Patrick Ness: Why I wrote A Monster Calls

In June 2011, Ness won the prestigious Carnegie Medal for his novel Monsters of Men. (Siobhan Dowd’s Bog Child won in 2009). He accepted the award with an impassioned speech against cuts to library services, external.

It was third time lucky for Ness. Monsters of Men was the final book of the Chaos Walking trilogy. The first two novels – The Knife of Never Letting Go and The Ask and the Answer – were shortlisted for the Carnegie in 2009 and 2010.

The story is set in a world where private thoughts are audible. Ness was fascinated by the idea of “information overload” and how relevant it is to today.

“Our world – particularly for young people – is almost like that, with mobile phones and social networking sites.

“If you’re 15 and you tell someone a secret they can put it up on Facebook. If you make a mistake someone films it on their mobile and puts it up on YouTube.

“When you’re 15 you deserve privacy. I’m not a luddite. It’s something to be entered into thoughtfully.”

In his Carnegie speech, Ness recalled how the librarians of his childhood would sometimes let him “check out some eyebrow-raising books”.

Ness names Jitterbug Perfume, Tom Robbins’ comical philosophical fourth novel, published in 1984, as a particular favourite.

“I read it when I was about 15,” he says. “It was playful, and that was a revelation. I read it probably a dozen times in those years between 15 and 17 and I haven’t read it since because I want it to sit forever in my teenage brain.”

A Monster Calls was published in May in the UK, and is out in the US in September. Ness will be discussing A Monster Calls at the Edinburgh International Book Festival on Saturday 20 August.