Emily Randall-Jones - Children's Author and Trained Actor

Emily trained as an actor, spending years touring across the UK and Ireland with the set in a horse box. (She once died three times in the same show). Since then she’s appeared as a Georgian princess at Hampton Court Palace and worked for the National Trust at Cliveden Estate and Ham House, devising trails, events and exhibitions. When not writing or child wrangling, she can be found in the woods or eating cake.

Emily writes haunting middle-grade mysteries, and her book The Witch Stone Ghosts won the Mslexia Childrens & YA Novel Competition and the Times/Chicken House Prize. It was published by Chicken House in October 2023 and was long-listed for the Branford Boase Award in 2024.

1. What was your favorite subject in school?

Mainly Drama and English - but I liked bits of a lot of subjects and didn’t like other bits! I loved projects that you could interpret in your own way. For example, I always found Geography a bit boring, but when we had a project to create your own business in an empty space, I was allowed to let my imagination run wild and produce something that related to my passion at the time (old Hollywood movies). The same in history – I found dates and sources etc. very hard to remember, but when we chose our own area to study (I chose Anastasia and the Romanovs), I worked really hard and loved it.

2. Where do you like to write?

I’m an ADHD-er and my brain works best with novelty and new things – so if I find myself getting bored and not wanting to write, I’ll go to a new place and suddenly I’m ready to go! I have a little desk, but generally I write in cafes and libraries because I like getting lost in my own world with lots of other people around me. 

3. What inspires you?

Old folklore – it’s fascinating! Every county, town, village, country – there are old traditions, superstitions and beliefs that still carry on today. Big stuff like the Green Man Festivals or Maypole dancing, but also the old superstitions around trees and flowers. Hawthorn features in both my books, and that’s because it is steeped in ‘other world’ beliefs. And I love the fact that so many people still have rowan trees near the entrance to their house because our ancestors believed it would protect them against witchcraft. 

4. Would you and your main character get along?

My two main characters – Autumn Albert from The Witchstone Ghosts and Ruby from The Scream of the Whistle - are very much a mix of me and my daughter. So much so, my editor kept getting mine and Autumn’s names mixed up! Autumn’s unsure and so desperate to fit in - when actually she’s got a rocking vintage wardrobe and a great taste in old music – I think she’s much cooler than she thinks she is! Hopefully, I’d put her at ease and we’d get on after a bit of waffling from both of us. I think I’d have loads of fun with Ruby, but I’d find her competitiveness and need to be in control of everything tough – mainly because I’m secretly the same. She’s got a kind heart under it all and is very loyal and loving once you break through her defences. She’d get very frustrated at my inability to understand board game instructions, though…

5. How do you celebrate when you finish a project?

I tidy my house! I’m a single mum with a 4- and 6-year-old, so when I’m on a project I basically have time for parenting and writing and nothing else – to say the house gets messy is an understatement… but it’s nice to have an excuse not to wash up for a while…

6. Do you play music while you write — and, if so, what’s your favorite?

It depends on the story – with The Scream of the Whistle I listened only to steam train sounds, but I made a playlist for The Witchstone Ghosts and listened to it obsessively while I was writing. It’s made up of sea shanties and sea-based folk songs as I wanted to really surround myself with the island of Imber and its ocean folklore. My go-to song was ‘The Great Iron Screw’ by Seth Lakeman.

7. What is the most valuable piece of advice you’ve been given about writing?

It doesn’t have to be perfect straight away! That perfectionism is something that’s held me up so many times, because if I don’t think it’s brilliant and sparkly immediately then I can lose interest and walk away. But I’m learning to just get SOMETHING down on paper – some people call it a vomit draft (ew) – so I can come back to it and make it magical. Writing is rewriting, as the old saying goes, and I find editing SO much easier than a first draft!

8. What are the essential characteristics of a hero you can root for?

I think being flawed is the most important thing. Nobody is perfect in real life, and if you read a character that’s always kind, always right, always self-sacrificing, etc. it’s really hard to relate to – and what are they going to learn through their story? Inner change is the whole point of a story – for the hero to learn something and grow, even if it’s not obvious. It’s a lovely thing to write a hero’s arc – to finally give them what they need and not just what they want. 

9. If you could invite any three people for dinner, who would you invite?

Ooh, I like this question! Um… probably Louisa May Alcott because Little Women was the book that made me want to be a writer, and I’d love to know how similar she is to Jo in real life. Then maybe Franziska Schanzkowska - the woman who claimed to be ‘Anna Anderson’ or Anastasia Romanov (see previous answer for my Romanov obsession!) I’d love to know how a Polish peasant convinced so many aristocrats that she was Russian royalty. And probably Mary Seacole because she was one of the first historical figures I learned about at school over thirty years ago, and she’s stuck in my head that whole time. She still doesn’t have the recognition Florence Nightingale does, though, and she was an exceptional woman. It’s going to be a very female, historical dinner party – hope they don't mind vegetarian food…

10. Would you share something about yourself that your readers don’t know (yet)? 

I went to drama school and worked as an actor for ten years. I had a one-line part in a TV film with very famous people in it, like Charles Dance and Eileen Atkins. It was filmed in a coastal town in Scotland, and while we were shooting on camera, a seagull pooped all over me. Filming had to be halted while I got cleaned up, and that was unbelievably embarrassing… 

11. How often do you write?

Deadlines and contracts aside - I have long breaks between writing so I can still love it when I do. When I want to write, it’s like medicine and air all at once. Sinking into my own world is so magical! When I don’t want to, it can feel like trudging through treacle or pushing a boulder up a hill. As an author is you’ve got to learn to work through that! But I don’t force myself to do it regularly or daily as many people do – or I know I’ll end up resenting it, which I never want to do. When I’ve had one of my long breaks and I find myself longing for a notebook so I can write down what a magpie feather looks like or a funny line I’ve just thought of, then I know it’s time to delve back into it.

Many thanks, Emily, for the lovely peek into your writing life and history! You can find Emily's spooky middle grade novel, The Scream of the Whistle, in our Bookshop. Please follow her on social media and keep shining, everybody!

Website: https://www.emilyrandall-jones.com/

IG: https://www.instagram.com/erandalljones/?hl=en