Laurie Graham

Laurie Graham
Laurie Graham, CMis a Canadian downhill skier who represented Canada at the 1980, 1984 and 1988 Winter Olympics. She won six World Cup victories and three National Downhill titles in her eleven years on the National Ski Team. She was the first North American woman to win a World Cup Super Giant Slalom skiing. She was the first North American to win on home soil at Mont-Tremblant, Quebec. In addition, Graham posted 34 top 10 FIS World Cup Downhill results...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionJournalist
Date of Birth25 November 1947
preferred until voices
My preferred style is to write in first person, so I always have to play around with possible narrator voices until I find something that works.
child false good
My parents never told me I was beautiful, and for one very good reason. I wasn't. When your child is a tubby, bespectacled little oddity, as I was, it's important not to give them false expectations.
books characters happened hear steps telling work written
I have an idea for a story, and if the idea is going to work, then one of the characters steps forward, and I hear her voice telling the story. This is what has happened with all the books I've written in the first person.
bread brown climb stand using
I'd like to see my grandchildren climb trees, not stand under them. I'd like to see them learn to make bread and brown it over a fire using my toasting fork.
almost gives hard immediacy
I almost always use first person voice in my novels. It has its limitations, but it gives a sense of immediacy that's hard to create with an anonymous, all-seeing narrator.
background became fourteen interested learned married met novels using
My early novels were very understated and English. Fourteen years ago, I met and married my American husband, and as I learned more about his background and culture, I became interested in using American voices.
author handful
My go-to author for knowing it all is Evelyn Waugh. 'A Handful of Dust' is as perfect as a book can get.
ends formality history interest particular time
Personally, my interest in social history ends around 1959, by which time I was an adolescent. I've always attributed this to my particular sensibilities. I like formality and elegance, and I'm fundamentally conservative.
conversation fragments future hear mean store
I have a magpie mind, by which I mean I see and hear little things - photos, fragments of conversation - and store them away for future use.
dreading ending far home
Far more than dreading ending up in a care home myself, I dread having to put my husband in one.
diving keeping perfectly techniques terror
The terror dementia sufferers must feel is unimaginable, but the techniques they use to hide their difficulties - the ducking and diving and keeping the world laughing - are perfectly understandable.
attractive candy finds signals women
Being eye candy always was a short-term career, and here's the reason. The world finds young women more attractive than old women because youthfulness signals fertility.
invade offend people
People invade your space and offend your sensibilities because, to be plain, they couldn't care less about you.
frightened suspect
I hate to think I ever make my husband frightened or unhappy, but I suspect I do.