Interview with Joan London: Author of Gilgamesh, 1 August, 2001

Maggie Ball: Tell me about the background of Gilgamesh (your novel). You mention in the press notes about a trip to Armenia. Was writing a novel in your mind at the time?
Joan London: I did not visit Armenia until I had started writing the novel and had spent quite some time reading about it. So when I went there it was as if I saw it through the lens of the novel.

Maggie Ball: Which came first for you, the concept of writing a novel mirroring the Epic (Gilgamesh), or the characters and general plot?
Joan London: They came at the same time. Some years ago I had a series of dreams culminating in an orphanage in a desert, with a title, like that of a film, Gilgamesh. I was only very vaguely aware of the Gilgamesh epic at that time, so I started to hunt out and read various translations of it. At the same time I started reading about the parts of the world where I felt these dreams were located, and the characters and the story started to take shape. For a long time I did not know how the Gilgamesh story would come into my story, and tried to keep the action very much depending on character, rather than manipulating the characters to enact the epic. In the end of course, like all great stories, the shape of the epic can be traced in any life.

Maggie Ball: The press notes call it a 'long awaited, much anticipated' novel. Why is that? Did it take a long time for you to write?
Joan London: I started to collect books, photographs, music, which I felt were somehow to do with the time, the place, the atmosphere of this vaguely apprehended mass I called Gilgamesh. I kept on reading, about the Second World War, about the Orient Express, about Group Settlement in Western Australia , about the Depression etc. Meanwhile I wrote other things, and took periodic stabs at Gilgamesh which didn't work. I thought it was going to be a long short story, but it kept on growing. I didn't really get started until 1997. It ended up taking me about four years to write.

Maggie Ball: Australia in the late 30s/early 40s as portrayed in the novel is a pretty harsh place - eschewing any migrant who doesn't quite fit the stereotype. Do you feel this really was the case? Has Australia changed?
Joan London: Yes, life in the Group Settlement communities was often

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