It’s always nice to be reminded of old connections, conversations and interviews and this conversation with Joe Bedford is just wonderful to rediscover and re-read.

Joe interviewed me about my short story collection In Their Absence back in 2021 as part of his Writers on Research interview series. Joe’s series of interviews was made possible with National Lottery funding via Arts Council England.

In Their Absence was published in 2021 as part of the Stretto Fiction series by indie press Roman Books. What do you do when somebody walks out of the door and never returns? How do two young parents cope when their toddler disappears from a busy cafe? What happens when life is so unbearable that your only option is to disappear?

In Their Absence is a powerful dissection of what it means to go missing. This compelling debut explores the human complexities behind the headlines and statistics to reveal unsettling truths about what it is to live in the shadow of absence. These stories lay bare the agony of unknowing for those left behind. And they show us just how easily a human life can disappear.

You can get your copy of In Their Absence here.

Meanwhile I’ve shared a short extract of the interview with Joe below. Do head to his website to read the full conversation. This was a lot of fun. Thank you to Joe for inviting me to take part in this series.

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JB: In Their Absence opens with a quote from the eighth century Chinese poet Wang Wei: ‘When you are gone, there’ll be no answer to the questions…’ That theme of the pain caused by unknowing is of course a core motif of the collection, and a type of pain I think most people will identify with, however obliquely. With that in mind, I’m curious as to what first drew you to the subject of missing persons, and what in your thoughts and feelings compelled you to explore that through fiction.

HS: ‘Missing’ has always been a preoccupation of mine in one way or another. I’ve always hated losing things: keys, random everyday items at home. I just can’t relax until I’ve found them and know where they are.

I’ve always been preoccupied with missing person cases as they popped up in the news too. I found it so mind-blowing that a person could just disappear and that so many people could have no idea what had happened to them. I think I really started to focus on the theme of missing people after I wrote my collection Without Makeup and Other Stories (published 2012). That collection included a version of ‘Knowing Something by Heart’ which is also published in In their Absence. It’s about a child who goes missing, the aftermath of that and the effect on the family left behind. I think the last line of that story really stuck with me: ‘All of these missing people; if they go of their own accord, why do they go? And if they’re taken, why are they never found?’ and I wanted to explore this further.

People go missing for so many different reasons. It can range from abductions and trafficking to people who choose to disappear after relationship breakdowns or financial problems for example. And then some people don’t mean to disappear; they just drift out of touch with their networks, and this could be because of mental health issues or issues of addiction. So it’s a hugely diverse and complex issue, of course, because people themselves are.

Even though I’ve researched the theme of missing people extensively I still cannot fully comprehend the horror of the not-knowing.