‘Brilliant,
angry, articulate voices argued
for their rights to be considered’
to meet a journalist, but I very much appreciate that they trusted me. I will also note that it’s extraordinarily difi cult to pity an erudite, witty woman staring you in the face while talking rings around you. My understanding of what feminism could be fundamentally changed during this period. So often, legislation about sex work is made without consulting the people whose lives it will actually affect. I began to realise that while it’s all very well saying that you wish to make a statement that women are not for sale (and a lot of the women I spoke to would say that they sell their skills, not themselves), if your enactment of that principle puts a single sex worker in danger, it’s not a feminism that I want to be part of.
Because of the hugeness of this new world and the numerous, shifting complexities of sex-work politics, there were times when the research threatened to overwhelm the book. Fishnet is also a novel, and a story about the relationship between two sisters and what happens to a family when one person goes missing. Eventually I had to put the journalist away, switch off the internet and just live with my characters for a while. Sex work is not a full stop, for my characters or in real life, but if you’re interested in where the debate around sex work currently is in Scotland, ScotPep (scot-pep.org.uk), an organisation advocating for sex workers’ rights, is a worthwhile starting point.
I’m very, very aware of being a non-sex worker who has presumed to write a novel about sex work. It took me a long time to work out whether I had the right to do this: I’m still not totally sure that I do. Once the novel was completed I felt this pressure intensely and hid it from everyone for a year; a friend eventually pointed out to me that a number of people had given up their time to talk to me, willingly, on the understanding that I was going to try and publish a novel that would address issues they had huge personal stakes in. If there’s a value to Fishnet, I hope it’s that it does what novels can do: open up the possibility for greater empathy, and therefore bring this debate to life for people who hadn’t considered these issues before.
Fishnet is published by Freight Books on Mon 6 Apr; Kirstin Innes speaks alongside Helen Mathers at Aye Write!, Mitchell Library, Glasgow, Sat 25 Apr.
TOP 5
AYE WRITE! EVENTS
Highlights of this year’s Aye Write! include
Irvine Welsh, Christopher Brookmyre and Jane
Hawking, but there’s plenty more to choose from. Heather McDaid picks five treats to whet
your literary appetite
HARRY GILES, MARION MCCREADY & JL WILLIAMS: VAGABOND POETS Sat 18 Apr, 7.30pm. Scotland has a thrilling spoken word scene, and this will be another celebration of that vibrancy. Launching the next chapter of Be the First to Like This, an anthology of emerging talent, it brings together new and mature voices. A mix that typifies Scotland’s spoken word prowess. NATHAN PENLINGTON: THE BOY IN THE BOOK Sun 19 Apr, 1.30pm. This is more than a story, it’s experiencing someone else’s hidden life. On eBay, Nathan Penlington bought 106 variations of children’s gamebooks Choose Your Own Adventures, only to find scribblings of a young boy filling the margins, his jokes soon giving way to darker sentiments. Penlington talks about his quest to find the boy in the book.
CAROLINE CRIADO-PEREZ: DO IT LIKE A WOMAN Mon 20 Apr, 7.30pm. Caroline Criado-Perez introduces us to pioneers in a world where women are reinventing what it means to be female. From fighter pilots in Afghanistan to Russian punks Pussy Riot, this is a must-see manifesto of empowerment, proving that the boundaries that line up power solely with men are being crushed.
MARK MILLAR: THE GRAPHIC NOVELS THAT MADE ME Tue 21 Apr, 7.30pm. He explored what Superman would be like if he crash-landed in Soviet Russia, made the average Joe want to fight for justice through his Kick- Ass series, and had a hit with the latest movie adaptation of his series, Kingsman: The Secret Service. Now, Mark Millar talks his way through the graphic novels that have inspired him over the years.
JACKIE KAY, ZOË STRACHAN, ALLAN RADCLIFFE & KERRY HUDSON: OUT THERE — SCOTTISH LGBT WRITING Thu 23 Apr, 6pm. Out There, the first anthology of Scottish LGBT writing in over a decade, gives way to an evening of lively discussion and a showcase of the collection. Poems, stories and memoirs from a mix of published and unpublished authors shines light on a full spectrum of styles. Some will move, and some will prove simply hilarious. ■ Aye Write!, Mitchell Library, Glasgow Fri 17–Sat 25 Apr.
2 Apr–4 Jun 2015 THE LIST 43
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