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https://theconversation.com/millie-bobby-browns-debut-novel-is-a-bestseller-does-it-matter-that-the-19-year-old-actor-didnt-write-it-214258>
"
Stranger Things actor Millie Bobby Brown’s debut novel,
Nineteen Steps,
revolves loosely around true events. In 1943, the Bethnal Green tube disaster
claimed the lives of 173 Londoners, due to faulty stairs in the station used as
an air raid shelter.
This tragedy, the UK’s largest loss of civilian life in the second world war,
was one Brown’s own grandmother survived. Brown describes her novel as a
“really special project” inspired by her family’s WWII history.
But she didn’t write
Nineteen Steps. A ghostwriter named Kathleen McGurl did.
McGurl described the process in a blog post:
I was sent a lot of research that had already been pulled together by Millie
and her family, and plenty of ideas, and we had a couple of Zoom calls. And
then I knuckled down and wrote the first draft, while Millie continued
sending more ideas via WhatsApp. The book went through several drafts since
then, as we refined the story.
There’s been vocal backlash against the book – partly due to Brown’s
outsourcing, but also for its quality. The novel’s first paragraph, which has
been shared widely (and derisively) on social media, ends with the line:
It was hot — the kind of heat that makes you long for the weather to cool
down and the leaves to fall, but then you berated yourself for wishing away
the good weather.
Social media users have further lambasted the dubious origins and quality of
Nineteen Steps by posting screenshots from classic novels, cheekily
attributing the opening lines to Brown."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
