Orlaine McDonald, 55, came to writing late, having worked for many years in arts education, taking theatre to schools and pupil referral and youth offending units. After attending a local writing group in her spare time, she started composing poetry and short stories, which led to an MA in creative and life writing at Goldsmiths, University of London. Her debut novel, No Small Thing (Serpent’s Tail), is a spare, haunting tale of three generations of black women newly thrown into living together on a south London housing estate. Livia, Mickey and Summer are tied by blood but estranged and isolated, each masking pain that plays out in reckless and complicated ways. Described as “raw and beautiful” by the novelist Francis Spufford, the book is alert to issues of inequality, generational trauma and race. McDonald was born in the West Midlands to a Jamaican father and Irish mother and has three children (her daughter is 6 Music DJ Jamz Supernova). McDonald lives in south London and continues to work in education.
Tell us about writing No Small Thing…
I started at the beginning of 2019 and spent two years slowly building it. I wrote many drafts and finally sent it out [to publishers] towards the end of 2021. I’m a painfully slow writer and can find it really hard to commit anything to the page without wanting to immediately revise and refine. I was lucky to have a good friend who allowed me to send a section each Friday and held me to account if I didn’t. He didn’t give feedback, but something had to land in his inbox every week or he would give me merry hell! I have to write when time allows, so that’s a 6am slot before work, on my short commute, and over the weekends and school holidays. I choose my social engagements carefully and it helps living alone. In fact, for me it’s essential.
