Matthew Yorke: Following the family line of creativity

IF he can achieve half the literary acclaim of his grandfather, Matthew Yorke will be a happy man.

You might think if a forefather was one of the last century's most respected literary writers, a career as an author would be the last thing you'd be tempted to pursue.

For Yorke, he is neither intimidated by, nor wary of, his grandfather's literary standing.

"You take a long time finding your own voice, but these days I'm much more confident in myself. It's not something I think too much about in truth. He was a great author and I am proud of him, but all I can do is write my own stories in my own voice," says Yorke.

His grandfather was Henry Yorke, who wrote under the pen-name Henry Green. Using the pseudonym, Yorke wrote novels including Blindness in 1926, Living in 1929, Loving in 1945 and Doting in 1952. He was hailed as one of the best English novelists of the 20th century.

Evidence of the fact that his grandson bears no jealousy towards Henry Yorke is the book Uncollected Writings of Henry Green, a collection of the author's previously unpublished material, which Matthew Yorke published

in 1992.

In the 1920s when he left university, Henry Yorke joined the family engineering firm H Pontifex & Co, and worked on the shopfloor, garnering material for the novel which became Living.

His grandson, five decades later, decided to do the same thing, joining the family firm, then based in Leeds, working as a welder and draughtsman before becoming managing director of the company.

Yorke's parallel career as a writer was launched with a bang in 1988, when his first novel, The March Fence, won the prestigious John Llewellyn Rhys Prize.

These days Yorke is sanguine about the impressive start to his literary career.

"Awards these days carry far more weight and prestige than they did back then. Back in 1988 there wasn't such an emphasis, certainly not like there is today. It was a real honour to win and I was very pleased, but it wasn't as though it made a huge difference to my career.

"I went on to write a second novel and that didn't get published, so it's all very well to receive these prizes, but they don't necessarily make your career as a writer."

After the unpublished second novel Yorke penned a novella, The Gap a year later, then three years later came the collection of his grandfather's previously unpublished work and his next novel didn't come until Chancing It in 2005.

His latest book, Pictures of Lily, is published this month.

For a 51-year-old author, the remarkable thing about the story is that the hero is a 17-year-old girl.

Already Yorke has received early praise for vividly inhabiting the world of a teenage girl and making the heroine of the story, Lily Myers, so vibrant.

"I knew I wanted to write a story about adoption. Two of my friends were adopted and they told me stories about tracking down their birth parents.

"I thought it was a fascinating story and the ideal thing to explore in a novel, with a very clear beginning, middle and end and a challenge for the main character – to find her birth mother," says Yorke.

He began writing the story from the perspective of a counsellor to people trying to find birth parents, but something wasn't quite right.

Yorke, who splits his time between Leeds and London, found inspiration late one Friday night.

"The story wasn't living and I wasn't sure what to do to make it really come to life," says Yorke.

"Then, one Friday evening, I was driving to London and going through Leeds city centre and I saw this young girl. She was about 17 and was all dressed up ready for a night out. Like all the young people you see heading for a night out, she wasn't wearing a jacket and I knew straight away that she was the girl in my story.

"It's difficult to explain, but as soon as I saw this girl, I felt I had found the story."

The glimpse of his muse set Yorke writing and the story was no longer about the counsellor helping a teenager on the cusp of turning 18 – and being granted access to her adoption files – but about the girl herself.

"Once I realised that was where the story was, it came quite easily."

Pictures of Lily follows the hero of the story into a world of clubs in the north of England and a descent into the world of drugs.

The book takes a surreal turn when it follows Lily into one of her psychedelic trips – something of which Yorke admits he has personal experience.

"A few years ago, when I was in my early forties, I took a trip to Peru with a friend of mine," he says.

"I spent 10 days living with a Shamanic tribe on the edge of the Amazon jungle and part of living with the tribe was taking part in ceremonies which involved drinking certain potions that did, shall we say, alter your perception of reality.

"It was certainly helpful to get into the mind of Lily."

Pictures of Lily, published by Corsair, is out now.