You might not know of Emma Forrest. Or if you have heard of her, it might have been to do with her courting Colin Farrell. She has her name bandied about a lot because of that. But there’s much, much more to her than who she may or may not be dating.
She’s the only author I know of to have been hired by the London newspaper The Evening Standard at only fifteen (apparently Nigella Lawson had a hand in securing this sweet deal). Then, at sixteen, The Sunday Times gave Emma her own column. She left school to tour the land with indie bands galore, and vanishing Manic Street Preacher Richey Edwards was the first person she ever interviewed.
So, whilst we’re all subsiding from having turned emerald with envy, let me fill you in on what she’s been up to since. Four books later, she’s been labelled many things, including “the Jane Austen of the techno-generation,” in a review of her debut novel, Namedropper. But she doesn’t seem fazed:
“I met the lady who wrote that review and she turned me onto my favourite book store, Duttons in Brentwood, and then it closed down. So I shan't put all my faith in her faith in me. Although, I did once have a session with a Native American shaman who told me that Jane Austen was a fan of my writing. Which gave me something to write about.”
From reading other reviews of Namedropper, there’s been a lot of speculation that much of it is based on her own days of hanging out with rockstars and various other nefarious characters. But what does Emma make of these claims?
“It's all experience strained through imagination. My screenplays tend to be more pure invention, which is why I feel somewhat set free by them. It's lovely to move from one to another.”
Now, I haven’t heard much before about Emma’s screenplays, so I pester for more info. But for now, she’s staying secretive: “My script 'Know Your Rights' is being filmed in the spring with a director I'm very flattered we got and a producer who made my favourite film this year. But, nope, not allowed to talk about it until the official announcement. I'm trying to curb my excitement babble.”
She’s also currently working on a non-fiction book that she hopes will be “the best thing I’ve ever written.” The last non-fiction book she had a hand in, Damage Control, was an anthology of essays on the tyranny of the beauty industry, edited by Emma and with contributions from an assortment of well-known women, including Minnie Driver and Rose McGowan.
The motivation for the compilation, apparently, was “the opportunity to edit such brilliant writers, and to actually make women feel less alone and less bad about themselves. It was just a lovely experience. The book reading was at the Chateau Marmont, where I have so much history, my family was there and we raised money for Women for Women International; it was one of the best nights of my life.”
And although that does all sound rather fantastic, I’m more intrigued by the famous faces she hung out with when she was a teenager. Is she still in touch with anyone from back then? “You know a lovely one from those very first days, when I was only sixteen? Tim Burgess from The Charlatans. We just got back in contact because we both ended up living in and loving LA. I kept saying "Sheesh, I was an asshole then" and he said the same thing. We decided neither of us were assholes, we were just young and unhappy.”
Whilst I can’t say whether or not Emma was an asshole back in those days, she sure doesn’t seem like one now. Her journalism, such as a recent piece about Britney that ran in the Guardian, mentioning Emma’s own mental breakdown and suicide attempt, bites and beguiles by turn. Her novels are acclaimed far and wide, and her blog is written in a wonderfully intelligent and endearing fashion. There’s lots of names I could call her. But they’d all be prompted by jealousy.