Ally Kennen

Where did Beast Come from? By Ally Kennen

I grew up on a small organic farm on Exmoor. My parents still farm cows, pigs, sheep, chickens, turkeys and ducks. I have one brother. My parents fostered children for many years, from when I was about three or four till I was thirteen. They started again when I was eighteen and fostered for another 5 or 6 years.

When I was young, we farmed dairy cows, which make a lot of mess. There is a half a mile muddy road up to the school bus. In school assemblies I would usually leave a small pile of dried mud in my place, which I had picked off my shoes. In winter, my school uniform smelled of smoke because it had dried over the fire. We had an outdoor loo, called an earth closet, which had no flush, you had to do what you did, then cover it up with sawdust. We got a flushing loo when I was eight which I thought was deeply sophisticated. (Though once I did fall in the septic tank!)

Most of the children we fostered were teenagers. And most of them were boys. There was always something going on. It was not unusual to have the police hammering on the door at five o'clock in the morning because of something a child had done, or have someone run away, or have my stuff nicked. We had one boy staying with us for just a few nights, but he arrived with all his stuff in bin liners. My mum thought this was terrible so she bought him a big new bag. He used it to steal my amplifier and most of my cds (not the folk ones though!). My foster brothers and sisters got expelled from school, got into knife fights, and nicked cars. Some of them had caused riots at the children's home and they seemed to come to us when there was nowhere else for them to go. Some of the children had a problem with drugs. I remember my dad picking me up from my primary school 'country dancing' club, and I had to sit in the back next to one of my foster brothers. He was very dopey and had lots of dried gunk around his mouth and nose. He'd been sniffing glue. I remember thinking he was very silly!

Many of the children were also a lot of fun. Some of the older girls had babies and some of the boys had motorbikes. One had a green Mohican which my brother was desperate to emulate. The girls especially tended to be sweet to me and though I was a lot younger, would usually be good playmates. There were countless dramas and episodes, as is inevitable in a houseful of damaged teenagers. It wasn't just the children: their families, friends and social workers all made their appearances at the farm.

In my book Beast Stephen isn't based on any one person. He has some of the more risky qualities some of my foster brothers had, but he is older than most of them. I wanted to write about someone who had decided to try and turn his life around. Someone who started to take responsibility for his actions. I thought seventeen was about the right age for this.

Whilst doing my MA, I wrote some short stories. One was about a girl who was keeping a wild animal in a cage by a lake, and planning to murder her boyfriend. Another was based on a list of ten near-death experiences. I also wrote a ghost story about a boy in a foster home (with a horrible foster sister!). The story - 24 Hour Brother – was shortlisted for Writers News annual ghost story competition.

I decided to put elements of these stories together, to make Beast. Beast involved doing some research. I had to skip ahead one chapter because the blacksmith I needed to interview was too busy to see me for a whole month. When I went to see him, I only had 45 minutes, but he answered my questions and showed me around his workshop. I asked him about the sort of work a seventeen year old apprentice would be able to do and the names and functions of some of the equipment.

I also contacted a wild life expert in Australia to answer my questions about the Beast. How fast do they run? Could one survive a British winter? How much do they need to eat? Do they see in the dark? Would they dig burrows? My expert said they would do 'whatever it took to survive.' This was very good news!

Read more about Beast and Ally Kennen at her official website