Me Before You: A Novel

alternative to that existence.
    2. Which of the characters in
Me Before You
do you identify with the most?
    Well, there’s definitely a bit of Lou in there. I did have a pair of stripy tights that I loved as a child! I think you have to identify with all your characters to some extent, or they just don’t come off the page properly. But I also identify with Camilla a bit. As a mother I can’t imagine the choice she has to make, and I could imagine in those circumstances you would just shut down a bit emotionally.
    3. What made you choose to set
Me Before You
in a small historical town with a castle at its centre?
    I tried all sorts of settings for this book. I drove all over Scotland, trying to find a castle and a small town that would ‘fit’. It was essential that Lou came from a small town, rather than a city, because I live in one myself and I’m fascinated by the way that growing up in one can be the greatest comfort – and also incredibly stifling. I wanted a castle because it was the purest example of old money rubbing up against ordinary people. Britain is still incredibly hide-bound by class, and we only really notice it when we go somewhere that it doesn’t exist in the same way, like the US or Australia. I needed the class difference between Will and Lou to be clear.
    4.
Me Before You
deals with a very sensitive subject matter – a person’s right to die. Did you find this difficult to write about? What made you decide to write about this subject?
    A few years ago I heard about the case of Daniel James, a young rugby player who was paralysed and persuaded his parents to let him go to Dignitas. I was horrified by this case initially – what mother could do that? – but the more I read about it I realised that these issues are not black and white. Who is to say what your quality of life should mean? How do you face living a life that is so far from what you had chosen? What do you do as a parent if your child is really determined to die? And living as a quadriplegic is not just a matter of sitting in a chair – it’s a constant battle against pain and infection, as well as the mental challenges. So these issues refused to go away. And I do believe you have to write the book that is burning inside you, even if it’s not the most obvious book for the market.
    In fact I wrote
Me Before You
without a publishing contract – and I wasn’t entirely convinced it would find a publisher, given the controversial subject matter. It was just something I needed to write. But doing it just for myself was strangely liberating. And luckily several publishers bid for it when it was finished so I was very happy to move with it to Penguin.
    5. Your books always have an incredibly moving love story at the heart of them. What is it about the emotional subject of love that makes you want to write about it?
    I have no idea! I’m not very romantic in real life. I guess love is the thing that makes us do the most extraordinary things – the emotion that can bring us highest or lowest, or be the most transformative – and extremes of emotion are always interesting to write about. Plus I’m too wimpy to write horror …
    6. Have you ever cried while writing a scene in any of your books?
    Always. If I don’t cry while writing a key emotional scene, my gut feeling is it’s failed. I want the reader to feel something while reading – and making myself cry has become my litmus test as to whether that’s working. It’s an odd way to earn a living.

Reading Group Questions
When Lou meets Will for the first time he is less than welcoming to her, even playing a mean trick on her to put her on edge. What were your first impressions of both Will and Lou? Did your view of them change over the course of the book and to what extent?
Will and Lou have a profound effect on each other’s lives. How do their lives change after they meet compared with how they were before? In what ways do they change each other?
When Lou first learns of Will’s intentions to go to Dignitas to end his life, she is shocked that his mother Camilla could be prepared to play such a role in her son’s death and thinks of her as heartless: a view shared by other characters, such as Georgina and Lou’s mother. How do you feel about Camilla as a character? Do you think this view of her is justified?
Both Will and Lou have experienced a terrible life altering moment – Will’s accident and Lou’s assault in the castle maze. How do their reactions