just had this idea that I would turn the black dog phrase into a black dog reality! You can’t consider all angles. I remember coming back and saying to my boyfriend, ‘I’m going to write a book and I think both of us thought yeah right is this like when you decided to take up jogging?! But then I actually did it. You assume you probably can’t but you can learn.
“I’d left art school but then you don’t obviously say ‘Now I’m an artist.’ You say, ‘Now I’m off to Office Angels!’ I was in this job I hated and I thought I’m going to do something creative, something constructive for me, so I signed up for this writing course in a college somewhere. I learnt one thing. The man said, ‘Listen to this, can you hear the difference between a bonfire emitting smoke and a bonfire knitting smoke?’ That’s what I basically walked away with.
Before I go, I ask if she would like to go on another residency “Yes, I’d really love to go to the Amazon next.” Really? “Yes, would you not? Where would you go on a residency? Paris?” I nod and we both cackle before she puts the kettle on again.
Rebecca Hunt graduated from Central Saint Martins with a first-class honours degree in fine art. She lives and works in London. Everland is published in hardback by Fig Tree and in eBook by Penguin. Read more.