We chat with author Joanna Miller about The Eights, which follows the unlikely friendship of four of the first ever women to study at Oxford University, delivering a captivating debut novel about sisterhood, self-determination, courage, and what it means to come of age in a world that has changed forever.
Hi, Joanna! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
Hello! I live beside the Grand Union Canal in Hertfordshire, UK and work part-time in an independent bookstore. Before I took up novel-writing five years ago, I ran a poetry gift business, composing rhyming verses for special occasions. I have a weird talent for telling stories in rhyme!
When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?
As a child, I was a voracious reader, consuming all the fiction in my primary school library, much to the irritation of the headteacher. I bought books from jumble sales and borrowed from the library van that stopped on the village green. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott was my comfort read; I cried each time Amy burnt Jo’s manuscript and when Jo cut off her hair. English was the subject I enjoyed most at school, which led to me reading it at university and training as an English teacher.
Quick lightning round! Tell us:
- The first book you ever remember reading: Jill’s Gymkhana by Ruby Ferguson. I was obsessed with horses until I fell off and broke my arm.
- The one that made you want to become an author: The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood came out when I was sixteen. It changed my perception of what a novel could be.
- The one that you can’t stop thinking about: The Road by Cormac Macarthy – the only book I have ever completed and immediately started reading again.
Your debut novel, The Eights, is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Sisterhood. Equality. Oxford University. 1920.
What can readers expect?
For the first time in its 1000-year history, Oxford has admitted female students. Giddy with dreams of equality, education and emancipation, four young women move into neighbouring rooms on Corridor Eight. They have come from all walks of life, and are thrown into an unlikely, life-affirming friendship.
But Oxford’s dreaming spires cast a dark shadow: in 1920, misogyny is rife, influenza is a threat, and the ghosts of the Great War are still very real indeed. And as the group navigate this tumultuous moment in time, their friendship will become more important than ever.
Where did the inspiration for The Eights come from?
Oxford is one of my favourite cities in the world, and I am lucky enough to have studied there three times. In 2020, the university shared a post celebrating one hundred years of women being admitted as students. The images were grainy and the faces solemn, but I instantly wanted to know who these pioneering women were, and what hurdles they had faced to get there.
At the time, I was reading a book about the cadets that lived and trained in my town during World War One. I wondered if I could combine these two ideas: what if a cadet fell in love with a local girl and encouraged her to go to Oxford?
Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
Mathematics student Ottoline (known as Otto) was a joy to write, probably because she is the least like me!
Otto is the rule-breaker of the group. An aristocrat and the youngest of four sisters, she is restless, flirtatious and mocking. Yet she is also vulnerable, having had a traumatic experience nursing during the war. Otto is obsessed with the number eight, and I had fun playing with this idea and hiding eights throughout the novel.
Can you tell us a bit about your research process for The Eights?
I loved researching The Eights! Oxford’s Bodleian Library renewed my card after thirty years, allowing me to access hundreds of documents relating to the first women students. I even stayed overnight at St Hugh’s College, where the story is set, and got to read first-hand accounts by students from the 1920s.
I was surprised to discover how strict the rules were for women; no alcohol, no mixed dances, not being allowed to talk to men at lectures, morning roll call in chapel, curfews and having to pay for chaperones if meeting men.
Oxford’s first women students were also subject to misogyny; they were mocked in university publications, refused entry to societies and male dons could refuse to teach them. The Oxford Union debated whether women’s colleges should be razed to the ground. All great material for a novelist!
Did you face any challenges whilst writing? How did you overcome them?
The Eights is told in the third person, with the point of view shifting between four women; grieving Dora, enthusiastic Beatrice, quiet Marianne and sharp-tongued Otto. These multiple viewpoints proved quite a challenge!
To ensure the woman got equal attention, I kept a tally of the various points of view and assigned each person a different coloured font so I could check that nobody disappeared for too long. Because the four characters were often together, I had to think about whose ‘experience’ of a scene was most interesting and what that would mean for the reader. I worked hard to keep the characters distinct by considering things like speech patterns and body language.
This is your debut novel! What was the road to becoming a published author like for you?
I had a relatively smooth path to publication. It helps that I was prepared for what to expect; my sister is a novelist, and I was taken on by her agent.
When The Eights sold to my dream editor at Fig Tree Penguin, I didn’t believe it at first. I also got a US deal with Putnam Books and was invited on a pre-publication tour of the country, which was nerve-wracking as a debut, but also an incredible experience.
It was an agonisingly long wait between selling the book and it being published – two years – but to see it on the shelves of bookshops now is a HUGE thrill.
What’s next for you?
For the next few months, I’ll be busy publicising The Eights but I’m also researching my second novel which is set just before World War One. I hope to complete the first draft when I am Writer in Residence at Gladstone’s Library in Wales later this year.
Lastly, what books are you looking forward to picking up this year?
I can’t wait to read The Private Island by Australian author Ali Lowe. Not only is she an excellent writer, but she’s also my sister! Top of my TBR after that are: The Safekeep by Yael Van Der Wouden, All Fours by Miranda July and Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
