CULTURE EDITION
A weaver of dark fables and teller of tales that probe the edges of otherness, Lottie Mills transports readers with her debut collection of short stories: Monstrum A young woman decides to swap out her body for the pain-free version she always dreamt of – only to become haunted and coming of age, which is now the first in the collection. “I began playing with the idea of doing my own spins on folk tales and embarked on a project about changelings, their Meditations on Monstrosity
by the insensate bag of bones she chose to discard. A travelling circus master discovers a grotesque human addition to his cabinet of curiosities, while a merman finds himself washed ashore in some cruel mortal realm. These snippets from the debut short story collection by Lottie Mills, Monstrum , dive boldly into themes of the supernatural and what it means to be on the margins through eerie fables that both haunt and horrify in equal measure. The germ behind the collection was born while Lottie was an English literature student at Newnham College, where she would spend many an evening reading long into the night in the old library, unearthing ancient mythologies, fairytales and folklore. During this time, the young author won the BBC Young Writer’s Award in 2020 for The Changeling , a short tale that uses fairy mythology to explore themes of disability
relationship to disability and how they had historically been used as an explanation for differences in young children,” she shares. The Changeling was subsequently penned in a ‘flash of inspiration’. Allegory and fairytales revealed themselves to be compelling vehicles through which to explore themes Lottie had previously struggled to convey. The whirlwind had begun, as many of the stories were written in the year that followed, and the fledgling author was soon approached by a publisher who wanted to help her shape them into a unified collection. Her dark materials Many of the themes in Monstrum derive from Lottie’s own experiences. Growing up with cerebral palsy, she admits to finding refuge in the imaginative realms of reading and writing when the physical play enjoyed by her able-bodied companions was not available to her. “We have all these conversations now about representation in literature, but I was extremely attuned to it before it became a publishing buzzword,” she says. “I became hugely obsessed by characters who had any kind of difference or disability, but with that also came an early frustration.” Discovering children’s classics like The Secret Garden , Lottie found disability was often treated largely as a negative thing – an obstacle to be overcome and cured by the end of the book. “There was never a world in which I could imagine choosing to get rid of my disability. I knew it came with its difficulties, but from a young age I was extremely proud of who I was.” Later in life, Lottie enjoyed more rewarding literary encounters with the likes of Angela Carter and Claire Oshetsky, both of whom she cites as particularly influential, especially due to Carter’s unflinching approach to ugliness and intensity. “Some authors prefer to keep their purity of vision by not reading while
writing. But I am the complete opposite – I need that creative input and to be inspired by others.” Meaning and medium Short stories proved the perfect medium for Lottie as a way to explore myriad mentalities, narratives and characters, while also simply being a practical format. “While writing the book, I was extremely unwell with lupus,” she confides. “I find short stories accessible both to read and write, especially if you’re someone like me who has a premium on energy.” Arguably the most powerful example of this is The Pain , which hits the reader like a short, powerful punch roughly halfway through the book. Lottie reveals that this piece of flash fiction was written ‘in a desperate flurry’ during a particularly bad migraine, which practically screams off the page in its potency and masterful economy. From being a student navigating the anxiety of a first strike at independence at university to finding her feet through her own words, Lottie looks to continue writing and occasionally toys with the idea of a novel. But first of all, she awaits a return to the city that sparked everything for her master’s. Lottie will be discussing her book and signing copies at An Evening with Lottie Mills in the Cambridge Waterstones on 12 June. Book your spot now at waterstones.com/events/ an-evening-with-lottie-mills/cambridge
A DARING DEBUT Already an award winner at a young age, Lottie is now releasing a bold first book
CAMBSEDITION.CO.UK JUNE 2024 17
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