Conville & Walsh

Sanjida O’Connell talks about the writing of her new novel, which has just been sold to John Murray: ‘THE NAKED NAME OF LOVE is set just after the publication of Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species. The story takes place in Outer Mongolia where the Jesuit priest Father Joseph Jacob travels in search of rare fauna and flora. He hopes to make his name in the scientific community, but instead he meets and falls in love with a beautiful tribeswoman called Namuunna, who hunts with an eagle and a wolf. I travelled to Mongolia to carry out some of the research for the book. The journey didn’t start well: my luggage ended up in Moscow. For some reason I was wearing combat trousers and walking boots on the plane so at least I didn’t have to travel across the Gobi in a Juicy Cutoure tracksuit and high-heeled boots. Being vegetarian, I didn’t actually eat any marmot or yak butter tea but had lots of tinned peas instead. We broke down in a town called Moron (actually, the pilot of the plane got very drunk and we had to wait for him to sober up). After spending two weeks on horseback and in the back of a Land Rover without much suspension, it hurt to sit down for a year afterwards. Still, Mongolia is one of the most beautiful countries I’ve ever visited even if it meant wincing slightly every time I sat in front of my computer.’