Thumbing across America with John Waters

Love's possibilities unwrapped in French novel

The all-female society was fascinating: The queen is the mother of all. The mother-love scent is real. If the queen is ailing, the bees will make new queen cells around the edge as if they are hiding them. Then the first princess out will pipe out a war cry, she will seek the others and kill them in a fight to the death. It's brutal nature, 'red in tooth and claw'.

The drones (male bees) are so comic in an affectionate way. Well, a lot of women feel that about a lot of men. I thought that would be poignant. That is what the human animal is like: You don't realize that it's all going to come to an end.

Were your intended readers adults?

I just wanted to write a good story, I was fascinated by the drama of bee life, the violence, the beauty and the poetry that I saw there.

Is there a deeper message - about preserving bees?

As I went more deeply into the research I was confronted by the plight of bees as pollinators and the use of pesticides. It's a strong drama underpinned by the truth, and every time I was wondering which way to go in the narrative I went back to the real biology of the hive. Colony collapse disorder is endemic now; in parts of China people are pollinating by hand.

Have you been surprised by the success of your book?

Yes. So thrilled it seems to have struck a chord. I'm getting tweets from 10-year-olds and people in their 80s, and even beekeepers saying how much they enjoyed it. That's really high praise.

You have a background in screenwriting, and theater - why fiction for this story?

Fiction is always where I was headed. The bar is so high, but a good book is such a wonderful thing, so pure between you and the reader.

If you had to liken The Bees to another book, what would it be?

That's a dangerous question. I love Aldous Huxley, I love George Orwell - that sense of alienation and somebody struggling to make sense of the world.

Will you continue with this nature theme in your next book?

Yes. I've always been interested in the natural world and it gave me huge pleasure as a child.

Reuters