I think we can all agree that young teenagers are not noted for seeing the world around them in subtle shades of grey. They are not a byword for discretion or tact, or that delicate sense of timing that is so central to the art of living in a family without causing either mayhem or bloodshed.
So it can come as a terrible shock to any parent to live through that first occasion on which the child proves to be more right than the adult, and the parent proves to be more wrong than the child.
I won’t forget the moment when my own cast-iron certainty of parenting – “Mummy knows best” – began to crack. I had to ask myself, could a mouthy teenager possibly know better than a mature adult on this matter? Indeed she could, and having to admit it was disturbing. The balance shifted. From that day on I looked at my elder daughter with a more respectful eye. And clarity of vision in teenagers is part of what I’m exploring in Shades of Scarlet.
All of my novels, both for children and adults, revolve around family life – the way one person’s temperament, actions, or even passing moods, refract on others around them. Things get so complicated. Well over a third of our children live in some sort of non-traditional family. They will have views about the situation, and very often the company, in which they find themselves. (If you doubt me, just read my set of short stories on this topic, Step by Wicked Step. The research that went into it, though cheering at times, was at other moments little short of harrowing.)
Things for Scarlet are nowhere near as bad as they might be. The bloke Mum has taken up with couldn’t be more pleasant. The woman who, later, begins to intrigue her father has no evident negative qualities. Yet Scarlet is in turmoil. She’s furious with her mother, who seems to have so blithely turned their family world upside down, and she can’t help but take a stern view of her father’s lack of action at almost every turn.
We follow Scarlet for only a few weeks, but in that time we get to see exactly what she thinks and feels, exactly how she judges, both of her parents. And it’s not always pretty. Young people’s feelings can’t be constrained or corralled, and they often appraise the situations they find themselves in more clearly – and sometimes more harshly – than parents would like to think.
By the same token, more of them than we’d imagine choose not to be open with those around them about their true feelings. Their sense of security may have already taken a knock, and they may prefer not to risk rocking the family boat further, or laying any more strain on someone they love. Others may realise the dangers of speaking out and possibly making an enemy of someone who is often, or even always, under their own home roof. They don’t need to think for long before deciding it might be wiser for them to keep their beaks buttoned.
But Scarlet is tough and confident as well as smart, and she’s well used to speaking her mind. In writing down her story, she sees no need to pull her punches. She is as open and honest as she can be, and does as good a job of seeing all sides as one might expect of somebody her age. But even over such a short period of time, she’s been forced to grow and mature. One of the friends she most admires has got exasperated enough to put the case to her clearly. “Let me tell you something, Scarlet. Only small kids think everything’s to do with them. Maybe you should grow up.”
And that’s the root of the matter. Toddlers are intrinsically selfish. Children in their middle years get clearer and clearer inklings that the world doesn’t revolve around them. Circumstances force Scarlet onto the cusp of taking yet another giant step. But it still takes that shock remark from a school friend to tip her further along the path towards those supposedly adult, and very necessary, skills of forbearance and understanding.
Thanks and gratitude to Anne Fine for a wonderful guest post. Shades Of Scarlett is available now from David Fickling Books. RRP. £12.99 (Proof copy provided for review as part of a promotional blog tour)
