100 years
100 years

Bath and North East Somerset Libraries


Young Adult Space

YA
YA

Interview With Sophy Layzell


Sophy Layzell, was an author based in Somerset who was lucky to have had a childhood full of stories. Born in Laos, she was adopted into a wonderful family who prize creativity very highly.

Adventures created for her by her father were the best way to start the weekend, and Tintin read aloud to her by her brother (with accents) were a highlight of her youth. Without stories, she would have had no sense of place, history and no dreams from which they could grow.

Sophy sadly passed away in October 2022, this interview was conducted in 2020.

Can you tell us about your book ‘Measure of Days’?

Measure of Days is a story I began about 5 years ago and took a long time to finish! It’s the result of a mix of my own interests and ties together many of my favourite influences. The key themes are friendship, courage facing adversity and organ transplants all set in an imagined future when the worst of climate change has already happened. The action pivots around the main character Deter who finds the world she lives in is very different to how she believed it to be. She is unique and has a rare gene that makes her immune to a terrible flesh eating disease that warring political groups both want. This places her in great danger and she must find a way to stay safe and in control of her own life.

Measure of days book cover

What originally motivated you to want to write?

I began writing after my eldest daughter died 8 years ago. It was a way of expressing feelings and also when we set up a charity in her name it was important to express intent clearly and purposefully too. A friend then persuaded me to join a creative writing group, which helped propel me into story writing. I didn’t intend to write a novel, the story grew and before I knew it, there it was!

How do you ensure that you write in a way that appeals to teenagers and young adults?

I don’t have a conscious style. The characters and plot are written in a quite direct and fast paced way, which I suppose lends itself to a certain audience. I suppose because I work with teenagers their influence on me has rubbed off!

Do you think what teenagers/ young adults want to read about today is vastly different?

I grew up without a TV so reading was my only entertainment. Books in my early teens were still dictated by what was in my parent’s bookshelves so all the classics and what I’d call quite serious books. Luckily, I had a Tintin obsessed brother so listening to him reading aloud to me was one of the highlights of my childhood. Then I discovered WH Smiths and hung around the book section every Saturday morning spending all my pocket money on a series that my parents hated, called “Sweet Valley High” which for a sheltered and old-fashioned child gave me a completely different perspective on life. Most highbrow books then became relegated to schoolwork until A-level when I think I was one of the few pupils to actually read all our set books. Hello Hardy and D. H. Lawrence!

What were your favourite books as a teenager?

I think teenagers are concerned with the same things we were. How they fit into the world and what to make of it. Books can help them work out those things and so can writing. Words on paper are the best map to life.

Upon All Men book cover

What do you find most satisfying about writing?

If it’s not writing then I need to be doing something creative with part of my day or | become miserable. Writing, like drawing and painting is making something where nothing existed before and that brings a satisfaction that is totally priceless. It’s hard work though especially in the beginning when all I could snatch was an hour here, half an hour there. Now, with social distancing in place I have been able to set time aside and it’s been a productive few months for me.


This interview was conducted in 2020.