Jacqueline Walker's 'Pilgrim State'

Jacqueline Walker attended our Pitch Your Novel Event back in 2006. This event gave writers the opportunity to meet literary agents first hand and to pitch their manuscripts direct. Writers also gleaned information on what the agents wanted to see land on their desks and tips on how best to approach them. Nicola Barr from The Susijn Agency and Tanja Howarth from the Tanja Howarth Literary Agency took part in the event.

Jacqueline speaks about her motivations for writing her debut novel 'Pilgrim State' and the enviable outcome.

Pilgrim State is my first book. It follows the story of my family’s migration from Jamaica to Britain via the USA and contains original documentation as well as personal photographs. Although it’s called a memoir, it reads more like a novel but essentially it’s a story of mothers and daughters, of the ways that love can overcome the most intense experiences of loss. There are three first person narratives, including one voice that tells the child’s version of events.

I began writing Pilgrim State after being made redundant when my last child went to university. Pilgrim State took more than two years to write, though I’d done years of research before that. I wrote it for family and friends, it was not intended for publication, my concern was with authenticity, with finding a narrative tone and a structure that would convey the uniqueness as well as the universality of my mother’s story; something that would make people want to keep reading.

I attended the Chapter One Promotions Pitch Your Novel Event well before I finished the manuscript. I have to admit, it wasn’t my idea to go. A friend had seen the advert and encouraged me to attend. I remember the night before, I was so nervous I considered cancelling, it was only at his insistence that I turned up on the day. I think it was the first time the event had been run. There were two agents and a group of us writers, some more confident than others, but the good thing that helped me relax straight away was that everyone was friendly and supportive and the day had been well thought out and professionally organised. It was fascinating to see the variety of writing produced and to listen to the response from the agents and to have that response fed back so immediately. That face-to-face experience, and the follow up from it, gave me the confidence to carry on writing and to start sending what there was of Pilgrim State out to agents. In the end the manuscript was sold at auction to Hodder in 2007 and was published this April. I still remember that session pitching my novel as one of the milestones on the way to Pilgrim State’s success.

Jacqueline Walker

Author