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The Carbon Diaries and beyond: Author Saci Lloyd blends dystopian fiction, teaching, television and social media in present and future London
‘I have turned down Johnny Depp this week and that is not something I ever expected to do’, jokes writer and sixth form teacher Saci Lloyd in an article from the January 17th edition of The Observer.
A former musician, cartoonist, script-editor and advertiser, Saci Lloyd is the author of two books taking the teenage world by storm: The Carbon Diaries 2015 and its recently published sequel, The Carbon Diaries 2017. Set against the backdrop of life-threatening climate change and increasing political, the novels follow a gutsy young protagonist as she negotiates herself through life as a London youth.
The plot of her new novel draws on her time touring as a musician and starts just as Laura begins an undergraduate course in London. The city around our heroine is struggling to adjust to rationing imposed by global climate shifts and Laura and her band are forced to stop performing as riots take hold. The Dirty Angels set off in a battered van in the hope of performing across Europe, but as they travel they see the dramatic effects of an economic crisis unfold. Immigration, a war over water supplies and the intervention of the armed forces all determine Laura’s fate as she copes with the betrayal of friends and lovers. Nevertheless, Lloyd says the second Carbon Diaries novel is meant to be as funny as the first.
–The Observer
See my review for The Carbon Diaries 2015 here.
References to Saci ‘turning down Johnny Depp’ stem from the American actor’s interest in developing The Carbon Diaries novels as a television series based in the United States. She felt that a British production company would be better suited to the story and give it a more ‘gritty and ‘British’ feel, and so the honor fell to UK outfit Company Pictures, who are responsible for the British television dramas Shameless and Skins as well as HBO’s much lauded Generation Kill.
When Lloyd first picked up her pen, green issues were still a niche concern. “Now, sadly, everyone knows, but everyone has a reason why they, personally, don’t need to worry about it yet,” she said. “To do something about that, I have to make up new stories, as Naomi Klein has suggested.”
–The Observer
source: carbondiaries.com
As head of media studies at an East London sixth form college, Saci gets much of her inspiration from her students. The book launch for The Carbon Diaries 2017 took place at a theater in Stratford, a borough in East London close to where she teaches. Many of her students – as well as pupils from other London schools – were present at the event, which also functioned as an opportunity to showcase work they’ve been doing in conjunction with the Carbon Diaries social media website.
Carbondiaries.com is a platform similar to myspace or facebook, where people from all over the world can interact and participate creatively, adding their own artwork, videos and writing from the not-entirely fictional future world of 2017.
What can we expect from Saci Lloyd in the future? More thought provoking books for starters, a podcast and a revolutionary attitude towards fiction, politics and environmental issues.
We are facing the greatest crisis of humanity ever, but humans are brilliant and we can do it, but we need to take our heads out of the sand.
–Saci Lloyd, in the Waltham Forest Guardian
by Graham Land
Additional resources:
Scottish Book Trust video – Saci Lloyd on Johnny Depp and Carbon Diaries 2015
Tags: 2015, 2017, book, Carbon Diaries, carbondiaries.com, climate, future, Laura, Lloyd, london, novel, Observer, Saci, social media, television
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