Character origins

What inspired the characters in the book?  This is a question I get asked a lot. I don’t have black and white answers.

The character of Mythil appeared first. He was a shy little boy who took a while to introduce himself. I called him by different names until I realised that his name was Mythil. He is a lot like I used to be at his age; shy and unsure of himself.

Asiri didn’t have a name until almost the final draft. There’s a lot of Mythil in Asiri and I think that’s one of the reasons why Mythil is so angry with him in the beginning. He sees his own helplessness reflected in Asiri. He is impatient because Asiri is so accepting of this helplessness.

Ianthi is interesting because I think she would have made a good ally for Mythil if she hadn’t been so intent on growing up. In that respect she’s very different to me.  I don’t think I’ve grown up yet. I think I knew children like her when I was a child. If you’re a dreamy sort of person it’s good to have this type of friend around you to help bring you down to earth now and again.

I’d recently lost my grandmother so I knew that Mythil’s Archchi would be similar to mine. The story Archchi tells Mythil, about the robber is almost exactly the same one my grandmother told me. I was as close to her as Mythil is to his grandmother. She had great faith in my scribbles and gave me all my grandfather’s letters and stories to read for inspiration - he certainly had a way with words although he apparently wasn’t much of a talker. He died when my mother was eleven years old so like Mythil I only know him through family stories..

I had a lot of fun with the bahirawaya’s character. In the beginning he was a lot more swaggering and full of bravado. Too much like a TV character. So then I altered his personality and sense of humour. I modeled him on an old teacher I used to know.